Search engine Bing has released a new winter sports resorts visual search tool to help skiers and snowboarders decide on their next alpine getaway.
Though ski resorts are quite different from hotels (they have been slower to adopt advance booking strategies, historically have used fixed pricing and have season passes that hotels don’t offer), they do benefit from a variable cost structure that is essentially zero, have generally high capacity and generate high ancillary revenue (52 percent of total revenue from non-lift ticket sources, on average). This means that understanding RevPASS and using it to implement active revenue management/advance sales strategies could have a real impact on resort profitability.
Ski resorts are really fortunate to be offering experiences that are and will always be unique. While there are many who sell lift tickets, and one can ski in thousands of places around the globe, no one ski resort is the same as another. Arapahoe Basin will always be different from Loveland, Vail will always be different from Aspen. This is different from the hotel industry, where a Sheraton can be built across the street from a Hilton and essentially offer same experience and value proposition. Resorts that understand that their core offering is different from anyone elses are the best at marketing a unique experience, and don’t fall down the “I need to be everything to everyone” hole that ends up pricing and positioning resorts as commodities.