Marketing for the upper Columbia Valley's vacation rentals, from ski-in condos at Panorama Mountain Resort to Lake Windermere houses and getaways near the hot pools at Radium and Fairmont Hot Springs, built to win more bookings and a better nightly rate from Calgary, Edmonton and beyond.
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* Market averages in Canadian dollars from AirROI data for Invermere, British Columbia, October 2025 to September 2026 (updated October 1, 2026), converted from US dollars at 1.39. ROI is Cavmir's estimate. A single home's numbers depend on its size, its location and how it is marketed.
Cavmir is an Airbnb marketing agency. We build the brand, the direct-booking website and the marketing for short-term rentals in Invermere & Panorama.
Invermere sits on Lake Windermere in the upper Columbia Valley, in the Regional District of East Kootenay, and for a rental owner it is the center of several markets that share one valley. Panorama Mountain Resort, in the mountains west of town, sells ski-in condos, townhomes and chalets. Radium Hot Springs, where Parks Canada runs the hot pools in Sinclair Canyon, sells the soak and the national park; Fairmont Hot Springs, to the south, sells its resort pools and golf; and the village of Windermere and the rural shoreline hold the lake houses. Most guests come from one direction. In AirROI's count of guest origins, Calgary accounts for 33.5% of Invermere's guests and Edmonton for 7.9%, and Panorama puts Calgary International Airport 311 kilometers away, by the road through Banff and Kootenay national parks.
AirROI works in US dollars; this page converts every figure to Canadian dollars at C$1.39 per US dollar, AirROI's own rate for the period. Over the twelve months to September 2026, AirROI's Invermere market of 201 active listings averaged about C$332 a night at 46% occupancy and C$48,381 of revenue per listing, up 35.8% on the year and about 7% above the B.C. average of C$45,117. Occupancy here counts only the nights a listing was open, and many homes open for part of the year, so a listing's revenue is lower than a full year of nights at that rate and occupancy would give. The year's top earner, a four-bedroom house, took in about C$233,000 at roughly C$1,195 a night. The neighboring markets have their own AirROI pages: Panorama's 52 listings averaged C$443 a night, the 344 listings in the RDEK's Electoral Area F around Windermere and Columbia lakes C$400, Fairmont Hot Springs' 31 listings C$348 and Radium Hot Springs' 163 listings C$250.
Most of the stock is built for families and groups. In Invermere 58% of AirROI's listings are condos or apartments and 34% are houses; most entire homes have two or three bedrooms, and almost half are set up for six guests. Two-thirds have a hot tub, and at Panorama the share is 92%. Reviews are strong, 4.86 stars on average with Airbnb's Guest Favorite badge on 65% of listings, and the weakest category is value, at 4.75: guests like the homes and watch the total.
The provincial rules are lighter here than in British Columbia's larger cities. B.C.'s principal-residence requirement, which limits short-term rentals to a host's own home plus one suite or accessory dwelling where it applies, does not apply in Invermere or Radium Hot Springs, at Panorama Mountain Resort or the Fairmont Hot Springs ski area, or in the East Kootenay's rural electoral areas, so a second home can be rented under provincial law. Every host still needs a provincial registration number on every listing, required since May 1, 2025, and the local permit or licence where the local government requires one. Outside the town and village boundaries that usually means a temporary use permit from the RDEK, and since December 12, 2025 every application in Electoral Area F, which takes in Windermere, Fairmont and Panorama, has gone to the regional board for a decision.
The rules also shape good marketing. A registration number, a permit and a guest limit are facts a guest or a neighbor can check, and a listing that states them shows a well-run house. Cavmir's work here is the marketing: brand, listing, photography direction, a direct-booking website, visibility in Google and AI assistants, and campaigns that sell a February ski week and a July lake week. Permits, registration and taxes remain the owner's job, with a lawyer and an accountant alongside. What follows: the valley's numbers, its rules place by place, how they bear on price and calendar, and plans for a Panorama condo, a lake house and a home near the hot springs.
Nearby Markets: Canmore | Fernie | Revelstoke
Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Cavmir sells each Columbia Valley rental for what it is and within what its address allows: a ski-in condo at Panorama priced week by week through the winter, a lake house near Windermere marketed inside its permit's guest count, a family home in Radium sold with the hot pools and Kootenay National Park, a golf condo at Fairmont aimed at couples in the shoulder months. The guest we go after is usually a Calgary or Edmonton family, and we reach them on Google, in AI assistants, on Instagram and through the past-guest email that brings last winter's skiers back. We do marketing only: we don't hold keys, manage properties or message guests. The owner or their manager keeps the bookings and the guest contact, and every inquiry from the direct-booking site lands with them.
The valley's visitor story starts with trade. The Windermere Valley Museum's land acknowledgment places it on the traditional and unceded territory of the Ktunaxa and Shuswap peoples, and the first trading post in the Columbia Basin stood near today's Invermere. At Kootenae House, a North West Company post, trade between the Ktunaxa and European fur traders began in 1807, and from there David Thompson set off to survey the Columbia. The site is now a National Historic Site on Westside Road in Athalmer, marked by a plaque and interpretive signs.
The hot springs became the first resorts. Fairmont Hot Springs Resort traces its own history to John Hankey, who bought the ranch from Sam Brewer, built a bathhouse and offered lodging at two dollars a day with the hot springs included. William Heap Holland bought the property in 1912 and built a swimming pool, and later Lloyd and Earl Wilder bought the resort with investors; by 1965 Lloyd was the sole owner and had begun a major expansion. The resort now runs public pools, a guest-only pool and three golf courses. At Radium, Parks Canada runs the hot pools in Sinclair Canyon, and their Aquacourt is a Classified Federal Heritage Building on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
The road built the modern market. Construction from the Columbia Valley side began in 1911, pushed by the Invermere businessman R. Randolph Bruce and settlers who wanted a direct route to markets in Banff and Calgary. A federal deal that also created Kootenay National Park, in 1920, got the road finished over Vermilion Pass in 1923, and Panorama still sends travelers from Calgary's airport along it, through Banff and Kootenay national parks.
Panorama grew from a rope tow. Local skiers joined together in 1959, the present site opened in 1962 with a warming hut and a rope tow on a single run, now called the Old Timer and still there, and in 1968 twelve local businessmen formed the Panorama Ski Hill Company. A mile-long T-bar followed in 1969 and the Horizon Chair in 1975. The Calgary-based Cascade Group bought the hill in 1978 and started the village the next year with Toby Creek Lodge, and the Champagne T-bar went in for the first men's World Cup downhill in 1984. An Intrawest subsidiary bought the resort in 1993, the gondola linking the lower and upper village and the Greywolf golf course opened in the late 1990s, and on February 26, 2010, investors from the Panorama community bought it back. Today the resort counts 1,300 vertical meters, 2,975 patrolled acres, 135 named trails, 10 lifts and two alpine snowcat shuttles, and the 2026-27 winter is its 65th season.
Winter gave the lake a second life. The Lake Windermere Whiteway was created in 2006 to connect the communities along the lake in the winter months, and the Toby Creek Nordic Ski Club grooms it for skating and for classic and skate skiing. Guinness World Records confirmed it on May 28, 2014 as the world's longest maintained skating trail, then 34.5 kilometers long. The club still calls it the world's longest skating track, at more than 30 kilometers, with access at Kinsmen Beach in Invermere and at Windermere Beach.
The rental rules arrived in layers. Radium Hot Springs moved first: on August 18, 2021 the village enacted its Short-Term Rental Business Regulation Bylaw No. 466, which requires a business licence and sets fines of up to C$10,000 per offence. In 2022 the RDEK chose temporary use permits for its rural areas, because they allow more mandatory and discretionary conditions than a zoning bylaw and business licences were not available to it without a formal request to the province. B.C. introduced its Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act on October 16, 2023, the principal-residence requirement took effect on May 1, 2024 in the communities it covers, and provincial registration became mandatory on May 1, 2025. In Invermere, e-KNOW reported in February 2024 that council had given third reading to a business licensing bylaw with short-term rental rules, with adoption still to come; the District can confirm what was adopted and when. The RDEK sent every Area F application to its board from December 12, 2025, made business licensing a 2026 priority with a 2027 target, and let its complaint-hotline contract expire on June 18, 2026, after 117 calls since June 2024, a significant number of which were found not to be violations.
Today the market is professional and, on paper, almost entirely registered. AirROI counts a permit number on 99% of Invermere listings, Superhost status on 84% and a co-host on 61%, and the ten largest hosts run 55% of the listings. The RDEK publishes every permit it has considered by neighborhood, from Windermere and Copper Point, Timber Ridge, Akiskinook and Fairmont to Dutch Creek and Panorama in Area F, and from rural Radium and Edgewater to Wilmer and Dry Gulch in Area G. The first gaps we check for are the expensive ones: one rate for a whole ski season at a Panorama condo, a lake house whose listing promises more guests than its permit allows, a Radium home sold as a one-night stop on the way to Banff, and no way for last year's Calgary family to book again without a platform.
Invermere prices by bedrooms first, because groups pay for beds. In AirROI's data two-bedroom homes, 41% of entire-home listings, have a median of about C$34,000 a year at an average of C$242 a night; three-bedroom homes, 40%, a median of C$48,300 at C$320; four-bedroom homes C$79,800 at C$581; and homes with five or more bedrooms C$116,000 at C$777. Across the market the median listing charges about C$275 a night, the top quarter C$365 or more and the top tenth C$550 or more, while the bottom quarter sits at C$220 or less. Counting only the months each listing was open, the median one took in about C$4,200 a month, the top quarter C$5,910 or more and the top tenth C$9,330 or more; the box's C$4,030 sits lower since it divides each listing's year by twelve, open months or not.
Features separate the top from the middle. Split the market by feature and the gaps are large: homes with an indoor fireplace, about half of them, averaged about C$57,100 a year, against C$40,100 for homes without one; with a hot tub, C$52,700 against C$40,100; with a dedicated workspace, C$55,700 against C$35,800; and the 15% with a fire pit, C$65,400 against C$45,300. Those gaps reflect the kind of home as much as the feature, but they show what this valley's guests pay for: a soak and a fire after a day on the hill or the lake, and a desk for the parent who works part of the week.
Panorama and the hot-springs villages run on their own curves. AirROI gives Panorama two high seasons: July and August, when its listings averaged about C$9,020 a month at 63% occupancy and C$450 a night, and February and March, at about C$7,580, 60% and C$466. April, May, October and November averaged C$3,140 at 23%. Its median listing charges about C$320 a night and the top tenth C$695 or more. Guests stay longest at Fairmont Hot Springs, 6.1 nights on average, and shortest in Radium, at 3.2, the two ends of the four markets.
Show the whole price and keep the fees sensible. Nearly every Invermere listing, 98%, charges a cleaning fee; the median is C$186 and the average C$257, about C$40 a night over an average stay and 13% of gross revenue. Most listings, 72%, set a two-night minimum, and 69% use Instant Book. On top of the nightly rate the guest pays 5% GST where it applies, 8% PST and a 3% Municipal and Regional District Tax across the valley's designated areas, so a C$400 night costs about C$464 before fees. On your own site, one screen with the rate, the cleaning fee and all three taxes settles the value question before a guest has to raise it.
Summer carries the year in Invermere. Over two years of AirROI data, July averaged about C$10,800 per listing and August C$10,500, against C$2,040 in November, the weakest month, and the three strongest months brought in 49% of annual revenue. From June to August the average listing ran about 69% occupancy at C$400 a night; in the twelve months to September 2026, July ran 78% and August 80%. The low season, October to May, averaged about C$2,950 a month at 37% occupancy and C$282 a night, and September, the shoulder, about C$4,350 at 50%.
Winter belongs to Panorama and the lake. In Invermere December averaged about C$4,040 a month, February C$3,390 and March C$3,050, and February and March are one of Panorama's two high seasons. Panorama lists December 4 as opening day for the 2026-27 winter; Christmas, the Family Day long weekend that Alberta and British Columbia share in February, and spring skiing in March are the weeks to price one at a time. The Whiteway adds a lake product in the coldest weeks, once the ice is thick enough for the Toby Creek Nordic Ski Club to groom it.
The booking window follows the season. Invermere's guests book about 64 days ahead on average, and summer is planned furthest out: July stays were booked about 101 days ahead and August stays 96, against 26 days for November. The average stay is 4.6 nights, longest in July and March at 4.9 and shortest in May at 3.4. For an owner that means two calendars: summer weeks opened and priced by early spring for Calgary and Edmonton families, and ski weekends and holiday weeks priced closer in, with the shoulder months sold to couples, golfers and the nature lovers who come for the Wings Over the Rockies festival in May.
At the provincial level, British Columbia's Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act sets a principal-residence requirement: where it applies, short-term rentals are limited to the host's own home plus one secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit on the same property. It covers municipalities of 10,000 people or more and smaller ones within 15 kilometers of them, and the province's list, current as of June 1, 2026, exempts this valley. Invermere and Radium Hot Springs are listed as exempt municipalities, Panorama Mountain Resort and the Fairmont Hot Springs Ski Area as exempt ski resort areas, and the East Kootenay is not among the few regional district electoral areas where the requirement applies, so Windermere, Fairmont, Wilmer and the rural shoreline are exempt too. Local governments can opt in each year with a resolution by February 28 that takes effect on November 1, though the province says a request cannot change the exempt status of areas such as resort areas or farm land. Local bylaws can still be stricter, and in 2025 the province amended the regulation, including the boundaries of its mountain resort areas.
Exempt or not, every host must register. Since May 1, 2025, hosts have had to show a provincial registration number on every listing, along with the local business licence number where the local government requires one, and the address on the listing has to match the registration exactly so platforms can validate it. The annual fee is C$100 for a rental in the home where you live and C$450 for one where you don't, which includes a secondary property where the principal-residence requirement doesn't apply, plus a C$1.50 service fee; the application needs a local business licence where one is required, and registrations are renewed every year, with the renewal window opening 40 days before expiry. Without a valid registration a listing is no longer advertised, existing bookings are cancelled and new ones can't be accepted. The province can also issue administrative penalties and compliance orders, and the Act raised the maximum fines under local bylaws to C$50,000 for regional districts and C$3,000 per infraction, per day, for municipal tickets. The RDEK says it passes non-compliant listings to the provincial registry, which directs the platforms to remove them.
Outside the town and village boundaries, the RDEK regulates short-term rentals through temporary use permits. If your zoning doesn't allow commercial accommodation, such as a hotel, motel, rural retreat or guest ranch use, you need a permit for each dwelling unit you rent. Since December 12, 2025, every application in Electoral Area F, which includes Windermere, Fairmont and Panorama, goes to the RDEK Board, at a fee of C$3,000; in Area G, which includes Wilmer and rural Radium, an application that meets every mandatory criterion is decided by staff for C$1,500. The criteria: no more than 10 guests per parcel; extra off-street parking of one space for up to four guests, two for five to eight and three for nine or ten; a single-family, duplex, accessory or multi-family dwelling, never a boat, cabin, lock-off unit, park model trailer, RV, tent or yurt; an occupancy permit for an accessory dwelling; a floor and fire safety plan; and a responsible person reachable by phone at all hours, whose contact details are posted in the unit with the permit and given to every property within 100 meters. Applicants also sign a good-neighbor agreement and an affidavit that no covenant or strata bylaw prohibits the use, and a hot tub or fire pit calls for a nuisance-mitigation plan. Permits last up to three years and can be renewed once for up to three more, and a refused proposal can be submitted again after six months. On land in the Agricultural Land Reserve, renting a principal residence short term is not permitted unless it operates as a bed and breakfast.
The towns run their own programs. For the District of Invermere, this page could not confirm the bylaw as adopted, so treat what follows as reported at third reading (February 2024) and confirm it with the District. e-KNOW reported first and second readings of Business Licencing Bylaw No. 1647, 2023 in January 2024 and third reading in February 2024, with adoption possible as early as February 27, 2024 and the short-term rental rules to take effect on May 1, 2024 if the bylaw was adopted. The rules as reported at third reading: rentals in single-family and low-density residential areas would need a temporary use permit together with a business licence; a unit could host no more than eight guests, with no more than four bedrooms and two people per bedroom; an owner could hold only one licence or permit; each unit would need a noise-monitoring system; guests would get one on-site parking stall for up to four people and two for five to eight, with no parking on the street; and an outdoor pool would need a temporary use permit. Ask the District for the bylaw in force and its fees before you buy or list. In the Village of Radium Hot Springs, Bylaw No. 466, 2021 requires a business licence and allows fines of up to C$10,000 per offence; Airbnb's summary of the village's rules says rentals are allowed in a main dwelling unit or a secondary suite in the R1, R2 and R3 zones and commercial zones, that a unit in a strata complex needs the strata council's written approval, and that the licence number goes on the listing. Confirm the current version and the fee with the Village.
Taxes stack on every booking. Guests pay 5% GST where it applies, 8% PST on short-term accommodation and a 3% Municipal and Regional District Tax, which B.C.'s regulation designates for the District of Invermere with the Panorama Mountain Resort area and for the rest of Electoral Area F, both paid to the Columbia Valley Tourism Marketing Society, and for Radium Hot Springs and all of Electoral Area G, paid to the Radium Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. The regulation lists a repeal date of January 1, 2027 for the Area F designation outside Panorama, August 1, 2027 for Radium and Area G and February 1, 2029 for Invermere and Panorama, so check whether each has been renewed. Airbnb collects the PST and the MRDT itself on B.C. stays of 26 nights or fewer, and the GST too when the host isn't registered for it. A host registered for GST charges it on their own account, and registering stops being optional once taxable sales top C$30,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters. From the 2024 tax year, the federal government also disallows income-tax deductions on a short-term rental for the days it operates outside the province's registration rules or the local licence and permit rules. Take this section as a guide to the rules, not legal advice, and check the specifics with the RDEK, the District or the Village, a B.C. lawyer and your accountant; Cavmir looks after the marketing.
Lead with the paperwork. The provincial registration number, the RDEK permit or the town's licence, the permitted guest count and the name of the responsible person are all things a guest, a neighbor or a platform can look up now. Put them in the listing's opening lines in plain words, repeat the same numbers on your own site and in the welcome book, and the house reads as the well-run operation it is. In the RDEK a renewal also requires no outstanding non-compliance, so a quiet record is part of keeping the permit.
Sell two seasons with two sets of photographs. Summer here is lake days, golf and the hot pools; winter is Panorama, the Whiteway and an evening by the fire. A listing photographed only in July competes badly in February, and the reverse is just as true, so shoot both, write a winter description and a summer one, and swap the lead photo and the first lines when the season turns. At Panorama, say exactly how far the door is from the lift and where boots and skis go; on the lake, say how far it is to Kinsmen Beach or Windermere Beach and whether there is a dock.
Lead with the soak, and set its rules. Two-thirds of Invermere listings and 92% of Panorama's have a hot tub, so at Panorama a tub is expected and the photograph has to show yours is clean, private and ready; in town and on the lake it still separates a listing from the ones without. Say what guests can use nearby too: Parks Canada's pools at Radium, the public pools at Fairmont Hot Springs, and, at Panorama, the resort's rule that its pools are for overnight lodging guests, so tell guests plainly whether your booking includes access. Put quiet hours for the tub and the fire pit in the listing and the house rules, which is what the RDEK's nuisance-mitigation plan asks an owner to think through.
Price the calendar the way Alberta travels. Calgary is the largest source of guests, so the Alberta long weekends, Family Day in February and Heritage Day in August, deserve their own rates, and so do Christmas, Canada Day and the February and March ski weeks. Summer books about three months ahead, so open July and August early and offer last year's guests first refusal; November books inside a month, so keep shoulder pricing flexible. Most of the market uses a two-night minimum; a lake house may do better with weekly summer stays, and a Radium home with a two-night weekend minimum that turns stopovers into short holidays.
Get the direct channel and its taxes right before winter. A booking taken on your own site pays no platform fee, and with a third of guests coming from Calgary, the families who have stayed once are the easiest ones to bring back. The site needs live availability, an opt-in list that hears about next winter's dates first and a checkout that adds GST, PST and MRDT correctly, because on direct bookings the PST and MRDT become yours to collect and remit once accommodation revenue passes the province's small-seller limit of C$2,500 a year. A direct-booking website built that way is worth setting up before the season starts.
Permits are discretionary and temporary. In Area F every new application now goes to the RDEK Board, which weighs the staff report and the neighbors' correspondence before it votes, and RDEK staff have said that density may only be a concern in Area F. A permit runs up to three years and can be renewed once, after which a new application or another process is needed, so a buyer should check the permit's expiry date and the RDEK's change-of-owner process before counting on it. Check the title for covenants and the strata bylaws before an offer, because an applicant has to swear that neither prohibits short-term rental, and check whether the land is in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
The shoulder months are thin. From October to May the average Invermere listing earned about C$2,950 a month at 37% occupancy, November averaged about C$2,040, and Radium's low season averaged C$1,930 a month at 30%, while heating, snow clearing, insurance and the mortgage run all year. A property that only sells July and the ski weeks leaves most of the calendar to chance. Offers built around golf, the hot pools, the Whiteway and the May nature festival give those months a reason to book.
Dates pile up. The provincial registration renews every year, with the renewal window opening 40 days before expiry; an RDEK permit runs up to three years and can be renewed once; and the strata, the insurer and the tax filings each keep their own calendar. Keep every one of them next to the booking windows, because a registration that lapses in June takes the listing down just as July is selling.
Your insurer needs to know the house takes short-term guests; then ask, in writing, what happens if a guest is hurt in the hot tub, at the fire pit, by the wood stove or on a boat or paddleboard you provide. The RDEK's permit file asks for a floor and fire safety plan showing the layout, the beds in each room, the exits, the smoke alarms and the extinguishers, and a hot tub or fire pit calls for a written plan for preventing nuisance, so many of the documents an insurer wants are ones the permit already needs. For a strata unit at Panorama or Fairmont, read the strata's insurance and rental bylaws as well. A broker who writes mountain recreational policies in the East Kootenay is the right person to price it.
The tax side has three layers. What the guest pays: 5% GST where it applies, 8% PST and the 3% MRDT, with Airbnb collecting the PST and MRDT on stays of 26 nights or fewer. What you file: GST once taxable sales pass C$30,000 in four consecutive quarters, and PST and MRDT on direct bookings above C$2,500 a year. And what you can deduct: nothing for the days a rental breaks provincial or local rules, under the federal rule. Alberta owners renting in B.C. will want an accountant who works in both provinces, and the treatment of rental income is a question to settle before the first season, not after.
BC Assessment's 2026 roll put the typical single-family home in the District of Invermere at C$707,000, up 4% on the year, and in Radium Hot Springs at C$529,000, up 8%; across the Kootenay and Boundary region the September 2026 benchmark was C$638,300 for a single-family home, C$503,200 for a townhouse and C$358,700 for a condominium. Before you commit, ask a mortgage broker three things: how lenders treat a strata unit in a resort complex such as Panorama's, how much rental income they'll count when you qualify, and whether a temporary use permit that runs out within three years worries them. Then build the cash flow with the permit, registration, taxes and running costs in it from day one: once AirROI's running costs come out (platform fee, cleaning, repairs, utilities, supplies, insurance and the permit), its model leaves the average Invermere listing about C$29,500 a year toward the mortgage, property tax, home insurance and strata fees.
The rules will keep firming up. The RDEK is working toward business licensing with a 2027 target and can now use the province's registry data and compliance unit alongside its own permits; the provincial exemption list changes as local governments opt in or out; the Area F accommodation-tax designation reaches its repeal date on January 1, 2027 unless it is renewed; and in Invermere, the bylaw reported at third reading in February 2024 is the one to confirm with the District. None of this changes the basic position, that a second home in this valley can be rented under provincial law, but it rewards owners whose permits, registrations and records are in order.
Demand rests on things that don't depend on a platform's ranking. Calgary's airport is 311 kilometers from Panorama through two national parks, Panorama begins its 65th season with Taynton Bowl inside its boundary, the Whiteway earned its Guinness record in 2014, Wings Over the Rockies has run since 1997, and the hot pools at Radium and Fairmont give every season a reason to come. In AirROI's figures average revenue per Invermere listing was up 35.8% in the twelve months to September 2026; treat one strong year as a direction, not a promise.
Search is changing too. A Calgary parent planning February can ask an AI assistant for a ski-in condo at Panorama that sleeps eight, or a lake house near Invermere with a hot tub and a dock, and get names back before visiting any booking site. Those names come from pages the assistant can read, so the owner whose own site lists the registration number, the guest count, the bed plan, the walk to the lift or the beach and the drive from Calgary is the one it can recommend. Our guide to generative engine optimization covers the method, and it's the reason the direct site and the AI-search work get built as one job.
What I love about marketing in the Columbia Valley is how concrete the selling points are. The walk from a Panorama condo to the lift, the minutes from a lake house to Kinsmen Beach, the hot pool at Radium kept between 37°C and 40°C: guests decide on details like these, and a listing built on them needs very few adjectives.
I also like that one valley holds two different holidays. In February the story is the first chair at Panorama, a run down Taynton Bowl and a soak at the end of the day; in July it's the lake, a round at Greywolf or Fairmont and a drive up to the hot pools at Radium. Writing both well, with the right photographs for each, is the part of the work I enjoy most here.
And the history is close at hand. A fur-trade post from 1807 marked by a plaque on Westside Road, a national park created in exchange for a road, a ski hill whose first run, served by a rope tow in 1962, is still there under the name Old Timer: these give a welcome book real things to say, and our job is to put them in front of the guest who will enjoy them.
An Invermere and Panorama welcome book, as we'd write it: the coffee, the hill, the lake, the pools and the history guests ask about in winter and summer, then two pages that keep a permitted stay calm for guests and neighbors alike.
Kicking Horse Coffee's café at 491 Arrow Road serves coffee drinks, food and something sweet to go with them. It's the stop to suggest on the first morning, ahead of the grocery run and the drive up to Panorama.
Groomed by the Toby Creek Nordic Ski Club for skating and for classic and skate skiing, the trail runs more than 30 kilometers on the lake, with access at Kinsmen Beach in Invermere and at Windermere Beach. The club sells day, punch and season passes and posts conditions online, so check them before sending guests onto the ice.
Former heli-skiing terrain, now patrolled and avalanche-controlled inside the resort's boundary: a 750-acre bowl of black runs that holds Panorama's longest run, 6.5 kilometers. It's a page for the strong skiers in the group, since every run in the bowl is black.
Parks Canada runs the pools in Sinclair Canyon: a hot pool kept between 37°C and 40°C and a deep swimming pool, filled with odorless mineral water. The Aquacourt is a federal heritage building in its own right. Check the hours and fees on Parks Canada's page before guests drive up.
The resort calls its pools Canada's largest natural hot springs; the hot pool is kept at 39°C, the public pools open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and an adult day membership costs C$25. There are no lifeguards on duty, so families with small children should plan for that.
Greywolf at Panorama is capped by its Cliffhanger hole, and its site cites a 17th-place ranking on SCOREGolf's 2026 list of Canada's top 100 courses. Fairmont Hot Springs adds the Mountainside course, the 18-hole Riverside and the nine-hole par-3 Creekside. Greywolf, Mountainside and Creekside had closed for the season by late October 2026, so this page belongs in the summer book.
Invermere's nature festival has run since 1997, and the 2027 festival is set for May 3 to 9, with past programs that included a river paddle, a hike, a photo workshop, evening presenters and live music. Give returning guests the dates when you confirm their summer week, since May is otherwise one of the quiet months.
On Westside Road in Athalmer, a plaque and interpretive signs mark the North West Company post where trade between the Ktunaxa and European fur traders began in 1807. Entry is free and the site is always open, though snow can make it hard to reach in winter.
Open every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from June 1 to September 30, and on Saturdays the rest of the year, with admission by donation. The archives and the historic photo collection are open to the public by appointment.
The road the park was created for runs from Radium Hot Springs through Kootenay National Park and over Vermilion Pass toward Banff. Panorama sends Calgary airport travelers this way, so suggest guests leave time on the drive home for Sinclair Canyon and the park instead of rushing through.
Open the book with the provincial registration number, the RDEK permit or town licence number, the permitted guest count and the house rules for the hot tub and the fire pit. RDEK permit holders must post the permit and the responsible person's contact details in plain view inside the unit anyway, so page one repeats them.
Name the person who answers, give a number that works at any hour, and say how quickly they respond. The RDEK requires a contact reachable by phone at all hours whenever the unit is rented, and the neighbors within 100 meters have the same number, so a guest who can reach someone fast has less reason to call anyone else.
Three property types that do well in Invermere & Panorama, a common starting point for each, and the plan Cavmir builds for it.
A two-bedroom ski-in, ski-out condo in Panorama's village, listed with one winter rate from December to April and summer photos taken on a gray day. The listing never says whether guests can use the resort pools, shows no provincial registration number in the first screen, and goes quiet in April, May, October and November.
Cavmir confirms with the owner which permit or zoning applies and that the registration is current, then prices the winter week by week, setting Christmas, the Family Day weekend and the February and March high season apart. The listing is rebuilt around the steps to the lift, where boots and skis go and the private hot tub; pool access is described exactly as the resort defines it; a winter shoot and a separate summer shoot cover the bike park and Greywolf; and a direct-booking page gives Calgary skiers a way back every season.
Aimed at a winter calendar priced week by week and a summer that sells on its own photographs and rates. Watch the February and March nightly rate, Christmas and Family Day bookings, July and August occupancy, review scores for accuracy and value, and the number of direct stays.
A four-bedroom house near Lake Windermere outside Invermere's boundary, with a hot tub, a fire pit and beds for twelve, whose owner is preparing a temporary use permit application before renting it short term. Since December 2025 every application in Area F goes to the RDEK Board, so the plan has to work for the board and the neighbors before the first booking.
The owner handles the permit with the RDEK; Cavmir builds the marketing around what the application commits to: a guest count of ten or fewer, the parking plan, quiet hours and the hot tub and fire pit rules. Once the permit is issued, we sell July and August as full weeks for two families sharing, give the Whiteway and Panorama their own winter pages, and set up a past-guest list for Calgary and Edmonton families.
Designed to sell summer weeks at a lake-house rate within the permitted guest count, and to give winter an offer of its own. Track the July and August weekly rate, winter nights sold, neighbor concerns raised, review scores and repeat bookings from Alberta families.
A licensed three-bedroom home in one of Radium's residential zones, listed as a generic mountain getaway, priced flat all year and booked mostly for single nights on the way to or from the national park. The months from October to May bring little but stopovers.
Cavmir rebuilds the listing around what is close: the hot pools in Sinclair Canyon, Kootenay National Park and the drive from Calgary on Highway 93 South. We set a two-night minimum on weekends, create shoulder-season offers for hot-pool weekends and for the Wings Over the Rockies festival in May, put the business licence and provincial registration numbers on every listing, and build a direct page for returning Alberta families.
Aimed at longer stays and a steadier low season without giving up the summer rate. Track average stay length, occupancy from October to May, weekend bookings that meet the minimum, and direct bookings.
Yes. Cavmir markets ski-in condos and townhomes at Panorama Mountain Resort, homes in Invermere, lake houses around Windermere and Fairmont Hot Springs, and homes and suites in Radium Hot Springs. We handle the brand, listing optimization, photo direction, a direct-booking website, search work for Google and AI assistants, and paid campaigns; the biggest lake houses and chalets sit in our estates and private collections tier. As a marketing agency, we leave the keys, the day-to-day management and every guest message with the owner or their manager.
In the twelve months to September 2026, AirROI's average Invermere listing charged about C$332 a night, filled 46% of its open nights and grossed C$48,381, about C$4,030 a month spread over the year (AirROI works in US dollars; these are Canadian dollars at about 1.39). Occupancy counts only open nights, and many homes open for part of the year, so that revenue is less than a full year at the same rate and occupancy would bring. Summer does the heavy lifting: July and August each averaged more than C$10,000 per listing over two years, and one listing in ten charged C$550 a night or more. Panorama's listings averaged C$443 a night. These are planning figures, not a forecast for your house. The 4–7% range in the box is a rough yield estimate: annual revenue equals about 6.8% of the C$707,000 typical assessed value of a single-family home in Invermere, or about 4.2% after AirROI's running costs, before mortgage, property tax and strata fees.
Summer is the peak in Invermere: July and August are the strongest months, the three best months bring in about half the year's revenue, and July and August 2026 ran about 78% and 80% occupancy. Panorama has a second peak in February and March, when its listings averaged about 60% occupancy at C$466 a night. November is the quietest month in the valley. Guests book summer about three months ahead and November inside a month, so open summer early and keep the shoulder months flexible.
No. The province's list, current as of June 1, 2026, names Invermere and Radium Hot Springs as exempt municipalities and Panorama Mountain Resort and the Fairmont Hot Springs Ski Area as exempt ski resort areas, and the Regional District of East Kootenay's electoral areas are not among the few where the requirement applies. That means a second home can be rented under provincial law. Every host still needs a provincial registration number on every listing, required since May 1, 2025, and the local permit or licence where one applies. Cavmir does the marketing; for legal or permit advice, talk to a B.C. lawyer and the RDEK or your municipality.
Usually, if your zoning doesn't allow commercial accommodation. In that case the RDEK requires a temporary use permit for each short-term rental unit, and since December 12, 2025 every application in Electoral Area F, which includes Windermere, Fairmont and Panorama, goes to the RDEK Board, with a C$3,000 fee. Permits allow up to 10 guests per parcel, need extra parking, a floor and fire safety plan and a responsible person reachable at all hours, and last up to three years with one renewal. Where zoning already permits commercial accommodation, the RDEK says the provincial registration may be all that is needed. Check your zoning and title with the RDEK before you buy or list.
On Airbnb, the platform collects the 8% PST and the 3% MRDT on British Columbia reservations of 26 nights or fewer, and collects GST for hosts who aren't registered for it. A host registered for GST charges the 5% on their own account, and registering becomes compulsory once taxable sales top C$30,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters. On direct bookings, the PST and MRDT are yours to register for, collect and remit once your accommodation revenue is above C$2,500 a year. The MRDT here goes to the Columbia Valley Tourism Marketing Society in Invermere, Panorama and the rest of Area F, and to the Radium Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce in Radium and Area G.
Make the second booking easier than the first: a quick direct-booking website with the registration number, the guest limit and an all-in price that includes GST, PST and MRDT; a Google Business Profile that's complete; optimized listings that send returning guests to your site; and AI search work so assistants can recommend the house. In AirROI's data Calgary is the top source of guests in Invermere, Panorama, Radium and Fairmont alike, so an email that offers last year's families the Alberta long weekends first is worth building. How search fits in is on our vacation rental SEO page.
It depends on what the property needs. Every plan and one-off project is priced on our pricing page; owners often begin with the 12-step system or a listing overhaul. A first conversation costs you nothing: reach us here.
Send us the listing and we'll tell you what we'd change. Not a pitch deck — a straight read on your photos, your title, your rates against the Invermere & Panorama comp set, and whether a direct-booking site would pay for itself.
You'll hear back from a person, usually inside one business day. If we don't think we can move your numbers, we'll say so. Cavmir is a short-term rental marketing agency — we position and market properties, we don't manage them.
Demand in Invermere & Panorama peaks around July through August and runs quietest around April, October and November. Here is how the year actually books — and what to do about each stretch of the calendar.
Summer is the peak in Invermere, building through June to July and August, the strongest months for revenue and occupancy, when families are on the lake, the golf courses are open and the hot pools at Radium and Fairmont are busy. Summer stays are booked furthest ahead, so have the lake photos, the summer copy and weekly or multi-night pricing ready by early spring, hold the rate on the holiday weekends and give last year's guests the first chance at their week. Panorama adds a winter peak in February and March, so a ski condo there has two high seasons to plan for.
September is the shoulder, and December, though inside AirROI's October-to-May low season, earns nearly as much. September carries golf, the hot pools and quieter lake days after the school holidays, and December lifts with Panorama's opening and the Christmas weeks. Sell shoulder weeks to couples and small groups with midweek rates, and in winter price the ski weekends and holiday weeks one at a time instead of setting one rate for the whole season.
April, October and November are the quiet months, with November the slowest of the year, and guests book them late, often within a month. January, March and May sit only a little higher, and the Wings Over the Rockies festival gives May a reason to book. Use the quiet stretch for longer stays, midweek offers to Alberta couples, photo refreshes and maintenance, and have the winter listing, the fireplace and hot tub photos and the ski-week pricing ready before Panorama opens in early December.
Guests book about two months ahead on average. Summer books furthest out, with July stays booked about three months early, winter stays about six to eight weeks ahead, and November inside a month. Have summer priced and published by early spring and the winter calendar ready by the fall.
Stays average between four and five nights in Invermere, longest in July and March and shortest in May. Panorama's stays run a little longer than the town's, Fairmont Hot Springs has the longest stays in the valley and Radium the shortest, so minimum stays should differ by village and by season.
The winner is a two- or three-bedroom home or condo that sleeps six, with a private hot tub, sold as exactly what it is: a ski-in condo at Panorama with the walk to the lift in the first line, a lake house near Windermere with the beach access and the summer weeks described plainly, or a golf and hot-springs condo at Fairmont. Homes with four or more bedrooms earn far more per year when they are presented for two families sharing, with a bed for every adult and parking for every car.
Start by naming your product, a ski-in condo at Panorama, a lake house near Windermere, or a home near the hot pools at Radium or Fairmont, and lead with that advantage in the title and the first photos. Photograph both seasons, price the summer weeks and the ski holidays one at a time, and state the guest count and house rules plainly. Add a Google Business Profile and a direct-booking site so returning Calgary and Edmonton families can book you directly. That's the marketing layer Cavmir builds for owners here: photography direction, listing copy, a direct-booking website and local search.
Summer is the peak, with July and August the strongest months on the lake. Panorama adds a winter peak in February and March, and December lifts with opening day and the Christmas weeks. November is the quietest month of the year.
About two months ahead on average. July stays are booked about three months early and winter stays six to eight weeks ahead, while November bookings come in within a month. Have summer priced by early spring and the winter calendar ready by the fall.
Calgary, by a wide margin, followed by Edmonton, with smaller numbers from Canmore, St. Albert, Saskatoon, Toronto and Vancouver. Alberta guests drive in through Banff and Kootenay national parks, and guests from farther away usually fly into Calgary International or Canadian Rockies International.
A private hot tub leads, with an indoor fireplace close behind; listings with either one earn more on average in this valley. A dedicated workspace, a fire pit with clear house rules, off-street parking and, at Panorama, ski and boot storage near the door round out the list. Fast wifi matters for the parents who work part of the week.
Run your Airbnb, Vrbo, or website through Cavmir's free grader. It checks the things that decide whether guests book in Invermere & Panorama — photos, listing copy, page speed, local search — and shows you where bookings leak. Takes about a minute, and there's no sales call attached.
If the report says your booking engine is the weak link, that's fixable: a direct-booking website of your own means repeat guests stop paying platform fees to come back to you. That's the work Cavmir does — see Airbnb website design in Invermere & Panorama.
Talk to Cavmir today. We'll show you exactly what your Invermere & Panorama property is leaving on the table — and how fast we can change that.
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