Posts tagged lift tickets
High-Tech Ski Resorts
21 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
A recent post titled the Top 10 High-Tech Hotels, prompted me to think about technological innovations that have been adopted by ski resorts. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, the top high tech uses by ski resorts (I haven’t tied many of these to specific resorts as many are in use at multiple resorts):
- Epic Mix by Vail Resorts, taking RFID lift ticket scans and blending it with social media is an intriguing direction that we’ll all be watching in 2010-2011.
- Groomers using GPS, like PistenBuly’s SNOWsat, to more effectively groom trails by optimizing mountain travel and passes on each run.
- For skiers and riders that are searching for the best lift ticket deals, using the online only site, Liftopia is probably the best use of tech for searching out lift ticket deals.
- Ski resorts with all-mountain cellular coverage – this one isn’t really up to an individual resort, as cell tower placement is obviously driven by cellular providers, but it can be awfully nice to have cell service around a mountain.
- Renewable green power efforts, most notably the Jiminy Peak and Grouse Mountain on-mountain wind turbines, are a beneficial way to use technology to reduce carbon emissions as well as save money.
- RECCO avalanche rescue technology, which allows for a beacon style rescue that uses technology that is embedded in many ski boots and clothing and will even give directional bearing to many cell phones.
- High-speed detachable lifts, which have completely changed how we ski and ride – on the chairlift topic, does the addition of heated seats to a lift add a technological boost to lifts, or is it just something else to break?
I know I’ve only scratched the surface of how ski resorts are integrating technology into their operations, please add additional examples in the comments!
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Lift Ticket Pricing Based Upon Current Conditions – What a Concept!
12 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
So would this qualify as a 3 or a 4???
Last week in Oregon, Mt Bachelor Ski Resort (Dislaimer: MB is one of the sister resort of Park City and I do work for Park City) introduced a very intriguing concept for the 2009-10 winter season. They are going to price their day tickets based upon conditions that day! Here’s the scoop:
In a move to better match the quality of the on-mountain experience with the daily lift ticket price, Mt. Bachelor is putting into place a sliding scale that takes into account the amount of lift serviced terrain and weather factors such as visibility, wind, precipitation and temperature…read more
For the ski industry this is pretty radical stuff, well maybe radical isn’t the word, but it’s certainly a big move in the direction of better presenting their product for their guests.
I think that it’s very important how MB lays out the fact that they have larger crowds on the nicer weather days and that therefore they need to price accordingly. I will be interested to see how difficult it is for them to get the pricing scale nailed down every day, according to the Bend Bulletin, MB estimates that they should be ‘correct’ about 95% of the time and I’m guessing that there will be a few days when the weather unexpectedly breaks or socks in.
The most interesting aspect of this strategy is how it is very tailored to the central Oregon audience that MB caters to and would most likely not work well at most other resorts. This customer centric approach leads me to believe that this program will succeed at MB and I hope it leads other resorts to create innovative pricing strategies that are catered to their audience and not set just because it’s how it’s always been done or what other resorts are doing.
