Thoughts?
Maybe its me, but one would think a capital expenditure like a new lift could be replaced elsewhere on the mountain (North Face 4 person out of commission most or all of last year) or Giant Steps lift to alleviate crowds on North Face or Gunnar 6 pack
I think people highly misunderstand vails operating model and are still drinking their social media kool aid.
Corporations like Vail absolutely loved loved loved COVID. It gave them a very plausible reason for doing the absolute bare minimum.
Again, people, if someone takes all your money up front for a job there's is absolutely zero incentive for them to do a good job. Further, if they are the only act in town, you can expect to be greatly disappointed. This rule applies to any trade, profession or skill.
Agreed. Plus if you can get customers to pay a subscription up front, you have shifted the season weather risk to them and you have a level of guaranteed revenue one way or the other, and such is the Vail model. Once in that mindset, the bean counting then quickly moves toward a break/fix and cost reduction mode rather than upgrading the resort to attract more visitors. So in the past, perhaps there was a business case to add a detachable lift to improve the ski experience, reduce lines and attract more happy guests. But now, the thought may be to take that $ to blanket the internet with non-stop advertising to sell more subscriptions, where the amenities at any one resort don't stand out as much within the multi-resort subscription. The whole thing stops working when guests are fed up with and no longer buy those subscriptions
Grumpy dad wrote:
I think people highly misunderstand vails operating model and are still drinking their social media kool aid.
Corporations like Vail absolutely loved loved loved COVID. It gave them a very plausible reason for doing the absolute bare minimum.
Again, people, if someone takes all your money up front for a job there's is absolutely zero incentive for them to do a good job. Further, if they are the only act in town, you can expect to be greatly disappointed. This rule applies to any trade, profession or skill.
Agree somewhat that the subscription model reduces incentive to provide a better product. Lack of competition in PA does not give us much choice for a pass that covers multiple resorts. However, if you don't like their product you can certainly go to Blue Knob, Wisp, Timberline or Canaan. For the same skeptics who complained continually when Nutting owned 7S/LM/HV, is Vail really doing a worse job providing a ski product? For me, I own ski area real estate at one of the resorts, thus I don't really have alot of choice. I think Vail does a decent job of providing a ski product. Did Nutting have LM 100% open(snow making trails) on December 12? No. Could they do a better job? Yes. Why would Vail replace the Blitzen lift with an express quad? I go to 7S on weekdays and I never have any issues with lifts. Yes, it's crowded on weekends which is why I don't go there. Hidden Valley is crowded on some weekends so I typically go to LM where there are no lift lines. Unfortunately, everything since the early 80's when monopoly regs were basically discarded is moving toward conglomerates and large cooperations. It's always in the name of 'efficiency'. Or the way I would describe it "fat cats stuffing money in their pockets". Now we have Epic and Ikon... basically ski 'oligarchs'. Just like the oligarchs who own Amazon, "X", Facebook, Google, etc. They bought our National government. Vail is capitalism, beholden (fiduciary duty) to stock holders. It's just the way it is here in the USA.
Laurel Highlands wrote:
Agreed. Plus if you can get customers to pay a subscription up front, you have shifted the season weather risk to them and you have a level of guaranteed revenue one way or the other, and such is the Vail model. Once in that mindset, the bean counting then quickly moves toward a break/fix and cost reduction mode rather than upgrading the resort to attract more visitors. So in the past, perhaps there was a business case to add a detachable lift to improve the ski experience, reduce lines and attract more happy guests. But now, the thought may be to take that $ to blanket the internet with non-stop advertising to sell more subscriptions, where the amenities at any one resort don't stand out as much within the multi-resort subscription. The whole thing stops working when guests are fed up with and no longer buy those subscriptions
Grumpy dad wrote:
I think people highly misunderstand vails operating model and are still drinking their social media kool aid.
Corporations like Vail absolutely loved loved loved COVID. It gave them a very plausible reason for doing the absolute bare minimum.
Again, people, if someone takes all your money up front for a job there's is absolutely zero incentive for them to do a good job. Further, if they are the only act in town, you can expect to be greatly disappointed. This rule applies to any trade, profession or skill.
