And the strategy certainly makes sense. Can't say I blame the resorts for wanting to shift their revenue to more of a stable "guaranteed" up front amount rather than a far more variable amount when a higher percentage of your visits are day tickets vs passes.
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The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
And the strategy certainly makes sense. Can't say I blame the resorts for wanting to shift their revenue to more of a stable "guaranteed" up front amount rather than a far more variable amount when a higher percentage of your visits are day tickets vs passes.
Earl Holding, not Leon Hess, owned Sinclair and Snowbasin (and Sun Valley). He was in both oil and resort/hospitality industries.
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Makes sense to me - and it also forces those who are on the fence to ski more - and the more you ski. . . . . . it's like safe sex, one has to practice, practice, practice to improve.
That old stat of most middle of road skiers having 3-4 days a year out on slopes - well - I don't golf but can't imagine improving on 4 days a year.
If you have option to ski at say $50/$60$70 a day and get 10-12 in you're gonna improve and like it more.
And the stable income is easier to allocate properly.
I'm all for it if it helps grow the industry.
Smellytele
Well-known member
Although when the big guys raise their walk up rate they also lower or keep low the season pass rate. The non Vail’s tend to only raise their daily tickets and not lower their season pass rates. Well at least not to the “epic” value.
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mister moose
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I got to wondering how walk up tickets have increased vs inflation. According to snowdaze, in 1996 a Killington window ticket was $49. This was before E-tickets, before Epic Passes. Dollartimes.com provides that a 1996 dollar is worth $1.64 now. So a walk up ticket should cost an inflation adjusted $80.36. Killington's peak walk up rate this season looks like $129. Killington's advance discount K-ticket is.... drum roll please.... $79.
How far in advance does that K ticket need to be purchased and is it date specific?
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You could get them through Morgan Stanley's reserved program for $72 a day last year with no blackouts. We stayed an extra day at Killington last year and bought tickets the morning of at that price.
Tony
The "K-Ticket" product at the $79 price is only available through October 17th, but is valid any date of the season. I used to buy them years ago when they were in the $50-55 range (before I made Sugarbush my home mountain).
WWF-VT
Well-known member
Enough already about season ticket and day ticket pricing.
Isn't this thread about Sugarbush ?
Isn't this thread about Sugarbush ?
Smellytele
Well-known member
back on message.. (sorry, had to do it [emoji16])
That Holiday Rate is Awesome !
FWIW, Sugarbush did lower their season pass prices around the time Vail bought Stowe. Prior to that they also created an additional "30s" age bracket that benefited some people (my price was basically cut in half when that age bracket came out).
A full adult pass (at the early purchase price) was $300 less this season than it was for the 2016-2017 season.
mister moose
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Another ratio that's changed … look at the half day rates. $119 for any non holiday day, and $99 for a "half" day. Half day rates were always more than half, but this is 83%.
I'm sensing some sarcasm here, but I want to reiterate what someone mentioned earlier in the thread: the tradeoff between price and crowds. Weather and price are the two most important factors in people's decisions to ski. If you make it cheaper to ski at a given time, more people will ski, and vice versa. I get annoyed when people complain about both crowding and prices - you can complain about one, but not both, because they're highly correlated with one another! Holidays are the most crowded times on the mountain, so why not raise prices to try and control crowds a bit? If higher prices lead to fewer crowds at peak times, it makes the experience for the people who did pay a little bit better. If you don't like crowds, or like low prices, go to the mountain when fewer people are going, i.e. on a Thursday at Mount Ellen :razz:
Half day rates are always a lot more than half the cost of the full day rate for the same reason that a large popcorn only costs a buck more than a small popcorn at the movie theater. In essence, the resort is encouraging you via pricing to buy a full-day ticket because the cost to the resort of you skiing isn't proportional to the time you spend on the mountain. There are lots of fixed costs that go into opening the mountain for the day.
(If there's any common thread to my responses in this thread on price, it's that I think Win and the team at Sugarbush are being totally fair when it comes to pricing.)
To be fair though, if someone goes to a ski resort on a holiday and doesn't plan ahead, they get what they deserve with the high walk up rates.
rocks860
Active member
Looks like I’ll be up there this year from February 8-15
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All this fuss about ticket prices. We need a bigger solution. Much bigger. Universal skiing! Surely there must be a Democratic presidential candidate one-upping the field by advocating for a "free skiing for everyone" government program in a bid to win the free-stuff primary. Child care, college, guaranteed income, reparations, affordable housing, medicare for all -- don't stop there! -- FREE SKIING!
$129 was Snowbird's holiday rate last season FWIW.
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