Stupid question about early season pricing

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Do the resorts actually charge full price (aka, Killington, $72) for a day when less than half the runs are open?

 

[andyzee]

Do the resorts actually charge full price (aka, Killington, $72) for a day when less than half the runs are open?

Presently Killington is charging $51, but I'm sure that by Christmas they will be charging full price regardless of how much terrain is open. I figure this will be the case with others as well.

 

[Greg]

Do the resorts actually charge full price (aka, Killington, $72) for a day when less than half the runs are open?

Less than half the runs? You betcha! Once midseason rolls around (whenever the resorts deem that is) full rate pricing will be in effect regardless of terrain offered.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Less than half the runs? You betcha! Once midseason rolls around (whenever the resorts deem that is) full rate pricing will be in effect regardless of terrain offered.

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean. "Less than half the runs? You betcha!"
Long day here, and my 6 brain cells are semi-catatonic.

 

[Paul]

Do the resorts actually charge full price (aka, Killington, $72) for a day when less than half the runs are open?

Less than half the runs? You betcha! Once midseason rolls around (whenever the resorts deem that is) full rate pricing will be in effect regardless of terrain offered.

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean. "Less than half the runs? You betcha!"
Long day here, and my 6 brain cells are semi-catatonic.

Hope this helps!

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I guess I was confused because it looked like he was saying that they definitely charge full price no matter the amount of runs open.
But it looks like they do discount the tickets somewhat if the number of open runs are reduced.
Thanks again.

 

[Paul]

I guess I was confused because it looked like he was saying that they definitely charge full price no matter the amount of runs open.
But it looks like they do discount the tickets somewhat if the number of open runs are reduced.
Thanks again.

Only until they determine it is mid-season. IOW, A resort may discount tix early in the season, but whenever "mid-season" rolls around, they will charge full price even if only one run is open.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Gotcha, thanks. It's been a very, very long weekend, rolling into a longer week.

 

[Greg]

I guess I was confused because it looked like he was saying that they definitely charge full price no matter the amount of runs open.
But it looks like they do discount the tickets somewhat if the number of open runs are reduced.
Thanks again.

By my "Less than half the runs" comment, I meant that upwards to half the runs being available is still a lot of terrain...

 

[thetrailboss]

In general, early and late season gets different pricing because of quality of terrain available, demand, and quantity of terrain available. People bit%^ about prices, but I will say that $51 for Killington this weekend was worth it, especially considering that many places charge somewhere between $35 and $45 for ONE trail preseason. K-Mart had three mountain areas open and 16 trails.

 

[thetrailboss]

....and in general there are no dumb questions in here. :wink:

 

[riverc0il]

i think prices always come down to demand. look at late season pricing for example. often times ski areas close with 100% of their available terrain open on discount tickets. but killington gets $51 for 17 or so trails early season because demand is much higher, especially due to the holiday weekend. for what it is worth, last time i skied a kmart early season in november, they were only charging about $38 for more trails than they had open this weekend (i think that was opening weekend two or three years ago)... but holiday demand severely ups the prices. also, ski areas will discount full day weekend prices mid-season if the snow is particularly bad and demand is really low. i remember about three or four years ago when we had that awfully cold january, many ski areas including MRG which i remember skiing, offered super deals to get people to come up and ski during a multi-week below zero snap. it isn't about trails per dollar or value, it is all about demand. ski areas will charge as much as they can without turning a large number of people away due to cost. early season is especially easy to jack up the rates because everyone wants a piece of the action... everyone has been waiting all summer and just wants to make first turns so it seems worth $51 whereas mid-season in crappy conditions even with the full mountain open many people would baulk at that pricing if the snow wasn't good enough to meet their expectations.

so do ski areas charge full price with less than half of their trails open? depends on the area and depends mostly on demand. you can bet every ski area in new england will charge full rates during xmas holiday regardless of number of trails due to demand. but the prices would definitely come down after the holiday period if they were still struggling to get more than 50% open. do ski areas go into january with less than 50% open? pretty rare for the major areas.

 

[riverc0il]

....and in general there are no dumb questions in here. :wink:

except when marc asks questions, then we break out the :dunce:

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I'm sorry but I disagree with alot of what is being said here. If the weather stays bad and a resort only has a few trails open I don't think they would be charging full price unless they don't want any day ticket sales. Skiers are not idiots. The idea that they would pay $72 for one trail is ludicrous.

 

[threecy]

The reason ski areas charge more for less trails in early season (vs. late season) is that costs are much higher. Killington, for instance, will have some very large electric bills to pay right now, whereas in April their bills will be reasonable (that's all relative, of course, if you ever received one of their power bills in your mailbox, you'd probably collapse!)

 

[Jay's Dip Powcher]

I was at killington on a free ticket Sunday and as nice as it was with sunny 55 degree temps and all I would never have paid $50.00+ for it. That is just me......

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm sorry but I disagree with alot of what is being said here. If the weather stays bad and a resort only has a few trails open I don't think they would be charging full price unless they don't want any day ticket sales. Skiers are not idiots. The idea that they would pay $72 for one trail is ludicrous.

I bet Stowe would :wink: They'd probably add insult to injury by charging even more.

 

[thetrailboss]

I was at killington on a free ticket Sunday and as nice as it was with sunny 55 degree temps and all I would never have paid $50.00+ for it. That is just me......

...and there will always be people like that. I was there because it was on my All East Pass.

 

[Jay's Dip Powcher]

...and there will always be people like that. I was there because it was on my All East Pass.

I looked into that pass, which one did you get? Resort specific? Still lot's of $$ compared to the Threedom pass for an example.

 

[thetrailboss]

I looked into that pass, which one did you get? Resort specific? Still lot's of $$ compared to the Threedom pass for an example.

I am on a student pass (All East College) which had no black outs and cost $375. This was a bit more than the same pass I bought when I was in College in 2000-2001...it was $349 then.

With that said, Bronze Passes were $369 IIRC and had some blackouts, but you could have skied Sunday. That is cheaper than Booth Creek's pass.

And though this pass was a bit more than what we did last season (Sunapee-Cannon-Gunstock for $199, no blackouts), I was skiing this weekend while they were not at Loon, etc.