Pricing psychology is waaaay overrated in the skiing industry. At some point it has to come down to basic ethics and I'm glad I'm not the one working in the Steamboat ticket window. I'll give an exception to Crystal, but I agree with Luke's comments that I don't believe Alterra is maximizing their profit by basically forgoing all legitimate day ticket offerings at some of their resorts. On the other hand, the Vail Resorts Epic Day Pass for $91 (was in the $70's range when excluding some of the top dog resorts?), has to be some of the most competitively priced single day lift tickets for big mountain skiing in the country. But when you think about it, even at that competitive price (which only a few years ago would have been considered a lot) they're still probably making way more money per skier visit than from their passholders.
It’s not like destination resorts need price gouging day tickets to stay in business. No one outside the US does that, but even within the US, non-Epic/Ikon resorts (Alyeska, Wolf Creek, etc.) have day tickets _over holidays_ for under $100.
Vail & Alterra are just trying to drive more people to their passes, which will hurt them in the long run. And it’s allowed Indys to thrive and grow, because as it turns out, tickets don’t actually need to be that expensive for resorts to make money. Loveland’s 4-pack (which are legitimately 4 separate lift tickets that can be used by 4 different people on the same day if wanted) is $200 for a reason. By having ludicrous “rack rate” prices, Vail & Alterra are giving a distinct competitive advantage to everyone else who doesn’t.
Yeah... the only reason I discovered the Epic, Ikon and Indy Passes was because of The Storm! In past years, me (and my family too!) were just paying daily lift ticket prices when going to ski resorts that weren't our home mountain. I'm really shocked ski resorts haven't put out much word about the mega-passes besides a small handful of social media posts that get buried among all the "Upcoming Ski Season Hype" posts.
I don't think it would be a bad idea for example, for Alterra to buy a billboard in a skier/snowboarder-heavy city and advertise: "IKON PASS, access to 47 famous ski resorts" or something like that. I saw one of the local ski resorts in my area put up a billboard advertising their brand new high speed quad!
Also Stuart, you should write a glossary detailing all the antagonist Bros that appear in The Storm! We have Shush Emoji Bro, Freedom Bro, Free Market Bro, B-School Bro, Nobody-Pays-Those-Prices Bro, among others.
Pricing psychology is waaaay overrated in the skiing industry. At some point it has to come down to basic ethics and I'm glad I'm not the one working in the Steamboat ticket window. I'll give an exception to Crystal, but I agree with Luke's comments that I don't believe Alterra is maximizing their profit by basically forgoing all legitimate day ticket offerings at some of their resorts. On the other hand, the Vail Resorts Epic Day Pass for $91 (was in the $70's range when excluding some of the top dog resorts?), has to be some of the most competitively priced single day lift tickets for big mountain skiing in the country. But when you think about it, even at that competitive price (which only a few years ago would have been considered a lot) they're still probably making way more money per skier visit than from their passholders.
It’s not like destination resorts need price gouging day tickets to stay in business. No one outside the US does that, but even within the US, non-Epic/Ikon resorts (Alyeska, Wolf Creek, etc.) have day tickets _over holidays_ for under $100.
Vail & Alterra are just trying to drive more people to their passes, which will hurt them in the long run. And it’s allowed Indys to thrive and grow, because as it turns out, tickets don’t actually need to be that expensive for resorts to make money. Loveland’s 4-pack (which are legitimately 4 separate lift tickets that can be used by 4 different people on the same day if wanted) is $200 for a reason. By having ludicrous “rack rate” prices, Vail & Alterra are giving a distinct competitive advantage to everyone else who doesn’t.
Yeah... the only reason I discovered the Epic, Ikon and Indy Passes was because of The Storm! In past years, me (and my family too!) were just paying daily lift ticket prices when going to ski resorts that weren't our home mountain. I'm really shocked ski resorts haven't put out much word about the mega-passes besides a small handful of social media posts that get buried among all the "Upcoming Ski Season Hype" posts.
I don't think it would be a bad idea for example, for Alterra to buy a billboard in a skier/snowboarder-heavy city and advertise: "IKON PASS, access to 47 famous ski resorts" or something like that. I saw one of the local ski resorts in my area put up a billboard advertising their brand new high speed quad!
Also Stuart, you should write a glossary detailing all the antagonist Bros that appear in The Storm! We have Shush Emoji Bro, Freedom Bro, Free Market Bro, B-School Bro, Nobody-Pays-Those-Prices Bro, among others.