 Poster: A snowHead
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Natives.co.uk has this on it. Interesting that a hotlier is implicitly saying the lift companies need to re-structure their pricing strategies even suggesting a EasyJet style pricing system. I used to cover the online retail space as an analyst and we called this 'dynamic pricing'. Common in hospitality and airlines but cropping up in odd places like removal firms.
I like it. Could help increase mid-week usage. But would require the apt owners to also sell odd-shaped time periods too.
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According to Swiss website, NZZ online, the Swiss are losing interest in skiing.
Decline in numbers of Swiss skiing
At the start of the season the National Tourist Board said that only 38% of Swiss planned to take a ski holiday this winter, while the Swiss Cable Car Association reported a 5% fall in Swiss visitors over the past five years.
It has been suggested the decline of interest is linked to the recent poor performances by the Swiss Alpine Ski Team, although it is known that the skier population is aging and the most Swiss now prefer to head to warmer climes for their holidays.
Low-cost resorts?
Some think radical action is required. Peter Bodenmann, a former president of the Social Democratic Party who owns a hotel in the town of Brig, believes ski resorts should reprice themselves in a manner similar to low-cost airlines.
He has suggested a system where lift tickets are priced fluidly, so that weekday skiers would pay less than weekend or high season skiers.
Another key area identified is the reduction of funding for school ski camps. Up to 80 per cent of 14-year-olds living in urban areas have never skied.
Ideas suggested to address this include free lift passes for under-12s, targeting immigrant families and spreading out the half-term winter break over three months instead of just one week.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yeah, but the risk of buying ahead of time is already fraught with the worry of erratic snow conditions - I don't see dynamic pricing being seen as helpful by skiiers. But, if the late booking prices are truely astronomical, it very probably would see the end of the late-booking culture! Sigh.
What worries me is that we all know thanks to Easyjet et al dynamic pricing doesn't really reduce or even-out peak flows, it simply shifts the existing peak pattern to a different part of the week. And creates very un-consumer orientated service quality.
Numerous resorts up and down the Alps already compete in the budget ski holiday market (either because of lack of funding for infrastructure/marketing, or because their size allows for it). In any case the late-booking culture at present means that a package holiday at a so-called "expensive" resort can be had at budget prices. It's not about the price of the resort, it's the price that TOs provide holidays at in that resort.
Short answer: As a consumer I hate the idea of dynamic pricing for snow holidays.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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As someone who often has to ski during school holidays, I know exactly what will happen to skipass prices if 'dynamic' prices becomes the norm  Differential would be created by prices going up during peak season and staying the same in low season, making school holiday skiing even more expensive than it is now. I'm also a little confused why Peter Bodenmann is suggesting that weekday skiers would pay less than weekend skiers - in my experience Saturday is the quiestest day of the week on the slopes.
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Horse for courses, i guess. THe budget market can be split two ways. Budget traveller, willing to hike across Europe to get to snow and the local value-driven one - too poor to pay for the travel element. If dynamic pricing persuades someone to take a Thursday off for a days skiing then it may have helped the resort. I guess its most appealling to the local value-driven skier as the lift ticket will always be the biggest cost element. Its then up to the resort and cafes to take some more money off them.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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SussexSnow, I see your point that locally based skiiers might welcome dynamic pricing. But wouldn't a locally-based lift user be more likely to own a season pass than they would to "pay as you go"?
As a matter of interest, how many Alpine resorts can rely largely their local market to prop up the whole of their annual income? Certainly larger French resorts rely heavily on an international market from snow-poor neighbouring nations without which the resort would struggle to survive (Meribel and Val D come to mind in relation to the British market, and I imagine many Swiss and Austrian resorts also rely heavily for income from Dutch and German populations). Due to transport requirements and travel times these markets are also less able than those in Alpine nations to take off on the spur of the moment after a good snowfall for a midweek stint on the slopes.
As you say, dynamic pricing is already encouraging independent travellers to use cheaper mid-week flights. But I wouldn't say that the quality of service accompanying the Easyjet-type market as being received as a "better" option by the majority of skiers. I'm all for the idea of dynamic pricing, except that in practice it notoriously arrives with an accompanying decrease in quality of service - and that's the last thing I want at the end of a wonderful day on the snow.
What I'd rather see is a wide range of competition - and I tend to think this already exists anyway.
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| Manda wrote: |
SussexSnow, I see your point that locally based skiiers might welcome dynamic pricing. But wouldn't a locally-based lift user be more likely to own a season pass than they would to "pay as you go"?
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Yes and no, round the Valais you can get a Valaiscard which covers most Valais stations and a few round my way as well. The best you get is a 10% discount though. Prices already vary, I'm not sure why it's so obvious to you all they don't actually  In addition, there's coupons in the local papers, promotions at the petrol station, the supermarket, Pringles are doing one now I think etc etc etc. And, in fact weekday versus weekend promotions are more quite common.
Obviously more day tickets are sold at the weekend than during the week, I'm not sure why that might surprise anyone really, it's self evident. Why it matters also ought to be self evident, the average purchaser of day tickets spends more on lift tickets in a season than the one or two week a year punter.
That above report was already posted here, it's a load of old nonsense and contains several things that are just plain untrue.
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Sounds like the type of promos you get for regional amusement parks. carnivals here. I guess, to us distant from it, running resorts is is more glamourous than it is. When you get there on the ground, its down to product, price, promotion etc. same whereever you are. Love to get my hands on one...
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SussexSnow, all of which reminds me, I've a coupon for Moleson in my wallet..
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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ise, go on rub it in. Well, over here, the forecast was for snow showers in Dover. Small joys.
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In Canada, and parts of the US, where for most resorts Saturday is actually usually the busiest day as they depend a lot on weekend/extended weekend visits rather than the week at a time which is normal in Europe, it's not uncommon to be able to buy discounted weekday tickets in the towns around the resorts (not usually actually in the resorts themselves) at local supermarkets and ski shops. So destination visitors don't get them, although they do get a better price on multi-day tickets than the one-day price anyway, but the locals do. At least that's the theory. In practice, the early season prices on season passes are low enough (break even is about 10 days skiing over a season!) to mean that most of the regular locals will buy passes season anyway.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Okanagan, welcome to snowHeads! 
Nevermind just the locals doing it, for 3 years running, I had a season pass for Winter Park. Not only did it save me money over buying a 2 week lift pass, it also gave me discount at the shops, and got me respect from the lifties and other skiers.
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