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The NEW Magic Mountain

MEtoVTSkier

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Yeah, it's almost a no-brainer to AT LEAST make them all valid thru Early Season next winter, if not the Holiday Season or Entire Season... I guess it would depend on the Hill, some don't do Early Season as much.
 

icecoast1

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Honestly, all mountains should honor 2019-2020 pre-paid tickets, lift ticket vouchers, etc... for next season.

Not only is it the right thing to do given this unprecedented situation, but it's the business savvy thing to do as well from both a customer service perspective & a customer retention perspective.

It will be interesting to see which mountains make that call, and which do not. IMO, the smarter, better run mountains will do it, the penny-wise-and-pound-foolish run mountains will not.


If you're a small independent ski area, can you afford to do this? There are probably tons of people out there with prepaid tickets that arent used because of the weather, although the virus killed the season, it's not like Magic would have been open much longer anyway.
 

slatham

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Sugarbush quad packs are good till 12/24/20.

And that was the right call as Sugarbush is typically open daily until mid April and weekends through the first weekend of May. While March 15 is a bit early for Magic, it’s not by much. I mean if they were open every weekend in March it would only be 4 (weekends only) to 6 (+Friday) days more to ski. That said I think they should do something- maybe 1/2 price pre Christmas with any prepaid ticket from this year? Could be a win win.
 

Newpylong

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If you're a small independent ski area, can you afford to do this? There are probably tons of people out there with prepaid tickets that arent used because of the weather, although the virus killed the season, it's not like Magic would have been open much longer anyway.

If I was still in the game I would handle it on a case by case basis. Ski products (passes, prepaid tickets, etc and so on) usually have a 100% non-returnable/non-refundable policy clearly spelled out at the time of purchase. Yes, that even applies to COVID-19 and other force majeure instances. It would all depend on a trade off between good will vs the economic hit.
 

BenedictGomez

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If you're a small independent ski area, can you afford to do this? There are probably tons of people out there with prepaid tickets that arent used because of the weather, although the virus killed the season, it's not like Magic would have been open much longer anyway.

Easily. It was mid-March by the time this happened, the vast majority of inventory would have been used.
 

MMP

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It would be a mistake for Magic to honor unused passes/vouchers from this year. It’s not their burden to bear. If it didn’t snow you’d be in the same boat. I hope they reject this idea and make a smart business decision. No one that’s an actual stakeholder would demand this.
 

BenedictGomez

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It would be a mistake for Magic to honor unused passes/vouchers from this year. It’s not their burden to bear. If it didn’t snow you’d be in the same boat. I hope they reject this idea and make a smart business decision.

Except this had nothing to do with a bad snow year that you didnt monitor weather properly & use them on time.

This is was a global black swan pandemic that shut down all aggregations of human beings per CDC guidelines.

Every hill will have to make its' own decision, but I'm tellin' ya, from a financial perspective honoring that little outstanding inventory is the intelligent decision. Hills will lose more money from the very few people that snub the given hill(s) than they'll ever recover from honoring literally a few lift tickets which have already been paid for anyway. There are scores of case studies on this sort of question in varied industries, and the answer is always the same.
 

icecoast1

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Except this had nothing to do with a bad snow year that you didnt monitor weather properly & use them on time.

This is was a global black swan pandemic that shut down all aggregations of human beings per CDC guidelines.

Every hill will have to make its' own decision, but I'm tellin' ya, from a financial perspective honoring that little outstanding inventory is the intelligent decision. Hills will lose more money from the very few people that snub the given hill(s) than they'll ever recover from honoring literally a few lift tickets which have already been paid for anyway. There are scores of case studies on this sort of question in varied industries, and the answer is always the same.

Would staying open another week with a rain/freeze cycle lead to many people using tickets? In this situation it's almost all weather related
 

KustyTheKlown

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i had reservations at magic for this coming weekend. house 1 mile from base, intention to use quad pack, audible to stratton ready to be deployed with stratton days saved on ikon specifically if magic was a no go.

i dont care if they dont honor my quad pack. cool if they do. fine if they dont. i will continue supporting them no matter what.
 

skiur

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It was the middle of March when magic closed. They might hAve made it another week or might not have. I think their obligation to pass holders was met.
 

MMP

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Except this had nothing to do with a bad snow year that you didnt monitor weather properly & use them on time.

This is was a global black swan pandemic that shut down all aggregations of human beings per CDC guidelines.

Every hill will have to make its' own decision, but I'm tellin' ya, from a financial perspective honoring that little outstanding inventory is the intelligent decision. Hills will lose more money from the very few people that snub the given hill(s) than they'll ever recover from honoring literally a few lift tickets which have already been paid for anyway. There are scores of case studies on this sort of question in varied industries, and the answer is always the same.

Name one study of the scores you reference.

I’ll go a step further and say if you demand your 4-pack be honored and leave if not, good riddance. Selfish. Try that shit with Vail. You expect Magic to give in to you because they’re small. You take advantage of their accessibility. Weak.

I used my IKON 1 day at Lake Louise and 1 day at Sugarbush. I expect that the problems the now out of work employees of these companies are in a worse spot than most of us. But yah, go get that day comp from Geoff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

BenedictGomez

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Name one study of the scores you reference. I’ll go a step further and say if you demand your 4-pack be honored and leave if not, good riddance. Selfish. Try that shit with Vail. You expect Magic to give in to you because they’re small. You take advantage of their accessibility. Weak. I used my IKON 1 day at Lake Louise and 1 day at Sugarbush. I expect that the problems the now out of work employees of these companies are in a worse spot than most of us. But yah, go get that day comp from Geoff.

I'm not just talking about Magic, I'm talking about all mountains. You seem to have a laser-focus on Magic whereas I'm talking about the entire ski industry (which should be obvious from my comments).

In terms of studies, do your own homework. I'll get you started though, search: "cost of customer acquisition" as well as "the customer is always right" (a fallacy, but will lead you in the right direction), "cost of customer dissatisfaction" (sometimes written as "cost of unhappy customers"). Pretty much all the boring crap kids learn in a basic early college level P.O.M. course.

And frankly, in this case (ski resorts) it's even more no-brainer than most cases. There is literally ZERO cost to allow a customer sitting on 1 or 2 prepaid vouchers or lift tickets to use them in a limited capacity next season, and you're almost guaranteeing "customer return", which will sprinkle cash on your properties hotels, restaurants, and bars & other skiing-related ancillary revenue opportunities.
 

Domeskier

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And frankly, in this case (ski resorts) it's even more no-brainer than most cases. There is literally ZERO cost to allow a customer sitting on 1 or 2 prepaid vouchers or lift tickets to use them in a limited capacity next season, and you're almost guaranteeing "customer return", which will sprinkle cash on your properties hotels, restaurants, and bars & other skiing-related ancillary revenue opportunities.

Agreed. It's not just "selfish" people a resort has to worry about. If I buy a four pack to some mountain and don't end up using it for whatever reason, I'm probably not buying it again next season. Not because I'm angry at the mountain, but because I don't want to spend money on some product I'm not sure I'll use. This is an easy way to get his type of casual skier back on the mountain and possibly turning them into a committed repeat customer.
 

slatham

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I'm not just talking about Magic, I'm talking about all mountains. You seem to have a laser-focus on Magic whereas I'm talking about the entire ski industry (which should be obvious from my comments).

In terms of studies, do your own homework. I'll get you started though, search: "cost of customer acquisition" as well as "the customer is always right" (a fallacy, but will lead you in the right direction), "cost of customer dissatisfaction" (sometimes written as "cost of unhappy customers"). Pretty much all the boring crap kids learn in a basic early college level P.O.M. course.

And frankly, in this case (ski resorts) it's even more no-brainer than most cases. There is literally ZERO cost to allow a customer sitting on 1 or 2 prepaid vouchers or lift tickets to use them in a limited capacity next season, and you're almost guaranteeing "customer return", which will sprinkle cash on your properties hotels, restaurants, and bars & other skiing-related ancillary revenue opportunities.

Out of curiosity, would using the pre-paid ticket from 19/20 to buy a discounted ticket in 20/21 be satisfactory?
 

BenedictGomez

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Out of curiosity, would using the pre-paid ticket from 19/20 to buy a discounted ticket in 20/21 be satisfactory?

I'm not sure what you mean by discounted.

If I ran a ski area what I would do is allow unused 2019-2020 product be used from March 1st, 2021 to close.

Yes, the COVID19 fears started in late-February, but March 1 is a "clean" date. This way you're not rewarding people who just sat on them to use them in December or January, and you really are compensating for the unprecedented viral closure, especially all those people who genuinely planned to use prepaid lift tickets, prepaid vouchers, snowchecks, etc.. in March or April.

My resolution limits any financial impact to the mountain (small though it would be anyway) & keeps all your customers happy ensuring 100% customer retention, which again I cannot stress enough how important that is.
 

crazy

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It was the middle of March when magic closed. They might hAve made it another week or might not have. I think their obligation to pass holders was met.

Agreed. I had one ticket remaining at Magic that I had already figured wouldn't get used anyway, and now of course didn't get used. But they were close to closing up shop anyway, so I'm not upset. I'll be back next year to support them.

Look at the forecast: after a tiny bit of snow tomorrow morning, they're getting rain on Thursday and Friday, with a high of 64 mid-mountain on Friday! I doubt there will be a whole lot of snow left there by the weekend. I would love it if someone who lives near Magic and felt safe enough could take a picture of what the resort looks like by Sunday.
 

MMP

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I'm not just talking about Magic, I'm talking about all mountains. You seem to have a laser-focus on Magic whereas I'm talking about the entire ski industry (which should be obvious from my comments).

In terms of studies, do your own homework. I'll get you started though, search: "cost of customer acquisition" as well as "the customer is always right" (a fallacy, but will lead you in the right direction), "cost of customer dissatisfaction" (sometimes written as "cost of unhappy customers"). Pretty much all the boring crap kids learn in a basic early college level P.O.M. course.

And frankly, in this case (ski resorts) it's even more no-brainer than most cases. There is literally ZERO cost to allow a customer sitting on 1 or 2 prepaid vouchers or lift tickets to use them in a limited capacity next season, and you're almost guaranteeing "customer return", which will sprinkle cash on your properties hotels, restaurants, and bars & other skiing-related ancillary revenue opportunities.


You quote something as fact, attribute it. Basic early college level shit you know....or think bibliography, basic Jr high level....

My guess is you're a bag-lunch, day-trip guy that spends jack shit and is overly righteous about how people should respect your quad pack purchase...

This isn't tripping over dollars to pick up pennies, this is penny pinchers feeling aggrieved because they didn't ski enough in December, January, February....

Any why would I NOT be laser focused on Magic? This is the Magic thread. I'm guessing I could find your opinions all over Alpine Zone if I looked huh?
 
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