Ski season is rapidly approaching, and resorts will soon be releasing their lift ticket prices (if they haven’t already). But this year, some skiers will have a new option when it comes to buying their tickets: discounted pricing for off-peak days, thanks to a startup called Liftopia. Today the company has annouced that it closed a $1 million Series B funding round led by Erik Blachford (CEO of Terrapass, Former CEO of Expedia) and Amicus Capital, with a number of investors from the company’s Series A round also participating.
Liftopia allows ski resorts to offer variable pricing for tickets based on much how traffic they anticipate seeing on the slopes — in other words, resorts can lower their prices if they think they’re going to have a slow day the same way an airline does if a flight might not fill up. Some resorts have been able to do this to a limited extent with ‘peak season’ tickets (a ticket for Christmas time would cost more than one a month or two later), but up until now they haven’t had a good way to adjust their pricing on a daily basis. Liftopia gives them this option.
From the consumer’s standpoint using Liftopia is easy, and will be familiar to anyone who has ever purchased a plane ticket online. Pick a region, a resort to look at, and a date range, and the site will present a list of tickets, some of which are discounted as much as 60% (there’s also a flexible date option).
The site launched back in 2006, but initially saw slow growth due to industry skepticism. Since then things have been picking up — by last spring the site had grown to include around 65 resort partners, and Liftopia will have over 120 in time for this season.
Among the new resorts to sign on this year:
- Whistler/Blackcomb, BC
- Killington, VT
- Mammoth, CA
- Winter Park, CO
- Copper Mountain, CO
- Stowe, VT
Liftopia seems to be really picking up steam, and it’s a win/win for skiers who get to save money as well as for resorts, who can boost sales when they need too. There’s one small caveat for now though: because few resorts have finalized their pricing for this year, Liftopia’s inventory will be limited for the next few weeks, so you may need to check back later to book your tickets.
Nice site, nice layout, design, and colors. And it sounds like a good niche offering. Good luck.
I’ve met the guys behind this, and they seem pretty bright. They’ve done their homework on this space. Excited to see how it goes.
Great but i assume it will also make slaying the gnar on big Pow days more pricey….. not so epic bro!
nice ! 1 million to lift ticket prices,it’s a much munber ,wish they will success !
Met those guys behind the scenes as well this summer. At that time they’ve contracted with 40-50 ski resorts in the US from the 300, hopefully that number will dramatically rise. Congrats and good luck!
Comcast buying LastMinuteGolfer.com set the stage nicely for Liftopia, If these guys can get a resort or two in every market (and book some revenue) Liftopia will be ripe for an exit.
Great idea.
Fantastic service. We run their ads exclusively on all ski destination pages/properties and get great conversion. Sure beats a run to “that convenience store” selling discounted tix 3 miles from the base lot… Good luck Liftopia!
I’m not sure about outside of Colorado, but most people I know that are interested either buy a season pass for $250-400 or a “4 pack” for $32-35/ day. And, most people know at least one person with a season pass who can get them 50% off a day pass (max 4 per day). Perhaps the rest of the country is different.
Lived in Boulder for 2 yrs – yes, the Colorado card was fantastic… but alas, doesn’t work that way back East.
Season passes are too pricey and restrictive (1 or 2 mtns only). So where I grew up, we were always hunting for “deals” on lift tickets – thankfully there’d always be a seasonal promotion at the local 7-11.
I’m also in Boulder. Just bought a Copper/Winter Park pass, but if they land some other Summit Country resorts or Steamboat, I’ll definitely give it a try.
Change for a nickel?
Congrats Evan and co on the series b round!
Thanks all, we still have a lot of work ahead, but we think this will really help us improve our value to the industry, and generate incremental skiing for resorts + skiers alike. Change indeed.
Great business! This idea could not be better suited to text messaging. Expect a call about this soon…
I love Liftopia! I would recommend it to ski resorts and skiers alike! It is a great tool!