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Vail to buy Stowe?

BenedictGomez

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They're keeping Ski Council Days thankfully, at least for the upcoming season, $48 per day.

Gone within 3 years is my prediction.

My gut tells me it would have been gone this year, if not for the fact that Vail is a politically savvy company. Heat the frog's h2o slowly.
 

dlague

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They also left off Kirk wood and the Australian place and Midwest places on the first page.

Revisiting the link I posted, It became very clear where Vail Resorts wants people to go (target destinations) and the resorts not listed are not the target destinations. Those unlisted resorts were purchased to increase traffic to those places that are prominently listed.
 

mbedle

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I was thinking about this and wondering how they are going to promote Spruce Peak on the Vail sites. I got to believe that the sale agreement has some conditions about how Vail would promote Stowe (spruce peak) as a destination resort, during all seasons. I've got to believe that both websites ( Vail's and Stowe's) will ultimately be updated to reflect everything that Spruce Peak has, combined with the actual ski area. One other thing is the epic.snow.com is not truly their home page for either the resorts or the epic pass information. It appears to have been last updated in 2016. The true pages are snow.com and epicpass.com, with the company home page being vailresorts.com.
 

dlague

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I was thinking about this and wondering how they are going to promote Spruce Peak on the Vail sites. I got to believe that the sale agreement has some conditions about how Vail would promote Stowe (spruce peak) as a destination resort, during all seasons. I've got to believe that both websites ( Vail's and Stowe's) will ultimately be updated to reflect everything that Spruce Peak has, combined with the actual ski area. One other thing is the epic.snow.com is not truly their home page for either the resorts or the epic pass information. It appears to have been last updated in 2016. The true pages are snow.com and epicpass.com, with the company home page being vailresorts.com.

OK go to snow.com and click on "Our Resorts" or better yet "Plan a Vacation" or "Our Sites" Stowe and all of the Midwest ski areas are absent - Midwest certainly are not destination resorts and Vail does not own any or maybe a little lodging in VT why promote it?

Go to vailresorts.com and the little ticker that shows "Our Resorts" has no mention of Stowe either.

My guess it is because none of the marketing has caught up to the transaction?
 

benski

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They need to get there shit together. They seem to never mention there Perisher, which is a major resort down under, either. Whistler appears to also be missing under snow.com's plan a vacation tab.
 

slatham

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Maybe I give Vail too much credit but I find it hard to believe the above web site situation is an error of omission. For Stowe, with the crowd issues last year and worries of this winter, parking issues, not owning the lodging, etc, Vail does not need any additional "cross selling" for Stowe.
 

SnowRock

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It may be intentional, but I have a feeling the answer is probably simpler.

They have a bunch of web properties and the user experience is different across each - from EpicPass.Com to Snow.Com to Epic.Snow.Com, the EpicMix site as well. Stuff all seems different in terms of design, navigation and consistency of info. I am not a web guy, but do work in that world a bit and you would be surprised at how even at big companies, this sort of stuff happen over time with different teams creating different sites without a common set of standards. Buying companies (in this case resorts) adding them to your environment with band-aids etc.

I bought a pass and they keep asking me to add a photo, but there is a photo there and they drive me to the EpicPass site, but that site doesn't even show I have a pass, yet I do have a pass on snow.com.
 

dlague

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It may be intentional, but I have a feeling the answer is probably simpler.

They have a bunch of web properties and the user experience is different across each - from EpicPass.Com to Snow.Com to Epic.Snow.Com, the EpicMix site as well. Stuff all seems different in terms of design, navigation and consistency of info. I am not a web guy, but do work in that world a bit and you would be surprised at how even at big companies, this sort of stuff happen over time with different teams creating different sites without a common set of standards. Buying companies (in this case resorts) adding them to your environment with band-aids etc.

I bought a pass and they keep asking me to add a photo, but there is a photo there and they drive me to the EpicPass site, but that site doesn't even show I have a pass, yet I do have a pass on snow.com.

But the funny thing is - Afton Alps and Wilmot are mentioned on Snow.com as their Resorts but it ends there - Plan a Vacation is clearly oriented towards Tahoe, Utah, and Colorado and so it appears on the other sites as well.
 

SnowRock

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But the funny thing is - Afton Alps and Wilmot are mentioned on Snow.com as their Resorts but it ends there - Plan a Vacation is clearly oriented towards Tahoe, Utah, and Colorado and so it appears on the other sites as well.

Yes but if you go to 'experiences' on EpicPass Stowe is listed, as is the midwest, as is Europe. And exactly as you note... Snow.com doesn't list Stowe at all which is odd. When I bought the pass earlier this year, it had me purchase through Snow.Com but now it looks like they updated EpicPass.com which acts as their pass eCommerce site now... but as an example my pass info doesn't seem to be detailed there, but it is when I login to snow.com. Again some of this could be completely intentional, but I wouldn't be surprised if their web architecture hasn't caught up to their buying spree.
 

mbedle

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Yes but if you go to 'experiences' on EpicPass Stowe is listed, as is the midwest, as is Europe. And exactly as you note... Snow.com doesn't list Stowe at all which is odd. When I bought the pass earlier this year, it had me purchase through Snow.Com but now it looks like they updated EpicPass.com which acts as their pass eCommerce site now... but as an example my pass info doesn't seem to be detailed there, but it is when I login to snow.com. Again some of this could be completely intentional, but I wouldn't be surprised if their web architecture hasn't caught up to their buying spree.

Are you logging in to both sites with the same username and password? I just tried with mine and both show the same account information and photo for the pass.
 

mbedle

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Parking lot pic: 123_1.jpg

Stowe lift ticket rates are up, not to much of an increase (except for the early and late season bypass rates significantly increased), but they don't show any window ticket prices yet. They did switch to a peak / non peak structure instead of the regular and early/late season structure.
 

mbedle

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Guess I am going to eat my words about Stowe Mountain Lodge and Vail actually working together to promote the resort and SML. They basically have stripped the website or downplayed SML and the golf course, spa and a couple of restaurants are completely removed. They don't have a link to the real estate website. Very surprised the AIG would have agreed to that as part of the sale. Pretty much a guarantee that you are going to see something built at the base of Toll House in the coming years, which will be a driver for a new lift.
 

tnt1234

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They have only announced 48 hour advanced purchase prices:

https://www.stowe.com/ski-ride/lift/

Note that Stowe Bypass is history. Overall prices are not as scary as they could be.

Wait....so no bypass means you have to actually purchase the lift ticket? You can't just link your CC and show up at the lift? that sucks.

And 48 hour advanced best rate sucks too...a lot can happen in 48 hours in VT....
 

tnt1234

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And also....what the hell kind of place is that to put the parking lot??? Thats the Gondi run out!

It's actually not as intrusive as I thought it would be....
 

KustyTheKlown

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Wait....so no bypass means you have to actually purchase the lift ticket? You can't just link your CC and show up at the lift? that sucks.

And 48 hour advanced best rate sucks too...a lot can happen in 48 hours in VT....

you can still load an evolution stowe card for straight to lift. it seems they just eliminated bypass special pricing
 

KustyTheKlown

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And also....what the hell kind of place is that to put the parking lot??? Thats the Gondi run out!

It's actually not as intrusive as I thought it would be....

that place actually makes a lot of sense for a parking lot. its dead space between the gondola loading barn and the midway lodge.
 
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