Ski vacations: A last minute deal

For months, I've predicted that this winter season would be a challenging one. This past Monday, the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP) that represents 216 property management companies in 15 Colorado, Utah, California, and British Columbia resorts, released an eye-opening survey. While September business in mountain destinations improved from August it continued the recent pattern of low volume and less strength compared to last year with September ’09 occupancy down 14.2 percent. September lodging rates were also down 5.7 percent from September ’08. Looking forward, reservations taken in September for arrivals in September-February were down 11.9 percent compared to the previous year at this time -- a reversal of the positive August pacing that was up 2.1 percent.

The MTRiP report further indicates that decreased lodging rates continue to be offered as an incentive for consumers with discounts ranging from 6.6 percent to 18.4 percent, with the deepest discounts available after the holidays. Overall, rates for the next six months are down 14.2 percent from 2008-09. As MTRiP's chief Garrison said, “mountain destinations will have to either deliver more value or less cost while factoring in the timing of reservations...”

What all this means is that ski resorts will have to start to innovate their product offering, such as interconnecting lifts with common lift ticket where they can, real estate values will have to drop considerably and with snow vacations becoming such a buyer's market, lodging prices and lift tickets (one of the only “elastic” areas) will have to drop much further to make up for airlines add-on fees and avoid becoming a last-minute business in which planning becomes impossible for staffing and other critical needs.