It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop and it finally did. A number of ski areas in the population-rich East dropped their season pass prices late this summer to levels approximating what Denver’s Front Range had seen. It wasn’t quite the down-and-dirty price war of Colorado’s “Buddy Pass,” but it was a dramatic reduction of 60 to 70 percent to the $199 to $399 range, which finally acknowledged what consumers have been telling the industry for years—that skiing is too expensive.
Instead of all this defensive posturing, such as comparing lift tickets to golf’s greens fees, smart marketers have begun to drop the price for frequent skiing. This softening in pricing for season, multi-day and multi-area passes across the country is a breath of rational fresh air that will help revive the sport.
The latest announcement came from Ski Butternut, Massachusetts’ well-run Berkshire ski area, with an unrestricted $199 adult season pass—the same price level seen in the West. Earlier, New Hampshire’s Loon, Cranmore and Waterville Valley had announced an adult $199 Threedom Pass. This $199 season pass is good at all three Booth Creek-owned properties, but restricted to Sunday through Friday and blacked out during holidays. Good every day of the season is the Threedom Anytime Pass for $399. This compared to an $899 Loon adult pass for early purchasers (who have been offered refunds), and other prices ranging from Butternut’s competitor Jiminy Peak at $359 to southern Vermont’s Okemo at $1,150.
This trend is gathering momentum. Mad River Glen, Vt., has an innovative plan with free passes, good every day of the season, for youngsters 12 and under.
The American Skiing Co. is offering the 4-Star Pass, similar to the “Buddy Pass,” at both Pico Mountain and Haystack Mountain, Vt. It costs $249 per person for a group of four to join together and purchase the $995 pass. While pass holders do not have to be related, the pass must be paid for with one check or credit card. The 4-Star Pass is valid at Pico and Haystack only.
And out West, Schweitzer Mountain, Idaho is selling adult passes for $199 and youth passes for $149. That is about a third of the regular price. Last year, nearby Bogus Basin launched a similar promotion with great success.
For the moment, the bargain season passes give Butternut and the Booth Creek resorts a huge market share advantage over their Eastern competitors—even the strong first tier ski resorts, such as Killington, Okemo, Stowe and Sunday River. If these prices are properly promoted (not merely through direct mail to past season pass holders—if these passes are merely sold to past customers, the programs fail), the promotions will account for shifts in market share before the season even starts. Why? Because the pre-season bargain pass pricing pushes the skiing buying decision outside of the snow season. Sell now, and you’re selling the dream of skiing frequently in perfect conditions; sell later and you’re selling snow conditions one weather-risky day at a time.
Surveys have shown that in a city like Boston, the average serious skier skis 16 days a winter. This total may touch 20 in a great season, or slip to eight to 10 in a low snow year, but the over/under number is 16. Generally, this involves a number of weekend days and two overnight “destination” trips, frequently one to the West, at three to four ski areas. An occasional skier skis three to six days, at one or two areas, and may forget to ski at all during a disappointing snow year. However, before the season starts, typically, the serious skier plans to ski 20 days or more with a wish list of at least five resorts. Offer that consumer a great bargain and you can take 10 to 12 days off the table before even firing up the snowguns and before your competition even hits the market with its seasonal advertising. Moreover, make that offer to the occasional skier and he or she may pop for the bargain pass and become committed to ski frequently, whether or not snow is seen that season in the backyard.
Leisure Trends in Boulder, Colo., surveyed Front Range Buddy Pass purchasers and found they averaged 13 days of skiing; without the pass, they said they would have skied six days. Buying the pass amounted to better than a 100 percent increase in participation. Now granted, the survey results came in a poor Colorado snow year, but nonetheless, Colorado bargain pass holders said they more than doubled their skiing/snowboarding participation because of the offer.
The knock on breaking price for season passes is the lowering of yield, obviously, which is why the programs will fail if only offered to past season pass holders. The further argument, though, that it cuts into the yield of new customers at the lift ticket window for full-price day tickets, doesn’t hold up. The risk is not losing 20 days of lift ticket sales—that’s the total many ski areas use for calculating season pass usage, but it’s a bogus number for all but a few dedicated locals. The real risk, applying the Colorado survey, is losing six days at the window price, your best case scenario for capturing those days from one customer one day at a time. (This assumes you captured all six of those discretionary ski days anyway. More than likely, you’d split them with at least one of your competitors.) $199 divided by six equals a yield of $33.16/day. Since most ski areas have lift ticket yields in the mid-20’s, the yield doesn’t suffer until the pass holder skis more than eight days. Plus, the money’s in the bank before the season starts—a sort of no-snow insurance for a late-starting season.
Suppose the average non-local pass holder uses the bargain pass 10 days—that’s probably a solid five weekends of business for your area. With that commitment to ski at your area, comes family and friends tagging along, lodging, ski school, rentals, retail, food and entertainment—all revenue streams that can be significant, if properly promoted and sold. The bargain passes allow ski areas to work harder at increasing “share of customer” rather than the hugely wasteful going to war with competitors over “share of market.”
The other potential problem is your competition matching the pricing. There goes the market share edge, as low-priced season passes would become a commodity. However, all in all, that’s probably the best thing that could happen to the sport right now, because it would grow the market. The industry has been banging its head against the wall for a decade and a half trying to figure out how to stimulate market growth. Even the potentially great ideas—including last season’s ballyhooed effort—have been shot down for lack of funding. Promoting and selling bargain season-long commitments to ski and snowboard may just be the best industry program.
Such a program, pushed at the grassroots level by competing, individual resorts, knocks the high-price objection to skiing off the table. Secondly, it stimulates the consumer to make an early decision to ski all season at the same time other winter activities are being planned.
The success in the Front Range with the Buddy Pass—estimates are as high as 100,000 passes sold—pretty well tell us what the consumer thinks is a reasonable price point to commit to skiing frequently for a season. It’s time we agreed with our customers.
