Mt Buller 2012 Season Pass Pricing Finally Revealed – Insults Regular Customers With Price INCREASE

In case you have been living under a rock, there’s been a season pass price war amongst Australia’s resorts. Except Buller – they put their prices up.

The story goes like this:

Perisher announced their Freedom Pass on the 4th of September and sent shockwaves through the industry. Skier numbers and participation were plummeting and they decided to act decisively to see if this was a trend they could arrest. The terms were very agreeable, $199 to be paid now and a balance of $500 due on May 1st. This offer ends today so act fast if you want one! Thredbo soon responded with their Platinum Pass which matched the Perisher terms, and on top of this included skiing for the rest of this season. Hotham and Falls Creek were the next to act again matched this with yet another $699 deal called the Hero Pass that they have since added value with ticket offers at Big White & Niseko.

It was great to see some fierce competition and innovation amongst the resorts.

Conspicuous by its absence was Mt Buller. Despite a mountain of ‘feedback’ and ‘encouragement’ on their Facebook Wall there was nothing but silence. Their use of social media was appalling this season so it was no surprise for them to continue to keep us in the dark.

For those of you who don’t know Buller well it has a very different customer base to the other resorts. Due to its proximity to Melbourne it has a large number of loyal customers who ski every weekend for the season. These people are generally tied to the mountain as members of clubs or owners of apartments, and often are families with kids participating in the various seasonal programs. I do not have access to the figures but I would estimate that just between the kids in the programs and their various family members that would be 1500-2000 season passes alone, not to mention the other recreational weekend skiers. I do realise the other resorts all have their loyal core but Buller’s is far larger. Depending on the actual number and also the breakdown between adults and kids, this would represent ~$2m of guaranteed revenue, also around Xmas for the early-bird purchasers which would be superb for off-season cashflow.

As a consequence of this I am certain that Buller did not view these customers as a flight risk when announcing their season pass pricing today, which was shocking to say the least. There were a couple of new options for midweek skiers, but the bottom line is that they INCREASED the price of their season passes for customers who want to ski on weekends.

The response has been emphatic, again on their Facebook and also on the ski.com.au forums. There is the usual anger but the main sentiment is disbelief.

For me – well it’s mainly disappointment. I know I’m going to buy the pass for next year, I’m tied to Buller through club membership – to change mountains would require a large change in circumstances, longer drives on the weekends etc which at this stage we are just not prepared to do. I only ski at Falls Creek when I’m being paid, and I don’t see Hotham like others do.

To know that every other loyal customer of every other resort has been rewarded for their continued custom is just an absolute kick in the balls. It is pure arrogance on Buller’s behalf to know that they can do what they want to their best customers. For these reasons I wasn’t expecting a deal as good as the other mountains, but to have the price INCREASED is nothing short of an insult.

It’s hard to predict the outcome of this, the Falls/Hotham/Thredbo passes have another week to run, I would love to be a fly on the wall in their ticket offices to see how many people decide to sign up after comparing the options, and if they were (or intending to be) Buller skiers.

The one thing I do know is this: Buller is now charging a Premium price point for their passes, so they need to provide a premium service in return. All the usual crap that we are often able to turn a blind eye to should be brought up with management at every opportunity. If you do ski at Buller this year I implore you to hold them to a level of service that matches the price that they are charging.

One thing that I will guarantee is that the only money BSL sees from me next season is for the pass. And I encourage you all to support the independent businesses on the mountain – they will be hurting thanks to this decision so we need to support them. Make sure you eat on mountain at Koflers, drink in the evening at Grimus & The Whitt (and Kooroora). Hire/buy/tune your skis at Black Mountain, get a photo from Woody at Fun Photos & a Dimmy at Wokworx.

Let me know in the comments below – will you be going elsewhere? Or are you ‘stuck’ at Buller and will you just have to cop it? Or is the midweek pass actually quite good and will you take this up?

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