What are some tips for submitting a successful lottery form, and increasing my chances of getting a trip?

• • First and foremost: read through the submission instructions carefully to help ensure you’ve filled out your form appropriately, and refer to this FAQ as needed for additional guidance. Please reach out to our reservation team by email (huts@huts.org) or phone (970-925-5775) if you have additional questions or need further assistance. 

• Do your research first! Remember that once a lottery trip is booked, that trip is considered finalized, and will be subject to our regular cancellation policy. So, it’s important to research the huts first, and make sure your trip requests suit your group’s capabilities. Feel free to reach out to our reservation team with hut-specific questions. 

• • Be specific when listing the number of spaces you are requesting, the number of nights you’d like to stay at the hut, and if you are requesting space for anyone aged 12 and under. 
  • When listing your requested trip dates, please clearly list the date you want your trip to start (when you will go in to the hut), and when you want it to end (the day that you will come out from the hut). Note: The back-end date that you list will be read by our team as the day that you will leave/check out from the hut, so this would NOT be considered a hut night. To avoid any potential confusion, t is also helpful to specify the number of nights you want to stay at the hut in addition to your requested dates. (e.g. ‘Come in April 2nd, Leave the 5th – staying for 3 nights’). 
  • If listing multiple sets of both dates and huts for your trip options, please let us know if you want us to review your options prioritizing hut choice first, or dates first. (e.g. ‘run through all potential dates for X hut first, and then move to the next hut,’ or ‘run through all potential huts for X date first, and then move to the next date). See the cross-referenced example shown here for more details. 

• Be as flexible as possible with your trip options! The more limited/specific you are, the less likely you are to get a trip. By being more flexible, with more potential date options and/or days of the week, or more potential huts you’re willing to visit, you will greatly increase your chances of securing a trip. A few more things to keep in mind, in that vein:

• • • Weekends and holidays fill up first! When you only list weekends and holidays on your form, if those are all filled up by the time we get to your entry, you will receive no trip. If you can be open to weekdays as a back-up option, you will significantly increase your chances of securing a trip. One specific tip from our team is that booking Sunday-Tuesday trips (so, staying Sunday and Monday nights) is a great way to get some weekend time, and substantially increase your chances of getting a trip. 
    • Being open-ended with your dates/days of the week gives you the best chance of securing a trip. (e.g. ‘any three consecutive nights in January;’ ‘any Thursday-Sunday in February or March,’ etc.)
    • Being open to sharing the hut with others (so, requesting a smaller number of spaces, rather than a whole hut) also significantly increases your chances of securing a hut trip.
    • Be open to exploring different huts! The huts closest to the Front Range and Denver are the most popular. Huts near the Roaring Fork Valley tend to be less popular; however, there are good lodging options within 1.5 hours of any of the trailheads in the Roaring Fork Valley.

• The bottom line: Keep an Open Mind. There is no limit to the number of choices you can list, but if none of your listed choices are available when your entry is drawn, you won’t receive a trip. So, while you can be more selective with your first-choice trips, we highly recommend listing backup options that are more open-ended. 

• Make sure you have correct, up-to-date contact information listed on your lottery submission form. If our team has any questions about your form, we will need to contact you for clarification. It’s important that you call us back right away, to help ensure you get your desired trip!
• Make sure your credit card information is current and will not expire before the end of March. If we can’t process your payment to secure your trip, this can cause delays in the lottery process, and could ultimately impact your trip. 
• If you are submitting as part of a group, please select a unique group name (and make sure all submissions within your group reflect the exact same name), to help avoid any potential confusion among group submissions. 

Last but not least: Please review your form carefully before submitting! If you do find any errors in your submission, please email us at lottery@huts.org to let us know which corrections need to be made.