Whereas a Seattle or Vancouver resident might desire a last minute jaunt up north for a weekend of skiing, avid skiiers from all over the world plan months ahead to fly in for a major vacation of a week or longer. Consequently, inquirers are often surprised to find that a ski-weekend booking at Whistler is not very easy to find. We've booked weekends at hotels without a problem.
Hotels have many rooms, and project their profits based on percentages of occupancy.
If they book one room for 3 weekend nights with the rest of the week left vacant, many other rooms that are booked for more nights make their percentages work out all right over the longterm. In contrast, private owners have 1, maybe 2 properties to book. If we book a weekend only, the mid week nights most certainly will be left vacant. We have no other rooms to average out the profits. It becomes an empty condo producing no revenue for a good part of the week.