SAM Magazine—April 24, 2018, Vernon, N.J.—Mountain Creek is debuting a new ecommerce and point-of-sale solution called SnowCloud this summer. Aimed at simplifying guest transactions, SnowCloud will replace all other sales and access software at the resort, including online sales, onsite sales and management, and lift gate access. It is built around the same ultra-high frequency RFID technology as Vail Resorts’ Epic Mix and the Disney Magic Band.

SnowCloud has evolved a great deal since it was first conceived. “We spent our first year and a half working on developing a product for the snow school with several of [SNOW Operating’s] resort partners,” said SNOW Operating and Mountain Creek CEO Joe Hession. “In doing so, we learned a lot, but kept running into the limitations of our industry’s current point-of-sales software options as the sticking point. Finally, we just said, ‘the only way we’re going to get this to truly work is if we invent our own POS software that does everything we want it to do.’”

With SnowCloud, guests can purchase various resort products from any web-enabled device. Once onsite, they can redeem their pre-purchased products from mobile check-in sites or directly at the access point, such as a ski lift. In lieu of lift tickets, SnowCloud utilizes RFID cards (for season passes) and festival-style fabric wristbands (for one-time use) to track all guest and product information and control lift access.

This summer, Mountain Creek will live-test SnowCloud for the resort’s bike park and waterpark products. “For bike park products, it will function similarly to a normal resort experience, with check-in and onsite sales happening at our retail counters in the Bike Center,” said marketing VP Hugh Reynolds. “For the waterpark, we will have a fleet of onsite hosts that will greet the guests and assist them with their check-in and purchase processes.”

The plan is for the onsite hosts to welcome and serve guests as they arrive in the parking lot. The wearable media will be coded on the spot, whether the guest pre-purchased online or purchases upon arrival. Mountain Creek will also have traditional points of sale at the guest services desk for visitors who aren’t comfortable purchasing online or would like to pay with cash.

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