Fairbank Group Uses Inntopia Commerce To Drive Advanced Ticket Sales With Dynamic Pricing

As Bromley, Jiminy Peak, and Cranmore Mountain Resorts approached the 2017/18 winter season, the Fairbank Group, which runs all three iconic mountains, was looking to a way to solve two key challenges.

Challenge #1: Planning Ahead

The first is getting more people to plan ahead. The uncertainty of life and weather can lead skiers to play a waiting game which can put resort operators in a tough spot. These resorts wanted to reward skiers who purchased their tickets in advance.

Challenge #2: Forecasting Visitation

The value of that behavior, however, extends far beyond ticket sales. If skiers wait until the last minute to commit to a day of skiing, resort operators may not know how big the crowds will be until it’s too late.

Their answer? 

Something they’d seen the airline industry do with great success: dynamic pricing. They wanted skiers to understand that lift tickets may sell out or get more expensive if they do too much waiting and not enough committing. 

Fairbank Group + Inntopia

When it came to choosing a technology on which to build their dynamic pricing strategy, they found a powerful and easy-to-implement solution in Inntopia YieldView. According to Bromley’s Director of Marketing, Janessa Purney: 

“We’d already signed on with Inntopia in 2015 for our online store. Adding Inntopia Yield View wasn’t difficult – we’ve wanted a better way to manage ticket yield, plus drive more sales to a single online channel to simplify things for both Bromley and the guest for some time. With YieldView online tickets, guests have the opportunity to plan ahead as far as they would like, or are able to, and are rewarded with savings.” 

For example, when the program rolled out in November of 2017, skiers at Cranmore could buy a New Year’s Day ticket for the same price price as a midweek ticket if they booked in advance. At Jiminy Peak, skiers shopping for tickets in March could save more than 40% if they booked in November.

With Bromley and Jiminy Peak working with Specific Gravity’s Scott Guyette to manage pricing strategies and execution, the Fairbank Group resorts were able to hit every target they set.

Big Benefits

And according to Janessa, the move also paid off in more ways than one.

“YieldView’s UX is great. Bromley was also able to discontinue some outdated products that were no longer serving our guests as well as they once had, simplifying our lineup, our website navigation, and the homework, math and comparisons a guest needs to do to assure themselves that they’re getting the best deal.”

With YieldView, skiers get great deals, the resorts lock in revenue, and management is able to better forecast visitation for every day of their ski season.