Forbes just wrote a article about Vail’s recent acquisition of Kirkwood that is very pro-Vail. It claims that Vail is going to class up the joint.
What do you guys think?
Is Forbes dead on with this article? Or dead wrong?
What perspective is this guy coming from? The locals perspective, or the fly-in skier’s?
Here are some excerpts from Forbe’s Larry Olmsted’s article: “Vail Buys Yet Another Ski Resort This Week”
“I have no doubt that Kirkwood will similarly benefit from the big picture thinking at [Vail] company headquarters.” – Larry Olmsted
“I recently visited both of the other Tahoe area resorts that Vail has acquired in recent years, Heavenly and Northstar-at-Tahoe, and both are massively improved from my previous visits. Vail Resorts has never been shy about huge infrastructure improvements, and in the bleakest Tahoe snowfall year anyone can remember, these two resorts have kept plugging away because of their enormously powerful snowmaking systems, an investment some scoffed at in snow rich years.” – Larry Olmsted
“But what really has set Vail apart is its vertical integration, unlike any in the history of the ski industry. It does not just own mountains. At most of its resorts, it owns hotels and builds and sells and manages condos, many through its international RockResorts hotel division. It controls the shops where guests buy and rent skis, snowboards and equipment, both in brick and mortar (Vail Sports, Breckenridge Sports, Heavenly Sports, Breeze shops, etc.) and online through RentSkis.com. Its ski schools are massive undertakings, with several hundred instructors each at its larger resorts, and they have an excellent reputation: the ski schools at Vail, Beaver Creek and Heavenly, CA in particular are widely considered among the very best on earth. Vail has excelled at on-mountain dining in an industry once known for foil wrapped burgers sitting under heat lamps, and it has both unique offerings at every mountain and standardized fare, including widespread use of natural and environmentally conscious food products across all its resorts, while its hotels offer additional dining, sometimes among the best in town, plus spas, off the slopes.” – Larry Olmsted
Hey Kirkwood humans, get ready for some big changes. If you just read the bolds in the above excerpt, it’s obvious that the changes are gonna be big: big hotels, big ski schools, much more on mountain dining, and many more shops all over the place.
Sounds kinda like what Kirkwood tried to start about 9 years ago when they began focusing on real estate and started treating locals like _____. That real estate focus was a huge failure due to the real estate bubble burst and ended up being the reason they just sold for so cheap. Any thoughts on this?
Read Larry’s full article here: