No enforcement of safety or any rules, no working heat, no secure mail room in employee housing. no HR department to contact and lots of screw ups i.e. tax rates being entered wrong, hours missing from paychecks, significant delays in pay, certain departments hired with full-time hour expectations but then REQUIRED to work overtime and not able to request days off. way too big of a company and way overstaffed, and overpromising to guests/staff to not have employee support (HR functions outsourced to virtual company which take weeks to respond to urgent matters, if at all).
Advice to Management: Stop over promising guests and bringing in employees under false pretenses then act.
Unsafe vehicles, drivers forced into overtime, management fails to protect drivers.
Wage is low; don’t care about employees; overtime because they don’t have enough employees.
Vail Resorts Glassdoor reviews
Category: Northstar ski resort review
“Vail Senior leadership is extremely toxic.”
Senior leadership (Kirsten, Michael, Rob) are extreme micromanagers who do not tolerate dissent or welcome alternative points of view from those below them. They demand that they make all meaningful decisions for the company – and the only people allowed in the room with them are their VPs. As a Director in the corporate office, this was incredible disempowering because it meant that I had no real ownership. Vail describes itself as “the greatest leadership company on earth” – this is laughable. There is no empowerment to make decisions, no respect for work life balance (at one point the CMO literally asked if we could stop taking Thanksgiving as a company holiday, regularly demands people work on Christmas / New Years, etc.), and effectively zero career progression opportunities at the Director level and above unless your only focus is on pleasing those above you. I really, really wanted to like this company. I loved my co-workers. It broke my heart to see it so thoroughly ruined by senior leadership. There is a reason there is SUPER high turnover (which has been the case for years, by the way). When I joined, the average tenure of my coworkers was less than a year. When I left several years later, the average tenure of my coworkers was less than a year. People come here thinking it will be great (who doesn’t want to work in the ski industry?), realize the reality of the situation, and then leave. I ignored the Glassdoor reviews when I took my job there and I regret doing so.
Advice to Management
Honestly, with Kirsten about to become the new CEO, I would not recommend anyone work at Vail’s corporate office. She surrounds herself with people who reinforce her own viewpoints and systematically weeds out anyone who disagrees with her. She talks in public about the importance of sustainability and then literally hours later, in private meetings, creates crushing workloads for the teams under her – I have seen this happen on many, many occasions. These are hallmarks of terrible leadership and a toxic workplace culture.
Vail Resorts Glassdoor review
What Vail Resorts employees are saying about Vail
Absolute unfair pay, no holidays, no support from management, no benefits unless employee is full time which is very rare.
No work/life balance, they don’t listen to local resort or community feedback, no consideration for local cultures & values, super corporate, no heart. Morale is terrible. Staff have no sense of ownership of their roles or the company. It feels like working for a faceless corporate overlord when skiing is supposed to be about fun. The company is hated by the local community. I was embarrassed to tell people I worked for them.
Really low pay considering how expensive food is in Vail. You will be exposed to the sun pretty much all day in most work areas so you have to bring your own sun screen. A few crappy management members will try to get you to come in on your days off for extra training or work, and will treat you poorly if you won’t, effectively mandatory overtime despite policies that state otherwise. Sick days are highly discouraged but everyone gets sick because they live in dorm-like conditions. Most of your coworkers will probably be nomad potheads with no goals in life (hence the stricter management protocols).
No room to grow in the company, no pay raise in 5 years, and new manager every season. The communication between different departments is nonexistent.
No work/life balance, unrealistic expectations and forced office fun; little to no diversity.
Vail Reviews at Glassdoor.comHorrible management, no work/life balance, no loyalty, horrendous pay.
“Not worth the lift ticket prices”
Rude personnel, extremely strict rules… inconsistent feedback from people working here regarding the resort rules.
Not worth the lift ticket prices and f**k vail resorts altogether
This place is an absolute nightmare! Do not come here unless you want to wait in line for a shuttle for over an hour minimum and wait to park your car for an hour as well. Just parking your car will make you wanna leave it’s so chaotic. Have fun looking at the backside when you arrive, there’s fresh powder everywhere, however they won’t open it and force feed everyone into lines once you hit the front side. It’s honestly the worst resort I’ve ever been to. Just a giant trap to take your money away from you. Oh and when it’s time to leave be prepared to wait in another hour line to get back to your car and then another hour to leave. Avoid at all costs
2 hours to download from village to parking lot. 100+ people line built up from 3:30 to 4 waiting on first bus. Supply trucks were dangerously pulling in and out through the queue of people. Cutting left and right with no direction. Total mess.
No lights in the pitch black parking lot at 6 pm to top it off. This resort needs a total overhaul on customer service and parking functionality. Frankly unacceptable from an upper level management perspective. They have the $$ to do it right.
Don’t come here unless you stay on site. 4x Epic Pass holder. Heavenly and Kirkwood are visitor friendly.
After paying for very EXPENSIVE ticket during Christmas, we were informed by staff that the mountain is closed for the day due to safety reason and extreme weather, after only less than 2 hours of total time spent at the resort. When asking about partial refund or credit, nothing was offered and staff told us that “this situation happens frequently at the resort”.
Source: Google reviews
“Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing”
Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing. If you come on a Saturday-Sunday at least, that is all you will do. 2+ hour bumper to bumper traffic delay over 8 miles backed up from the resort on 1/21 (all entirely resort traffic) – they sell WAY more lift tickets and passes than people they can fit on the mountain or their infrastructure will allow. This was with an original departure time that should have had us to the parking lot over a half hour before opening. And good luck getting any customer service for all your wasted efforts and money – if they already have your money via Epic Pass or prepaid lift ticket, they couldn’t care less what experience you have from there. Many Tahoe resorts suffer capacity issues, but nowhere to the extremes of Northstar. If you do get in (we gave up today at least after 4 hours of trying) the skiing itself is average at best – better snow and better runs elsewhere.
Tyler Knox via Google reviews
“4055 Coyote Fork: Terrible Condo unit”
I stayed at 4055 Coyote Fork condo unit and the unit is terrible. carpet and couch is very dirty. coffee maker is broken, bathroom ceiling is pealing, bedroom tv is so little like the size of the laptop. I stayed at Northstar resort in the past but, didn’t experience this horrible experience before. this is the worst unit I stayed at Northstar resort.
Sally via booking.com
“Northstar Resort is a terrible and unreliable business”
Northstar Resort cancelled our hotel reservation 6 days before ski week due to “overbooking”. They did not offer to compensate us for any future stays. The only thing they offered was to let us have a $1700/night room which was ridiculous and way out of our budget. Due to their ineptitude, we had to cancel our entire trip. They took no responsibility for their mistake and in to make matters worse, they charged us IN FULL the day before they cancelling our room. I had to chase them down for the refund. They are a terrible and unreliable business that has no consideration for its customers. Do not book a room here.
seddiek
The Village At Northstar – Avoid
No early check in and service at front desk sucks. Did nothing to help us get into our room 20 minutes early even though it was obviously already cleaned. Front desk did absolutely nothing, just made my family waste their time sitting in our vehicle until precisely 4pm. After paying a considerable premium, I’m less likely to come back here after such poor service. Thanks for making my 6 month old wait in the car when they could have just been in the condo.
Nicholas Young
“overall the place did not live up to how much it charged”
When we checked in at our room, the smoke detector was beeping loudly due to low battery. You could hear it from outside the door. So we asked the front desk if they could change it. They said the maintenance guy just left and we needed to wait till next morning. We were a bit shocked that 1) there was already no emergency maintenance at 8pm; 2) they would suggest us to just wait a whole night in a room where it was impossible to sleep or even rest. So I told the front desk staff that we couldn’t stay there with this constant sharp beeping. Then she offered us ear plugs… hmm thank you but no. We politely demanded a better solution. Finally they switched us to another room, which was great and appreciated (and that’s why this is not a 1 star review). But why this was not the initial solution?
Siyu H
A few other notes. The balcony door in the new room couldn’t lock. The AC was quite ineffective. The room was 65F when we went in. We set the temperature to 72F. Three hours later it was 67F.
The environment was nice. Room was spacious. Location was convenient. But overall the place did not live up to how much it charged (400+$ per night for us). There are many Airbnb options nearby and quite a few hotels in Truckee less than 10miles away from the ski area. So I don’t recommend this place.
“This is NOT a 4 star property .. What a rip off”
THIS IS NOT A 4 star PROPERTY. You have been warned, do not get scammed. A 4 star property should have bell available (not bell service), room service, laundry service, housekeeping without a fee, decent attitude, responsive reservation staff, etc — this property has NONE of the above. You will receive better service if you stayed at Best Western or better attitude at even a 2-star property! To top that off they scam you into not reading the fine lines and you cannot, for the first time in my life, even upgrade your reservation by paying the difference! They also have very dated appliance and their room DID NOT look like the picture advertised and I suspect the room size is much smaller than the advertised 400sqft, and nor is the bed a real King. Their kitchen in the studio is so small they kept the utensil and the KNIVES in an unlocked, GROUND LEVEL cabinet so BEWARE if you have kids. I will NEVER come back here again and nor will any of my family and friends if I can help it. What a rip off.
Claire L
“So bad…ridiculous delays in getting the room”
We were told at 10am, that they were only promising 4pm. At 3:30, they had no idea. At 4:00pm, they said 20 minutes. At 4:30, we called and got no answer. So, $800 per night gets you nothing…terrible.
Daron E
“buyer beware-not worth the headache!”
Booked a trip for my 35th birthday. Front check-in girl was rude, acted like I was inconvienicing her by being their early. They gave us a key to the gym/pool/garage which didn’t work and had to go back and get reprogrammed, and she seemed more irritated like that was my fault. The room was nice and clean. We made breakfast in the kitchenette and put all the dishes In the dishwasher which immediately leaked all over the place saturating the kitchenette floor, so good thing there were lots of towels.
bigislandracing
We had a decent time skiing, crowded as usual at northstar.
When we went to check out our folio change was $1,760 compared to the $1,160 reservation we had. When I questioned the front desk person ( a different yet still unhelpful person) told me I had to take it up with reservations, and she gave us their number. Called reservations and they tell me to take it up with the front desk. After 4 phone calls to people you can barley understand im still out $600, and this has pretty much ruined all the fun we had for the weekend. Hopefully my credit card company can sort it out.
The property is decently nice but buyer beware-not worth the headache!
Avoid Ski Trail condos – overpriced junk rented from trailer trash owners
First warning is to look at the pictures very carefully. What you will see is a small dark condo that has not been updated since probably the 50’s including the furniture and beds which were very shoddy and uncomfortable. The second warning is some of the furniture you see is simply not there – the futon that is supposed to be in the loft is actually in the living room instead of the comfy couch you see. It does seem that an appliance and electrical upgrade took place in the 90’s, leaving a huge fire hazard where the all the electronics are plugged in and a cable remote that should be in a museum. The condo is very dark drab and stuffy; the only thing that saved us was a huge noisy fan that we had to carry from room to room. As previously mentioned, the bedding and most of the kitchen utensils looked like they were bought at a thrift store about the same time as the 90’s upgrades.
We did get a laugh when we saw a sign to remove our shoes before stepping on some really old and dirty carpet. We did comply but kept our socks on to avoid catching anything. While I’m at it there were multiple lights that didn’t work, trying to turn off the shower is a horrifying experience – we kept expecting the faucet to break each time we yanked it with all our might. Sleeping on the futon in the living room was a nightmare given there wasn’t complete bedding for it and all the light and noise ion that area.
There were a couple of good things I must say. Location was about a 15 minute walk of the village, check-in and check out was quick and efficient and there was lots of parking given it was in the summer. Sadly, that’s all the good I could come up with. In conclusion, we now realize we could have stayed in a much nicer place for a lot less then we ended up paying for this outdated, shoddy dump.
Terese E. via Vacasa
Ski Trails Condominium Association (which is a part of Northstar Property Owners Association) is run by Camco Truckee management company.
I’ve been at Northstar for 28 years ……my mom lives here 3 Months in the summer as well . She has more patience with these people . My realtor and I not so much . Seems like they could be eliminated all together the resort could save some $ and so could the home owners
Megan A. via Yelp
If i could give negative stars I would. I have owned several properties nationwide that have been managed by HOAs. In the pas,t I thought I experienced poor service from some of the HOAs I’ve done business with. Compared to Camco, they were stellar! I have had a simple home repair work order out since June ( it is now October). My first request for repair was not responded to. After several further requests, they finally responded and stated they needed to get Board approval. We are talking about a small piece of broken siding, something any repairman could fix in less than an hour. After a month Camco responded the Board denied the work order. I then sent Camco the HOAs CC&R where it clearly states they are responsible for fixing the damage. After several more emails and threats they finally agreed to fix the damage in August. It is now October and to date, the damage has not been addressed. I have never experienced such horrible service. I caution any board member of a community save their community members the aggravation and avoid this property management firm!
Magda T. via Yelp
No wonder Ski Trail condos look and feel like a trailer park in and out. IMO, the majority of Ski Trail condos owners look like trailer trash themselves. Rude, arrogant trailer trash. Avoid.
Former Northstar employee (Ski Coach): “Run Screaming Into The Night”
The majority of the management, both senior and mid level, had nothing but the companies bottom dollar in interest. From the CEO/COO down to ski team management. I was told by a ski team manager that coaches “should not let their athletes progress too fast because then the parents would realize they needed better coaches and a better mountain”, and that the goal was to keep them long enough to buy a house at northstar and lock them into the vail ecosystem. This same director drove away an alarming number of coaches, predominantly female. There’s no room for misogyny in the ski industry any more. Although apparently Vail/Northstar doesn’t feel the same. The bottom line 100% financially based decision making was an utter disappointment for someone who has put decades into the ski industry. The lack of livable pay or easily accessible and quality benefits for seasonal employees is pathetic. You can’t survive in a ski town with what they pay, and they expect you to dedicate more time than you’re paid for.
Advice to Management: Just give up. Quit. Stop trying.
Former Northstar employee (Ski Coach)
Source: Glassdoor.com
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 