Spot on. Snowbird DOES own all of its restaurants and MOST of its lodging. There are timeshares, but those are kind of owned by the mountain. So yes, Snowbird THINKS that having people travel and stay in higher volumes will yield more money. But the thing that may be skewing their figures is that there are A LOT of Utahans who are IKON passholders but DON'T stay overnight or eat, buy souvenirs, etc.Also, Snowbird owns all of the properties around their resort, Alta does not from what I understand. Larger crowds would benefit Snowbird more than Alta as there are more opportunities to make off the mountain revenue at hotels and restaurants if you own everything. That could be part of the reason why you've seen the Alta passes become more restrictive but Snowbird's has stayed the same.
Alta ONCE owned and operated the Goldminer's Daughter. I believe that they have leased that out. Alta once again owns and operates all of its on-site restaurants with the exception of Alta Java and the small cafe at Goldminers. They operate Albion Cafeteria and maybe the cafeteria at the Goldminer's daughter. You are right that a larger portion of Alta's revenues are directly tied to season passholders who are largely local. So crowding made those folks upset and caused some to leave.
As to pricing: I bet that they adopted the dynamic pricing model. More demand, higher prices. I can see them adopting that MO like Ticketmaster because Snowbird thinks of themselves as being quite "corporate".I think what I've mentioned above is one of the reasons why they haven't done so but on that note, they really messed up their hotel guest experience this year.
Putting the interlodges aside, which is out of their control, prices for rooms on mountain at Snowbird were sky high this season. You also had random people sleeping all around the lobby and common areas on each floor. The employees at the spa told my wife to make sure to keep our doors locked as people not staying at that hotel have been stealing property from guest rooms and the spa inside of the hotel. A guy I work with had the same experience during his stay, neither of us are in a rush to go back and I'm sure there are many more like us based on this season's hotel experience.
And as to the security issues with the lodges, this is quite troubling but honestly not at ALL a surprise to me. In my 12 years, Snowbird is QUITE dysfunctional and I can completely see them having no clue as to who belongs in their buildings. Yeah they have their own "police" but in my experience they are a joke and have way too much terrain to cover (and their priority is more asset protection). As someone paying that "dynamic price" for a Cliff Room, this would be completely unacceptable to have random folks wandering around the property at all hours. Good for the employee telling your wife, but also quite disturbing that the employees are directly telling guests about this huge security issue instead of reporting it up the chain or doing something themselves. If I had to guess, management is either incompetent, way overworked, or just does not care because they are moving to another property after this season.
And, as you said, Snowbird is relying on the "churn" of visitors coming and going to keep them in the black and they lean on the fact that yes they have an awesome mountain in a good location with usually good snow. Recruiting and retaining talented, let alone competent, staff is not at all a priority (ala Amazon). Repeat customers are few and far between. Hope springs eternal that things will change, but for now I just go and ski and leave.