My husband and I are spending New Year’s Eve at [a major New England resort]; he rides, I ski. Our respective technical levels are not too far apart—he’s a beginner, I am just leaving the beginner classification. We decided to take a private lesson together on the first day of our vacation. (We had found the crowded “ski clinics” most mountain schools offered were a waste of time, with too many people in a class and with vastly different learning curves.)
First I went to our resort’s Website to research its ski school and got serious sticker shock at the rates: $352 for a solo six-hour lesson. that’s $60 an hour, and it doesn’t even include a lift ticket! Their rate for a two-person private of $440 was also high, but at least it was a better per-person value.
When I called the school, I was told that “under no circumstances would we be able to get one instructor who could take us both at the same time” and that we would have to pay $352 each for separate instructors. (Yes, we understand that the instructor would either be on skis or on a board, so we would only get actual demonstration on one or the other. But come on, tell me what to do and I’ll do it. At our levels, we were willing to accept that.
I still thought their prices were way overpriced, so I decided to go on the Internet and check out some other ski schools or shops in the area with the idea of hiring an independent instructor. (You’re laughing at me now, aren’t you? Yes, you already know what I found, don’t you? Nothing!)
Not only are there no other ski schools around, but when I was able to find certified instructors working at local ski shops, they were so afraid to talk to me they acted like the phone was bugged. The mere word “freelance” made them drop the phone. I assumed at this point that it was the resort’s ski school alone that had formed this “mafia coalition” to control all the local ski instructors, so I found the PSIA organization online and decided to given them a call. (You’re laughing again, aren’t you?) On the same day I called, I posted an email on their online message board looking for an “Independent/Freelance Instructor” for a one-day private lesson.
Boy, did I open a can of worms! Here are some of the responses: “Unfortunately, there are very few freelance instructors in America. . .instruction is a very profitable business and resorts see independent instructors as a threat even though they bring in lots of repeat business and create dedicated skiers. This forces most independent instructors to operate in what is commonly called the ‘underground.’” (Are you kidding?) Another went, “I know you tried to go to what you thought was the professional organization for instructors in hope of finding independent professionals, but the organization does not try to promote the right of instructors to work as professionals because the organization depends on resorts to require instructors to join the organization, and that is what keeps the organization alive.” (Excuse me, but I find it unbelievable that in this country there is almost no competition in instruction to improve quality and to reduce cost.)
This next one is my favorite: “Patty, what you are soliciting is an ‘underground lesson.’ All areas, whether on Forest Service land or not, have exclusive right to use monopolies. Ski schools are revenue streams through which allocation many unconnected costs are defrayed, i.e. snowmaking, liability insurance and comps. Priced any violin, gymnastic, tennis privates lately?” (Excuse me, but I thought monopolies were illegal in this country. Why should my ski lesson pay for “unconnected costs” on a mountain? Isn’t that what my lift ticket is for? And yes, tennis privates are about $25 an hour, not $60.)
This is despicable. Why doesn’t anyone in this business consider the view of the consumer?
—Patty
