Liftopia is an innovative ticketing system for ski resorts that brings the variable pricing structure of online airline tickets to the ski slopes. Using the system, resorts can adjust the prices of their ski lift tickets to suit demand, with customers getting an average 33% discount. It’s a great idea, but one that had largely failed to take off until this year.
Liftopia launched back in October 2006 but was met with widespread skepticism from the industry, and had a hard time finding resorts that were willing to sign up. The company’s initial plan was to concentrate on the Tahoe market (given that it was closest to Silicon Valley the company hoped it would perhaps be more willing to try out the new system). But after the major resorts rejected the idea, Liftopia instead partnered with a handful of smaller ski lodges scattered across the country.
Since then, Liftopia has gradually been gaining momentum, growing to 35 resorts last season and reaching 85 partners this year. Resorts are drawn to the system because they can adjust their prices in real time to ensure a maximum yield, without impacting the standard prices they offer to customers who purchase tickets on the slope. Liftopia has seen 4x growth year over year in terms of gross bookings and has done nearly $2 million in sales this season (which still has around six weeks left to go).
Now some of the larger resorts are beginning to take notice: Liftopia recently announced that a number of major Tahoe resorts, including Alpine, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Mt. Rose, and Boreal, have signed on to participate. To entice these larger resorts, Co-founder Ron Schneidermann says that the company makes joining Liftopia as easy as possible, with no contract lock-in and the ability to discontinue the service whenever they’d like
Schneidermann acknowledges that Liftopia is still relatively small, with only around 5,000 visitors a day. But he’s optimistic about the company’s future, and it certainly seems on its way up. The obstacle now is to make ordering lift-tickets online as common as it is with airline tickets – and for 33% off, I doubt it will be too hard to convince people.
Here’s a more comprehensive list of the site’s largest resorts:
Park City, Utah
Snowbird, Utah
The Canyons, Utah
Copper Mountain, CO
Winter Park, CO
Durango, CO
Taos, NM
Sierra-at-Tahoe, Lake Tahoe
Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe
Mt. Rose, Lake Tahoe
Whiteface, NY
Sunday River, ME
“Liftopia launched back in October 2006 but was met with widespread speculation from the industry”
Ummm do you mean “skepticism,” not “speculation?”
thanks, fixed
so you print a voucher and take it to the slope and get your lift ticket?
That’s exactly it – it’s all voucher based, we don’t physically mail you any tickets, and so you can typically book up until the night before your arrival. Then you just bring your Purchase Confirmation and a photo ID with you, and the tickets are waiting for you at the resort.
Interesting. I live on the East Coast and have already made my yearly trip out West, but I’ll def. look for you guys next year. That being said, I can usually stop into a ski shop in town and grab a ticket at discount before heading up to the mountain (Utah). It will be interesting to price compare.
check out the east coast resorts too! i think they have some great deals this time of year.
It’s so good to hear of someone working hard and slowly building a company towards success. Good luck!
congrats to evan and ron. they’ve been busting ass since ‘06 and it’s starting to pay off.
congrats ron and evan! good work
Liftopia is a great site. I highly recommend it. Congrats to Ron & Evan.
Best of luck, what are these guys up to during the summer?
Up until now we’ve spent the summers working on site development and meeting with potential resort partners. This year we’ll be doing some more of that, but we’ll also be branching out into summertime activities at the resorts. At lot of places run year-round operations and feature things like mountain biking, scenic gondola rides, golf and spa stuff, etc. We’re also working on further building out our lodging platform to offset some of the seasonality. Down the road there’s the potential for southern hemisphere skiing, but I don’t think any of us expect that to match the core season in the US/Canada.
Nice to see a smaller player get noticed. Congrats to Ron & Evan!
Liftopia is awesome … saved a ton on my trip to Park City this year. No brainer … it’s Orbitz/Expedia/GolfNow for lift tickets. You print your ticket off Liftopia and exchange that for an actual lift ticket at the mountain.
Slidingonthecheap.com
Although you cant buy direct, they publish all the local shops where the deals usually bet liftopia.
Shred the Gnar!
glad to see their hard work is starting to get noticed… screw those tahoe resorts who said no early on, typical bs startups have to deal with
Congrats guys! We met way back when Mint.com was just me – I liked the variable pricing model then for all lumpy and weather affected businesses. Glad to see you’ve stuck with it after all this time!
Aaron Patzer
Thanks Aaron! We remember you well, and have followed you on TC a TON over the years. Pumped that Mint is killing it lately, nice work!
Well, color me slightly skeptical.
Variable pricing is the absolute LAST thing I’d copy from US airlines. Well, maybe second last after their craptastic meals. It’s certainly not designed to save people money.
I’ve had great luck with Liftopia and am happy to see them doing so well. Much more convenient to pick up your ticket at the mountain than having to go to a local store to get a voucher. IMO.
Nice article! Check out my site too at http://macmaniapodcast.com
Check this out
http://flybizs....fid=emmanuelmac
I’ve had a few opportunities to use the site.
So far, so good – I have been quite happy with it – all positive reviews form me, thanks.
Congrats you stinking maggots,keep it up!
Congrats to Ron & Evan! Saving money gets easier for skiers and snowboarders. I hope TechCrunch covers more stories like this. Thanks Jason for a nice write-up!
Always nice to see the brick moving to the cloud.
Built on the KickApps platform?
http://www.kick...-customers.html
Hey Prospect Tube,
We experimented with a piece of the site built on KickApps, but the vast majority of it is custom.
Thanks Evan, keep up the great work.
Excellent to see this happening. At $90 a day to ski Vail, it gets a bit ridiculous. But considering the current state of the economy I think more resorts will start to open up to the idea.
Timing can be huge in a startup, and this is one who’s time has come.
Best of Luck to them, Michael
Liftopia has a great opportunity now with the economy in its current situation. At times it is all about timing. Tic Toc, it is your time Liftopia.
Ron and Evan- Nice to see all of your hard work paying off. You guys deserve it.
Ty
Part of me likes this idea. The costs of lift tickets in the Tahoe area are past the point of ridiculous. That said, however, I can see why the resorts may have some reservations about this. Yield management makes perfect sense for businesses like airlines and hotels, who are trying to maximize their revenues given a fixed amount of seats or rooms. The difference with a ski resort, however, is that unlike these two, the more the resort is filled to capacity, the worse the experience for the skiers (longer lines, etc.). So perhaps I save 30% on my lift ticket, but if the consequence is that I end up waiting twice as long in lines, it’s not necessarily a better deal.
…stephan
Great point Stephan. To control for that, one of the features on LT for our resort partners is that they can control not just the price but the quantity of tickets available for any given date (all of our tickets are date specific). During a peak day when demand is high and the slopes are going to be crowded, it doesn’t make sense for a resort to put out a discount anywhere in the market because they don’t need an external deal to draw folks in. We’re trying to shift the industry away from some of these inefficient practices. Where we try and add the most value is for those non-peak days, where the resorts still run high fixed costs, and their variable costs are minimal.
Great to see someone working hard to bring the ski industry into the digital age. You guys deserve a lot of credit for your perseverance and foresight. I hope a lot more resorts recognize the value Liftopia brings.
I think it’s a great idea that’s sure to grow. I’m definitely going to give it a shot when I go skiing next season. It should help the mountains themselves too. I do check new sites with this security site though.
Evan & Ron — Awesome awesome job in growing LT to where it is and having to the vision to where it will go! And seeing it thru of course! Huge. Proud of you boys!