Albuquerque’s hot-air balloon festival is the busiest time of year for these innkeepers

For Kathy and Steve Hiatt, owners of the Bottger Mansion of Old Town in Alburquerque, New Mexico, the International Balloon Fiesta is one of the busiest times of year. The 10-day hot-air balloon festival in early October draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city every year. This year, it runs from Oct. 5-13.

“We tend to be full until we’re well through the Balloon Fiesta,” Steve said. They’re already booking guests for Balloon Fiesta 2025. “We have to determine what our rates for rooms for Balloon Fiesta are going to be a year in advance,” Kathy said about the surge in demand this time of year.

The Hiatts bought the Bottger Mansion 20 years ago, but they knew they wanted to be bed and breakfast owners long before that. For their 10th anniversary, the couple stayed in a bed and breakfast in New Hampshire.

“It was just extraordinary,” said Kathy about their stay. “We decided that that was something we would be interested in doing someday.”

Once the season starts winding down this year, the Hiatt’s are planning to attend an innkeepers’ conference in San Diego.

“It turns out that the innkeeping industry is very small, and we all know each other all over the country,” Steve said.

To hear the rest of the Hiatts’ story, click the audio player above.