Pushing the Envelope on Private Lesson Pricing

[Kneale Brownson]

Canyons privates this coming season are $979 walkup and $919 online, so ski school pricing differs across Vail resorts.

 

[Tricia]

You get a 6.5 hour private lesson, from 9 to 3:30. It includes lift line cutting privleges, and you can include up to 5 friends/family. That's it. Nothing else included.

If split amongst 6 people - that's doable.
IIRC a group did that at Squaw for the Gathering and got line cuts on a powder day, but it wasn't $1200.00

 

[Nancy Hummel]

An all day private at Aspen/Snowmass is $845 with 7 day advance purchase or $965 walk up rate. They allow up to 5 people in a lesson.

Adult group lessons are $175 per day.

The “locals clinic” series add on is $138 for the season.

If you are serious about learning to ski, the abilty to select an instructor for a private lesson is key.

The Vail pricing is outrageous

 

[LiquidFeet]

Thought it might be interesting to see what that 6 hour lesson would cost where I teach.
A one hour private is $139. 6 hours would bring that to $834.
I don't think people do this at Bretton Woods, though, and there's no discount (that I know of) for buying multiple one-hour lessons.

They do however buy two back-to-back privates for themselves or their kids, and they do that often. We get lots and lots of kid's privates.

 

[jmeb]

There are places you can get a WEEK of cat skiing for that!...

Please do share. I've never seen anything near that cheap that was good cat skiing.

 

[4ster]

Whatever you think of them, the suits in Broomfield are not stupid. They have a pretty good idea what the market will bear.
But it blows my mind.

They might not be stupid but they may be evil.
If people cannot afford to learn to ski, the hill becomes a mass of ignorant, unskilled, unguided missiles. If that becomes the case then the sport of skiing will die and we might as well turn all the slopes into tubing hills.

 

[David Chaus]

Of course, eating what's on sale instead of what you want, driving an inexpensive old 4-cylinder car AT THE SPEED LIMIT to save gasoline, and generally living like a popper the rest of the year so you can afford to do that also makes the vacation better by comparison.

Actually, it’s “pauper.”

And I resemble that remark.

 

[James]

It's called a "ski experience"
Part of that experience is paying for it.

 

[dbostedo]

I'm curious... How many folks here have done an all day private lesson?

I did one at Aspen during a Gathering. (Actually the first day I'd ever been to a Gathering.) After reading a lot on Epic, I wanted to ski with Bob Barnes, so took the opportunity.

Anyone else? Maybe this should be its own thread...

 

[4ster]

Do the chess pieces keep moving around the board to keep us guessing or are they all just expendable pawns In their own guessing game?

http://southtahoenow.com/story/08/2...ges-vail-resorts-heavenly-kirkwood-and-others

 

[Jerez]

I rather feel sorry for the Vail instructors. For that price, the "guest" is going to have enormous expectations. The instructor will need to be a magician and all-around servant to make them feel satisfied.

 

[Blue Streak]

I rather feel sorry for the Vail instructors. For that price, the "guest" is going to have enormous expectations. The instructor will need to be a magician and all-around servant to make them feel satisfied.

That’s true for every lesson, regardless of the price.

 

[Chris V.]

Northstar "only" $829 if booked two days ahead. Holding the line fairly well, actually. Don't know the walkup rate.

 

[Ken_R]

I rather feel sorry for the Vail instructors. For that price, the "guest" is going to have enormous expectations. The instructor will need to be a magician and all-around servant to make them feel satisfied.

So so true. Happens in all industries when a "facilitator" takes a huge cut.

There was thread here in Pugski a while back that discussed how much instructors were getting paid...

 

[Blue Streak]

Oh no! Don’t open that can of worms

 

[LiquidFeet]

Aspen has raised it base pay to $15.00/hour.
https://www.pugski.com/threads/aspen-raises-minimum-wage-again-to-15.16082/

 

[KingGrump]

If split amongst 6 people - that's doable.
IIRC a group did that at Squaw for the Gathering and got line cuts on a powder day, but it wasn't $1200.00

Friday, March 2, 2012, Squaw Valley. The thought Heavenly was too far to drive in the storm from Alpine.
It was $300 for half day private. That was with a 50% Squaw gold pass discount.
There were 5 of us. We were so clueless, they had to throw in a mountain guide for free so we don't get lost.
And no, it was not for line cutting purposes. We were there for an powder lesson. We were so bad they provided an additional instructor just to make sure we would make it through the day.
IIRC, all our watches stop functioning sometime in the morning. When we finished the half day, the sky was pretty dark. So we went for beer and pizza at Chamois.
I believe we got a decent bang for the buck.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I'm just going to say now, that there is NOBODY on Earth that is worth $1250 for a ski lesson.

 

[jmeb]

I'm just going to say now, that there is NOBODY on Earth that is worth $1250 for a ski lesson.

Given I had the funds, I’d pay that to ski with Mikaela for a day. Just to watch her free ski.

 

[Blue Streak]

I'm just going to say now, that there is NOBODY on Earth that is worth $1250 for a ski lesson.

It’s all relative.
Some have more disposable income than others.