pricing and e-commerce – season review and looking ahead

Industry Trends for 2015-16 and 2016-17

Pricing and E-Commerce – Season Review and Looking Ahead

Season in Review2015/16

Liftopia Data SetWhat makes us qualified to identify pricing trends?

• 70k Customer Service conversations• 4.8m Date-specific searches on Liftopia.com this season• 8.9m Date-specific searches on the Platform (Liftopia.com +

Cloud Store) this season• 9.7m User sessions• 34.2m Pageviews• 1.4-1.6m Price points• 110 Ski areas on Cloud Store• 250 Ski areas on Liftopia.com

Trends2015/16

Industry Trends: Advance Purchase YoY Details

• Window Rates: flattening and rising…+9% on average*

• Advance Purchase Rates: increasing variability both up AND down…+3% on average

• Search Demand: Shifting farther in advance: up 72% YOY through end of Nov

• Advance booking volume up disproportionately farther out

• Booking window increasing across entire season

Pricing Trends

trends

Window Rates – Region by Region

Midwes

t

Northe

ast

Pacific

Nort

hwes

t

Pacific

Sou

thwes

t

Rocky

Mou

ntains

Southe

ast

Grand T

otal

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

9%

Year over Year Window Rate Changes

At start of season, average window rates rose by 9% – As weather in east progressed window rates pulled back to be up only 4.7%

Ecommerce Prices - NationwideAverage of all dates/resorts

• Average low/starting price: 70% of rack rate• Average max achieved yield: 79% of rack rate

Peak Dates(X-Mas, MLK, Pres, Weekends) AVG• Average low/starting price: 76% of rack rate• Average max achieved yield: 86% of rack rate

Advance Purchase Rates By Region

Midwes

t

Northe

ast

Pacific

Nort

hwes

t

Pacific

Sou

thwes

t

Rocky

Mou

ntains

Southe

ast

Grand T

otal

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

110%

Avg Max – Peak Periods

Avg Max Price

Avg Starting Price

*As a percentage of window rate

Top Performers vs. Average

Platform Average Top Performers50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

95%


Avg Max Price

Avg Starting Price


What makes a top performer?

Revenue

Uphill Capacity=

Easy way to compare relative

revenue performance of

resorts of all sizes

Revenue/Uphill Capacity – Top Performers

Platform Average Top Performers50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

95%


Avg Max Price

Avg Starting Price


$36 $144

Top performing resorts with efficient pricing strategy achieve higher yields and 4X the revenue of average

Revenue/Uphill Capacity

Buying Behavior

trends

Booking Window: % change YoY by Month

Apr

Mar

Feb

Jan

Dec

Nov

Oct

Sep

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00%

27.83%

5.33%

3.41%

7.22%

0.45%

4.46%

30.83%

13.41%

Shift in Search Volume

2016/17 has already started – distribution of 55k searches for skiing into next season

Pricing Trends Translated for Customers

How much it costs

=

How products are priced and sold

Example of Window Shift100

80

60

40

20

Dec Jan Feb Mar

15/16 Rack Rate

14/15 Rack Rate

When you go skiing

• Basic premise: each day is priced in accordance with its value

– All else held equal – peak dates cost more– All else held equal – off peak dates cost less

• Based on this – customers should pay more during peak periods – and therefore the effective ticket price (ETP) should be highest during peak periods

When you go

When you buy

Full Season of Prices

All dates priced relative to demand

For any date– the lowest possible price is available farthest in advance


Prices for peak dates rise faster earlier

Full Season of PricesBy two days out – peak dates will be approaching rack rate

But off peak dates may still be a good deal if demand hasn’t pushed the price higher

Full Season of PricesMany customers still wait until the last minute to make their plans


So at midnight the night before skiing – prices rise again significantly

Many customers still wait until the last minute to make their plans

Trends for 16/17

• Continued increases and flattening of window rates• More variable, highly efficient advance purchase

strategies• Shifted focus from YIELD as a % of window rate to

actual PRICES converted on• Consumer demand continuing to shift towards buying

in advance (when pricing strategies support this)• Some resorts will overprice advance purchase due to

a focus on yield instead of revenue• Quality of data and quality of interpretation of that

data applied to pricing is going to become as critical to ski areas’ bottom line as the data and interpretation applied to snowmaking

Trends in Advance Purchase/Ecommerce

Thank you!

Questions?Email us at

[email protected]

pricing and e-commerce – season review and looking ahead

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