After Park City ski patrol strike, Vail offers credits, apology to affected customers
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Park City Mountain Resort is offering credits to skiers who visited during a 13-day ski patrol strike that brought chaos to the mountain during the busy holiday tourism season.
Why it matters: It's a significant — and rare — concession to customers in an industry that faces mounting accusations of greed as resort conglomerates eliminate their competition.
What they're saying: "I want to sincerely apologize for the experience you had," Deirdra Walsh, resort COO, wrote to passholders in an email and news statement Thursday.
- "We deeply value your trust and loyalty, and while the mountain was open during this time, it was not the experience we wanted to provide you," Walsh continued. "We have heard your feedback and understand your frustrations."
Driving the news: Vail Resorts, which owns PCMR, is offering pass holders a 50% credit per day they used their pass at the resort during the strike, with a minimum value of one-fourth the cost of their passes, per Vail's statement.
- Those who bought individual lift tickets will receive credits worth 50% of what they paid to ski during the strike.
The fine print: The credits may only be spent on passes for next winter — either Epic season passes or customizable "Epic day pass" ticket packs sold before the ski season begins.
- Those who bought either type of pass must buy a pass of equal or greater value than what they bought this year.
Between the lines: Unlike daily lift tickets, passes must be bought in advance of winter, which secures resorts' revenue months before the weather determines the actual quality of the ski season.
- For years, Vail and Alterra — the other major U.S. ski resort operator — have encouraged skiers to buy preseason passes by making them cheaper than they were about 15 years ago, while driving up same-day lift ticket prices.
- Case in point: PCMR's one-day lift tickets cost as much as $328 — about a third of this year's season pass.
The intrigue: Alterra's competing Ikon pass can be used at six of Utah's ski resorts, while PCMR is the state's only mountain that accepts Vail's Epic pass.
- By restricting the credit to next year's passes, Vail could keep more local customers from jumping to Alterra resorts.
Catch up quick: The 200 unionized ski patrollers at PCMR won raises averaging $4 an hour in a contract they ratified Jan. 8.
- For the 13 days before that, Vail deployed about 50 employees to replace striking patrollers and keep the resort open.
- Visitors waited in hours long lift lines that funneled them into a reduced number of crowded, lower-level runs at "the largest ski resort in the US." Most of the mountain closed while fresh pow covered empty slopes.
What we're watching: Whether Vail's olive branch mollifies its customers.
- An Illinois skier filed a class-action lawsuit filed last week, alleging that Vail ruined his family's $15,000 vacation by failing to warn guests that a strike was imminent and would affect their visit.