Covid Zoom Call #2 – Ticketing and Season Pass Sales Best Practices – Recap

The 7/1 CCSAA Round Table Zoom Call was centered around best practices for day ticket and season pass sales.  Please remember that his is a very fluid situation and that we are discussing solutions for the situation we believe we will be in as winter nears.

We continue to realize that every Nordic center presents its own set of parameters and limitations, and that there will not be a one solution that fits all Nordic centers.  We also are concerned with any reduction of capacity and are looking at how to create new systems that do not rely on cutting our existing skier capacity or any revenue stream.

Call Audio:  Best Practices around Day Ticketing and Season Pass Sales in the COVID-19 Environment – 7/1/20 

Below are simple take a ways from the call:

• Day Ticket Sales
  • We agreed that we should strive for a contactless sales process for day tickets. The issues here is how does the Nordic center transfer the ticket to the customer.
  • Most of the ski areas represented on the call currently provide a ticket and wicket that must be displayed.
    • Some areas provide a digital receipt that serves as the ticket
    • Some areas do not provide a ticket, these are frequently non-profits with limited to no on-site staff.
  • We did discuss the percentage of day ticket sales to guests that also rent.
  • Many ski areas noted that if guests were not allowed in the center, their retail and food revenues would be significantly impacted.
  • Looking to next year, we discussed possible solutions to ticket sales for next season:
    • Business as usual with masks, gloves and sneeze guards
    • Retrofit/change of how you sell tickets based on local layouts
      • Outdoor ticket window – similar to ice cream counter
      • Separate outdoor Ticket Shack
      • Roving outdoor sales agent with a payment system
      • Floor markings to show social distancing
      • Repurposing of existing space, possibly using unused space to spread out operations
      • Reservation system – Book a time to reduce congestion
    • Online ticket sales – only pay when you make a sale
      • Something like what Liftopia was
      • Possible Booking.com
    • Enhanced online ticket sales – sale platform with tickets, rentals, lessons and retail – monthly fee
      • Shopify e-commerce solutions
      • Aluvii – See following from Aluvii:
        • Season/Daily Ticket Sales:Online & at the Nordic location, product add-ons, ability to sell promotional items. Capture photos, waivers and more…
        • Advanced Memberships/Guest Portal:Unlimited customization including – discounts, punch passes, renewable passes, stored value (guests don’t need to carry cash or card)
        • Unlimited Tills:F&B, Gift Shop, ect. Have as many registers as you would like for different departments.
        • Automatic updates and unlimited Customer Support included:All new features are rolled out automatically with no additional cost to you, automatic server backups, and we include customer support with our implementation pricing.
        • Real-time Reporting:See data from anywhere, dozen of reports designed for your needs. To have a custom report, it is a one time $100 fee per report
        • Rentals:Manage rental inventory, scan in & scan out  and keep track of guest information to expedite purchases
        • Ability to Scale:HR management, tasks, e-commerce, waivers, vouchers, discount codes, payment plans, automatic renewals, barcode creation, and more.
        • Our standard pricing for just eCommerce is a one time $199 implementation fee, then $79 a month. Please let me know what else I can provide for you to share with the board. If you’d like me to take 20-minutes and give a high level demo of the software for members to see, I am happy to do so.
        • Please contact Reese for more details or connection with the sales agent we have been working with
      • Ticket kiosks – large initial fee
        • Axess
          • Please contact Reese for more details or connection with the sales agent we have been working with
        • Do you provide a physical ticket?
          • Many ski areas do offer a physical ticket and plan to continue. They feel it is a great tool to use as proof of payment.
          • At least one non-profit ski area does not use a physical ticket but has employed greeters to suggest guests do purchase a ticket and have found that to be very effective.
          • No one had an easy fix for how best to provide the ticket after an online payment.
        • Season Passes
          • As the call was running long, we did not spend much time on season passes.
          • Many did say that getting the customer in the shop to pick up the pass was important for retail sales and something the customers enjoyed, a way to reconnect with the staff.