New Berkshire East Website

[bvibert]

No one is arguing with you for the sake of arguing, I have a lot better things to do than that. We obviously think you're wrong.

If you think their pricing structure is stupid and lacking of any thought then PLEASE don't ski there, simple as that.

 

[snowman]

Ha ha ha! :lol: Now I know you're just trolling. Your definition of good comparables include two smaller mountains in Canada and a third smaller ski area in the middle of nowhere Maine? :blink: Meanwhile we're talking about a 1,100+ vert mountain ~2 hours of metro Boston, and probably 90 minutes from the Greater Hartford area. I already gave better comparables within the same region, ~1K vert hills in Western Massachusetts. Based on that, Berkshire East's weekend lift ticket pricing is representative of others in the same market area. Nice try though... :roll:

Umm, they're the mountains in MY neighborhood? You asked why $50 was a shocker for me? They're all only a couple hours apart and are all in quasi competition with each other. The first one has all newer lifts, including a quad, and is only 250 less vert. The second has way less vert but will be installing it's second newer quad this season and has a magic carpet and T-bar. The THIRD IS NOT in the middle of nowhere, it's within' an hours drive for about 350,000 people, has almost the same vert, almost the same lift network, and is IN the US. What's more, their weekend price is damn near HALF as much as B'east and they don't even have the competition nearby that the B'east has. I was stating facts. YOU'RE TROLLING :blink:

 

[madskier6]

Although $50 for a small hill sticker shocked me, MYSELF, due to the above, my main point was the lack of thought to the pricing. If you're going to sticker shock people with $50, you might as well charge $52,3,4. because it wouldn't send anyone packing that would be willing to pay $50.

Look, they charged $48 per day last year & apprarently wanted to increase the price this year, but not as far as you suggest ($52, 53 or 54). Does that mean they gave no thought to their pricing structure? I think not.

You know nothing about this ski area or what went into their pricing decisions & you're just throwing out arguments & theories to make yourself look smart. Nobody is buying it, snowman. I'm no expert but I've never heard of a ski area charging $__.99 for a lift ticket. It's always a flat dollar amount in my experience. Your point about using .99 in a pricing structure may be valid for other businesses but it aint being followed in the ski business.

Berkshire East is doing just fine without your advice. They have a nice "niche", charge a reasonable rate & have great terrain for SNE. Sure, they could use more customers (most ski areas could) but that doesn't mean they're going to end up on NELSAP soon.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Umm, they're the mountains in MY neighborhood? You asked why $50 was a shocker for me? They're all only a couple hours apart and are all in quasi competition with each other. The first one has all newer lifts, including a quad, and is only 250 less vert. The second has way less vert but will be installing it's second newer quad this season and has a magic carpet and T-bar. The THIRD IS NOT in the middle of nowhere, it's within' an hours drive for about 350,000 people, has almost the same vert, almost the same lift network, and is IN the US. What's more, their weekend price is damn near HALF as much as B'east and they don't even have the competition nearby that the B'east has. I was stating facts. YOU'RE TROLLING :blink:

Well at least you're well rounded. You're clueless about things in VT AND MA. Now that we have that straight, understand a few things:

Pricing is determined by a willingness to pay (that applies to any product) and what the market will bear in relation to your competition. Greg and others have already shown you concrete evidence that BEast's pricing is completely in line with their local competition. There is simply no argument you can make on that issue. As for willingness to pay, you think it's notable that Big Rock is within an hour's drive of 350,000 people? Really? There are 4-5MM people within 90 minutes drive of BEast and within 2 hours there are another 4-5MM. How does that compare to the resorts you mentioned which have extremely small population bases to draw from? Moreover, would you care to compare the disposable income of those within 90 minutes drive of BEast vs. Big Rock or the local yokel hills you mentioned? CT, MA, and the Capital District have among the highest median household incomes int he US - somewhere int he $50-60K range. I'm fairly certain that Northern Maine and Newfoundland don't quite match that.

In short, you have over 10x more people with significantly more disposable income in a makret where $50-ish weekend tickets with $20-ish weekday tickets is standard. What are you not seeing here? Are you really that thick? Give yourself a day off - you don't have to be a trolling jamoke every single day.

 

[threecy]

Just to clarify, Berkshire East has been experiencing a steady growth pattern for over a decade now with this pricing structure. The ski area faced multiple bankruptcies from its full scale opening in 1961 through the mid 70s. Since current management took over in after the last bankruptcy in 1976 (or 75, I don't recall), the mountain has seen steady expansion.

 

[snowman]

Maybe their pricing is around about where it's supposed to be for the area. I never argued that. I would have to study the area to know that. My statement was it's not tweaked to take advantage of the psychology of buyers. Based on what I've heard here, I would say that they would be best off putting their prices UP, to something like $53.50 and $28.50, and holding that price longer, versus going to it and then stepping thru it quicker to a new psych barrier pricing of $55 and $30. I wasn't intereted in getting wrapped up in an argument about .99 cent factor, I was pointing out they didn't seem to be factoring in psych AT ALL, which is a mistake. .50's get used in lift ticket pricing a lot.

 

[Greg]

Umm, they're the mountains in MY neighborhood? You asked why $50 was a shocker for me? They're all only a couple hours apart and are all in quasi competition with each other. The first one has all newer lifts, including a quad, and is only 250 less vert. The second has way less vert but will be installing it's second newer quad this season and has a magic carpet and T-bar. The THIRD IS NOT in the middle of nowhere, it's within' an hours drive for about 350,000 people, has almost the same vert, almost the same lift network, and is IN the US. What's more, their weekend price is damn near HALF as much as B'east and they don't even have the competition nearby that the B'east has. I was stating facts. YOU'RE TROLLING :blink:

Well, I guess we all were just a bit surprised that you would scoff at a $50 lift ticket considering you're such a [POST="192979"]wealthy[/POST] [POST="192739"]businessman[/POST]. :roll:

Well at least you're well rounded. You're clueless about things in VT AND MA. Now that we have that straight, understand a few things:

Pricing is determined by a willingness to pay (that applies to any product) and what the market will bear in relation to your competition. Greg and others have already shown you concrete evidence that BEast's pricing is completely in line with their local competition. There is simply no argument you can make on that issue. As for willingness to pay, you think it's notable that Big Rock is within an hour's drive of 350,000 people? Really? There are 4-5MM people within 90 minutes drive of BEast and within 2 hours there are another 4-5MM. How does that compare to the resorts you mentioned which have extremely small population bases to draw from? Moreover, would you care to compare the disposable income of those within 90 minutes drive of BEast vs. Big Rock or the local yokel hills you mentioned? CT, MA, and the Capital District have among the highest median household incomes int he US - somewhere int he $50-60K range. I'm fairly certain that Northern Maine and Newfoundland don't quite match that.

In short, you have over 10x more people with significantly more disposable income in a makret where $50-ish weekend tickets with $20-ish weekday tickets is standard. What are you not seeing here? Are you really that thick?

Sheesh, Tinny. I wanted to chime back in here to recap all snowman's silly posts and here you come along and steal my thunder. You recapped things nicely.

Give yourself a day off - you don't have to be a trolling jamoke every single day.

You have to admit though; he's entertaining as hell. Even big dummies like me can easily out-debate him... :lol:

 

[Greg]

Maybe their pricing is around about where it's supposed to be for the area. I never argued that.

Thank you for finally acknowledging that their pricing is appropriate, at least based on their local competition, but you were arguing that it wasn't by insinuating they did not fully evaluate their pricing model.

I would have to study the area to know that.

Yeah. Probably a good idea to do more of that before spouting off like you did.

My statement was it's not tweaked to take advantage of the psychology of buyers. Based on what I've heard here, I would say that they would be best off putting their prices UP, to something like $53.50 and $28.50, and holding that price longer, versus going to it and then stepping thru it quicker to a new psych barrier pricing of $55 and $30. I wasn't intereted in getting wrapped up in an argument about .99 cent factor, I was pointing out they didn't seem to be factoring in psych AT ALL, which is a mistake. .50's get used in lift ticket pricing a lot.

Okay. Fair enough. Seems like you're backpedaling from the initial $.99 argument now to $.50 though, but whatever. You made your point, I guess.

 

[MrMagic]

Man you go away for eight hours and look at all you miss, this is a great thread, companies that use pricing like 12.99 or 12.79 is called odd pricing, as it get the buyers attention, the fact behind it is educated people will round up to 13.00 while people with less education will tend to round down (12.00) and will think they are spending less. That’s the truth , so now you know.

Anyways so how about that new Berkshire east website?

 

[snowman]

Thank you for finally acknowledging that their pricing is appropriate, at least based on their local competition, but you were arguing that it wasn't by insinuating they did not fully evaluate their pricing model.

I never once said it wasn't. My first guesstimate for prices was a way for them to net more skiers and the same amount of money by coming off the scary $50 number. If you lot are who ski there and $50 doesn't scare you, Jack both prices to make more money. The argument was never about the PRICE, it was about the PYSCHOLOGY of the price.

Yeah. Probably a good idea to do more of that before spouting off like you did.

Principles of price psychology do not really change too much by market or consumer group. I Don't need to know anything about the market to see that they aren't using price psychology.

Okay. Fair enough. Seems like you're backpedaling from the initial $.99 argument now to $.50 though, but whatever. You made your point, I guess.

It was never about .99 cents. It was about pricing psychology. .99 is only a small portion of the big picture. It does have a tacky factor to it. If people are used to seeing round numbers in a certain market segement, skip the .99 and go up to the next .50 and make another .51 cents. Works for me.

I really wish I could figure out why people insist on arguing with me about the minute details of things I say while ignoring the big picture. BTW, just as with Snow vs. K, a lot of the arguing here has been about "well, everyone else does it, so they should too!". Doing everything exactly the same as everyone else is NOT always the best way, and is quite frankly, boring as hell.

 

[Marc]

I gotta be honest, I feel like I should be paying for this kind of entertainment.

 

[bvibert]

I gotta be honest, I feel like I should be paying for this kind of entertainment.

PM me for payment details...

 

[snowman]

Man you go away for eight hours and look at all you miss, this is a great thread, companies that use pricing like 12.99 or 12.79 is called odd pricing, as it get the buyers attention, the fact behind it is educated people will round up to 13.00 while people with less education will tend to round down (12.00) and will think they are spending less. That’s the truth , so now you know.

Anyways so how about that new Berkshire east website?

ACTUALLY, when it comes to things educated people REALLY want, but have to rationalize to themselves, they will round down too. That means EVERYONE rounds down when it comes to skiing. That was my logic on how $47.99 will work to your advantage around mid day. "$7.99, pffffft, I'm not waitin around for $7...lets get going!" vs. $10 flat..... "Hmmm...10 bucks. That's like...lunch. Why don't we have lunch now and get the cheaper ticket?" Same deal with $7.50, $7.50 actually sticks in your head more than $7.99 does. That's the problem with round numbers when it comes to rationalization for want's vs. needs. The educated people want to pay when it comes to their passion....you just have to give them a way to rationalize it to themselves.

 

[Greg]

BEast Stoke:



I can't effin stomach yammering on about lift ticket prices anymore...

 

[bvibert]

BEast Stoke:
I can't effin stomach yammering on about lift ticket prices anymore...

Nice effin stoke! I would totally pay $54.98 for that right about now, but not a penny more

 

[snowman]

Nice effin stoke! I would totally pay $54.98 for that right about now, but not a penny more

:lol:

The amount of people there looks pretty scary though, from a business perspective?!?! Was that weekend or midweek? It also looks CAF (cold as you know what) though too?

 

[Greg]

:lol:

The amount of people there looks pretty scary though, from a business perspective?!?! Was that weekend or midweek? It also looks CAF (cold as you know what) though too?

A Friday. Not overly cold if I recall correctly.

 

[snowman]

A Friday. Not overly cold if I recall correctly.

Thank god it wasn't the weekend! Those would be some scary skier counts! Now, on that particular day, would you have given a flying you know what if the price was $25 or $28.50, or do you all have passes?

 

[bvibert]

A Friday. Not overly cold if I recall correctly.

A little nip in the morning, but not super cold. I can remember de-layering once in the morning and then shifting things around again at lunch to prevent over-heating.

 

[Greg]

Thank god it wasn't the weekend! Those would be some scary skier counts! Now, on that particular day, would you have given a flying you know what if the price was $25 or $28.50, or do you all have passes?

Let me remind you:

Just to clarify, Berkshire East has been experiencing a steady growth pattern for over a decade now with this pricing structure. The ski area faced multiple bankruptcies from its full scale opening in 1961 through the mid 70s. Since current management took over in after the last bankruptcy in 1976 (or 75, I don't recall), the mountain has seen steady expansion.

Given that, I think you can stop worrying about the BEast's financial viability, okay?