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Don_KedicAt keystone they didnt hire any J1’s this winter because they didnt wanna pay for work visa’s. The whole resort is really feeling it, theres just not enough employees.
blazer258Being that they're a public company a lot of information can be found online for them. Here's an interesting slide deck from their investor day last year. Look like they are in the process of rolling out a pilot program to enhance workforce management (slides 65-67) at Park City and Whistler. I don't know much personally about running a resort, but it appears previously workforce decisions were decentralized at each resort by business function, and they want to implement more technology to centrally manage this (scheduling, training, job roles, overall efficiency). My assumption is as resorts are gobbled up there is a tough transition period. They also mentioned more automation to "free up staff for more high value work", and state staffing is really driven my guest experience and demand. Next earnings release is early March I think
hi_vis360The only reason vail is struggling is because they have not implemented a system of using DAIRY GOATS to maintain trails. Not only are they missing out on cheap labor, they are missing out on the delicious cheese. They could be eating dat chèvre and stacking cheddar, but instead they are relying on weak and feeble bipeds to do their trail work.
SmokedGoudaid be lying if I said I didnt use to run a knife over ice cream and then put ski paths through it to simulate manicuring a ski slope. Do these goats make a mad good vanilla? Vanilla Bean might be a don't judge a book by its cover scenario.
GayWolf420I've been hearing rumblings about skier numbers being down due to poor conditions/lack of snow, people not having a whole lot of money to throw down on trips this year due to economic hardship, skier number projections down, budgets and revenues not meeting expectations, and staffing issues because who the fuck wants to move to a major mountain town and get raped on COL on a resort wage....
Indy resorts are gonna take the full brunt of this unfortunately which sucks because they've been making an effort to really revamp the industry and to make it a bit more affordable and this low tide season has only fucked them over even more
SmokedGoudaI know how much we all like to shit on vail as a company, but continue to ride their mountains(some of us) but is it more or is the company really starting to thin out their resources? My brother is a bootfitter at one of their retail stores and hasnt been scheduled for a few weeks and from an on the hill experience at vail, i havent seen a single yellow jacket for weeks so its been more or less an all out free for all. Is something going on like a protest, walk out? Or did all the yellow jackets pick up smoking and hide at all the smoke shacks now? Ive only been at vail lately so i have no idea how the other hills are, but lemme know. Theres already the discussion of their shrinking parks, however unlike other resorts, vail still hasnt implemented the automatic gates at base chairlifts. If this keeps up, looks like there will be more speed filled adventures in the slow zones haha.
hb_lazi know a couple of people who are instructors, and they all say that vail is falling apart and needs to get their shit together. I know we all hate on vail, and their prices are absolutely insane, but if vail falls, then we will most likely loose a lot of our favorite mountains; at least for a little bit before icon buys them. And if icon buys them we are just going to have the same ordeal. Also, not that I like vail or anything, but they do bring a lot of decently paying jobs to smaller economies.
hb_lazi know a couple of people who are instructors, and they all say that vail is falling apart and needs to get their shit together. I know we all hate on vail, and their prices are absolutely insane, but if vail falls, then we will most likely loose a lot of our favorite mountains; at least for a little bit before icon buys them. And if icon buys them we are just going to have the same ordeal. Also, not that I like vail or anything, but they do bring a lot of decently paying jobs to smaller economies.
StaticThere are practically no new resorts being built in north america and they have a ton the good ones, they cannot fail.
blazer258Being that they're a public company a lot of information can be found online for them. Here's an interesting slide deck from their investor day last year. Look like they are in the process of rolling out a pilot program to enhance workforce management (slides 65-67) at Park City and Whistler. I don't know much personally about running a resort, but it appears previously workforce decisions were decentralized at each resort by business function, and they want to implement more technology to centrally manage this (scheduling, training, job roles, overall efficiency). My assumption is as resorts are gobbled up there is a tough transition period. They also mentioned more automation to "free up staff for more high value work", and state staffing is really driven my guest experience and demand. Next earnings release is early March I think
GrandThingsDamn super interesting. Anyone else peep "Automated Snowmaking" on slide 68? Feels like that would be extremely challenging?
StaticThere are practically no new resorts being built in north america and they have a ton the good ones, they cannot fail.
skiermanTake a minute to google it, you lazy POS
hi_vis360The only reason vail is struggling is because they have not implemented a system of using DAIRY GOATS to maintain trails. Not only are they missing out on cheap labor, they are missing out on the delicious cheese. They could be eating dat chèvre and stacking cheddar, but instead they are relying on weak and feeble bipeds to do their trail work.
GrandThingsDamn super interesting. Anyone else peep "Automated Snowmaking" on slide 68? Feels like that would be extremely challenging?
hi_vis360The only reason vail is struggling is because they have not implemented a system of using DAIRY GOATS to maintain trails. Not only are they missing out on cheap labor, they are missing out on the delicious cheese. They could be eating dat chèvre and stacking cheddar, but instead they are relying on weak and feeble bipeds to do their trail work.
Goretex_Vidal
Tried to milk the goats that maintain Black Mountain's trails in the summer. Now I'm banned from the Indy Pass
arnie_grapemoney doesnt grow on trees bro companies have to cut expenses to stay afloat
skiermanThere are over 100 failed (lost) ski resorts in New England alone, you fucking idiot.
BreknridgeKidwestern mega resorts can’t fail, Breck, Vail, Copper, Keystone, Beaver, Winter Park etc…
eheathWhat makes you think that?
A for-profit publicly owned business will do anything to stay profitable and please shareholders, which means if one of their products (ie a ski resort) is not producing profit, why would they keep running it? Huge corporations shutter massive business daily.
PartyBullshiitI think his point was those resorts are some of their bread and butter. And they would likely let others go by the wayside to keep the bread and butter going.
only think vail is struggling with is new ways to take our money.
eheathhe was referring to more than just Vail.
everyone on this website lives in a bubble where skiing is their favorite activity and they don't see the world from outside of that perspective. a large western ski resort could get shut down 100%, its very unlikely right now because skiing/snowboarding is very popular. but 10-20 years from now I wouldn't be surprised if we see some of these resorts sold and then failing/never opening after they sell/only operating in the peak seasons.
There is no resort "too big to fail" that's some shit that only applies to businesses supported by our government, like banks.
PartyBullshiit10-20 years from now sure anything can happen. It’s just not realistic is the point.
vail/aspen are not closing in 10-20 years. Unless snow literally just stops and it’s 100 degrees there.
eheathhe was referring to more than just Vail.
everyone on this website lives in a bubble where skiing is their favorite activity and they don't see the world from outside of that perspective. a large western ski resort could get shut down 100%, its very unlikely right now because skiing/snowboarding is very popular. but 10-20 years from now I wouldn't be surprised if we see some of these resorts sold and then failing/never opening after they sell/only operating in the peak seasons.
There is no resort "too big to fail" that's some shit that only applies to businesses supported by our government, like banks.
eheathWhat makes you so certain about that?
These large resorts are operating on small margins, the cost of labor has skyrocketed, the cost of goods has skyrocketed, the overall experience of going skiing has degraded and the issues surrounding going skiing (parking, traffic, price of entry) are going to slowly push people out of the sport. Everything is going to keep getting more expensive and there will be a tipping point where a large resort will struggle to operate as they do today.
VR and Alterra have put a ton of their business on the wellbeing of their resorts for the next decade, it could easily completely flop, I forsee hiring enough staff as the #1 problem facing these mega resorts.
PartyBullshiitBecause the amount of money in vail and aspen and the immediate surrounding areas make it too large to fail. And that’s the point. It’s the bread and butter.
vail/aspen aren’t having any issues getting people atm. Hell Breck and beaver aren’t either. We just looked at new units being built at beaver. Already 75% sold out and they’re not even done.
I don’t disagree the smaller resorts will suffer because of this method and some will go away. The large bread and butter resorts will not.
unless weather makes it impossible for skiing the large ones will not close. That’s just a fact. People aren’t suddenly going to stop going to the large western resorts.
You and others may get priced out and not be able to go like you want to. Yes. But there is always people with more money than you who will keep on going regardless of anything else. Those are just facts.
skiing has only gotten stronger over the past 10-20 years and the trend will continue no matter how much doubt you want to have.
SmokedGoudavail still hasnt implemented the automatic gates at base chairlifts.
eheathI mean we agree here to a point, I know that right now everyone is fine.
But you are completely missing my other point, im sure you remember the housing bubble in 2008, or the dot com bubble in 2000. These business are propped up on future profit that if they run into issues like staffing, its going to be a large problem and could cause one of these larger resorts to shutdown.
I dont think weather will be the demise of the first large western ski resort, we can agree to disagree about it. rich people cant support all of the resorts in the west.
I think you're too focused on vail and aspen, those are obvious staples that will be supported by rich people forever and i think youre overestimating the amount of money rich people would put into ski resorts if they suddenly became less profitable/not profitable.
either way, i think we'll all get to ski amazing western resorts for decades before the rich elite buy them up and make them private or whatever ends up happening.
**This post was edited on Feb 26th 2024 at 12:55:04pm
PartyBullshiitI hear your point. I’m 40 so yes I remember all the recent financial crisis, as I have worked in finance departments for the last 20 years across Carnival cruise lines, Royal Caribbean and Virgin voyages. I’m now with Disney working in the vacation club department dealing literally with profits and losses like I have with my past positions.
I just don’t think you understand how these large corporations work behind closed doors. Especially ones that have share holders to answer too.
At carnival we cannibalized ships to build new ones.
At Royal we sold off ships to other lines to build new ones
Virgin was new so we didn’t really have anything to sell but Virgin Atlantic sold off planes to help fund the ship purchase.
Disney we’ve cut new hotel room development to create new vacation club properties instead prioritizing our land resorts.
the reason we did all those things was to keep our “bread and butter” products at the forefront which is my whole point.
Pick any bread and butter resort you want if you don’t like using vail and aspen. Heavenly, Taos, telluride, copper, crystal whatever you want.
those types of resorts are not going to close for financial reasons unless they physically can’t have guest because of weather.
the companies run on such small margins because they’re prioritizing profits. Which they’re making hand over fist. If it came to them loosing their bread and butter or lowering profits a little to keep a large resort afloat I can 1000% guarantee you upper level executives are going to trim fat by getting rid of the little resorts. Not their mega profits ones.
running on small margins to maximize profits is absolutely nothing new. My gf is a director for st Regis. I think it would blow your mind how in the red they run all the time at properties because the owners want to maximize profits over providing the highest level of guest experience.
i do appreciate your opinion and I can absolutely see where you are getting your thoughts from. I just don’t think you understand how it works behind closed doors a mega corporation finance wise.
eheathi mean you're right, im not an expert, the things you are saying are things I have heard before, i am speculating. but one thing I do know a lot about is how ski resorts operate, how much it has changed in a very short amount of time (less than a decade) and I know that it could change in the next decade.
im not sure if comparing the st regis to say Taos comes off as reasonable to me, as the st regis is not depending on skiing to run as a business.
I just think its a bit head in the sand to think that a ski resort couldn't be shut down for financial reasons, maybe we're focusing on the wrong end game, because theoretically if Vail/alterra wants to ditch some low performing resort, they'd sell it before they "shut it down" but who would buy it? prob some rich people who can do the same thing as vail/alterra and eat losses for a decade, but maybe that would "shut it down" for regular skiers that arent part of the rich elite.
Just seeing how the resorts are these days, how often people are complaining about their experience, the rise in all costs surrounding skiing and the operating of ski resorts, just feels like something is going to happen.
skiermanYeah, I wonder how much debt they're stacking on these little resorts to pay for improvements they cannot afford which increases the valuation of the resorts thus increasing the executive bonuses which are based on portfolio and stock valuations.
skiermanTake a minute to google it, you lazy POS