The truth about ski passes

 Ski Co has announced new ski passes.  They are about 20% higher than prior years.  

That is what we know for sure.

Next,  what SkiCo hopes:

1.  SkiCo hopes they can open the mountain and keep it open from November 26th, to April 15.

2.  They will try to limit the number of people on chair lifts and gondolas to groups of people in same vector---resulting in longer lift lines even if there are fewer skiers.

3.  They hope to have restaurants open, but are not sure how they are going to do that in a COVID safe way.

4.  They hope to have bathrooms open, but are not sure how to do that in a COVID safe way.

5.  They hope not to have to implement a reservation system but they might have to to stay COVID safe

6.  They will refund a prorated portion of your ski pass if the mountain closes due to COVID, less 10 days and insurance.  Let me put some numbers on this--assuming a ski season of nov 26-april 15, and the mountain closing for the season on Jan 10 ish due to lots of community spread over x-mas-new years winter break that would mean if you bought a $2,400 primer pass with $170 insurance, you would be refunded about $1,200 of your $2,570 cost of purchasing a pass and insurance.  Lets assume of those first 45 days the mountain is open you ski a day in November (lets say the snow sucks, and 10 days prior to x-mas break and then a reservation system goes in place and you only get 3 days in over 'winter break' and then you get in another 4 days before they shut the mountain ---that is a total of 18 days which cost you $76 bucks a day).  I will let you judge how good a deal that is.

Bottom line--the price of a pass has gone up 20% and pass buyers are being forced to assume all the risks of the quality of the product being provided and the ability to actually use the services the pass provides.  

Harvard Business School professors will tell you raising prices while cutting services and asking your customer to bear the risks is not a business strategy they recommend ---perhaps SkiCo's Covid response will become a case study some day.