NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail
The good, the bad and the ugly about NorthStar California ski resort and Vail Resorts
Are these imbeciles aware that they are not even mentioned in the list (300 companies) at all, not just in “Travel & Leisure” section.
Or were they taking about the “worst employers”?
Source: Glassdoor
“Narcissism, Negativity, and Micromanagement.”
Micromanagement is horrible here, leads are constantly berating agents and embarrassing them. Not offering any real help or training when asked. Unnecessary daily morning meetings where the leads tell us how horrible we all are and never have anything positive to say or solutions to offer, then telling us to “crush it” and “have a great day” like the past 15 minutes of negativity is motivation for us to do well. Don’t expect your lead to care about you, your situation, or anything that’s outside of being on the phones (I have comforted many agents crying about how stressed they are and getting no response when they reach out to their leads). Most leads have no idea how to even do their jobs, let alone ours. The customer service department is just a mess.
Advice to Management:
Take better care of who you are hiring to supervise your employees. A lot of quality, intelligent, and loyal employees jumping ship because they are tired of the constant negativity and confusion from the leads. We work hard for horrible pay and get no support or positive reinforcement for it at all. Just do better.
Customer Service Agent (via Glassdoor)
“Horrible company, incompetent managers.”
Horrible management, no work/life balance, no loyalty, horrendous pay.
Advice to Management:
Fire your management
Ski Tech in Colorado Springs, CO (via Glassdoor)
“Tips are not good here.”
Everything is bad here, really I would not lie to you about this. Get a job somewhere else and just buy a pass, unless you like drunken roommates and transient people in your room. You will like being cold and broke and looking for a place to live
Cashier/Barista in Breckenridge, CO (via Glassdoor)
“If you like being overworked & underpaid, Vail Resorts is for you!”
Now Vail Resorts is just another giant heartless corporation that says all the right woke nonsense but treats their employees like garbage. If you are going to work there, work on hourly not salary, they abuse salaried employees with ridiculous demands for your personal time.
Advice to Management:
If you want employees to stay and respect you, the actions have to match the words. You built that empire off the backs of employees who never got 1 dime of equity in the company while Rob Katz, Executive Management & Rob’s New York Hedge Fund buddies got rich
Senior Business Systems Analyst in Broomfield, CO (via Glassdoor)
Typical process. Recruiter phone screen, multiple video interviews. Overall it was simple, but there was a lack of communication and interviewers were disorganized during the interview. My experience was poor because they interviewed me in the second round of interviews when they already decided they were going to hire someone internally.
Anonymous (via Glassdoor)
I was directly sourced via LinkedIn and was quickly scheduled for interviews. I met with the recruiter, hiring manager, and an internal HRBP (“peer”). They were highly responsive and moved quickly to schedule me for my next round after next round all within the same week.
I was communicating directly with the hiring manager who was making herself available and checking in with me regularly – all good signs of interest to go out of her way. I was told I would have one more conversation, and after following up a few times, received no reply.
After several days of silence, I received an automated decline email from the recruiter/ATS. After following up directly both with the recruiter and hiring manager for additional context, I still received no reply.
Auto-declines are used often and acceptable through most of the process – but not with late-stage applicants you’re seriously considering. Overall, a very disappointing candidate experience – then again, candidate experience is incredibly reflective of a company’s values and culture..
Anonymous (via Glassdoor)
Put your head down and get through it I guess.
Surrounded by idiots 24/7 40+ hrs/week.
Assistant Manager in Keystone, CO (via Glassdoor)
Beyond poor.
Covid precautions are terrible and posed a threat to the community. They refused to pay me for my time in quarantine, due to some bushel miscommunication.
Warehouse Worker (via Glassdoor)
Do not recommend.
Very political culture with overall lack of accountability and micro management.
Director Marketing in Denver, CO (via Glassdoor)
Manager puts drivers at risk.
Unsafe vehicles, drivers forced into overtime, management fails to protect drivers, angry guests wearing masks.
Advice to Management:
None, after 17 years, I realized bad management is Vail Resorts policy, profits over people.
Route Driver in Beaver Creek, CO (via Glassdoor)
Lack of diversity.
Especially in leadership and they don’t care to make a change. No upward mobility – just machines. You can make more money at Taco Bell in Denver.
Talent Acquisition Specialist in Broomfield, CO (via Glassdoor)
I applied online. I interviewed at Vail Resorts (Denver, CO) in Nov 2021.
I was really excited to interview with Vail but after this interview process, am very disappointed with the level of professionalism and mutual respect shown in the recruiting process.
Anonymous (via Glassdoor)
Since early November, Vail Resorts’ stock (MTN) has not been a great performer in the larger travel and leisure universe.
While the stock market is up nearly 10% since October, Vail Resorts’ stock is down 15%, meaning the stock is underperforming by close to 25 percentage points.
The problem looks to be unique to Vail Resorts in the travel and leisure sector as other big travel stocks appear to be doing fine. Carnival Cruise Lines was $23.01 on Nov. 1, and on Friday it was $21.90. Marriott Hotels is basically flat in that time, and Hilton, like the market overall, is up slightly during that time. Six Flags parks are up slightly in that time, as well.
Source: VailDaily
We are close to hit the floor at 280. There is no support after that and the stock is going to be in a free dive.
Vail sold thousands of Epic Local passes good at Stevens Pass in Washington. They weren’t willing to pay market wages, so couldn’t hire enough staff to open the mountain. During peak ski season between Christmas and New Year’s, they opened less than 40% of the ski area because of staffing shortages. They are stealing from people who paid in advance for season passes.
John Bravenec via Facebook
Moving on to season pass results, Lynch said, “Pass product sales for the North American ski season increased approximately 47% in units and approximately 21% in sales dollars through December 5, 2021 as compared to the period in the prior year through December 6, 2020
Net loss attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. was $139.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 compared to a net loss attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. of $153.8 million in the same period in the prior year. Both periods continued to be negatively impacted by COVID-19 and related limitations and restrictions.
Resort Reported EBITDA loss was $108.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, compared to a Resort Reported EBITDA loss of $94.8 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
Vail’s Fiscal Report 2022
Disgusted with the way I was treated. They owe me 2 season passes. Vail is a scum company. Can not believe they can operate in the US.
Dean Cloninger via Facebook
Vail’s treatment of its customers is the worst I have ever encountered. It is only that I love Whistler mountain that I continue to pay several thousand dollars for passes. It is unnerving that Vail cares so little.
Jako Krushnisky via Facebook
This is obviously part of a corporate growth plan. Brilliant actually….create an artificial problem….then implement a solution that increases revenue. Customers don’t even realize they got had.
Step 1 – Discount season pass prices to encourage more people to buy passes
Step 2 – Create an artificial staff shortage to make it extra miserable for everyone
Step 3 – Implement a reservation system that limits how many season pass holders can visit each resort on any particular day. Create a new class of pass that gets priority reservations for $250 premium.
Step 4 – Increase the limit on season pass sales the following year since 20% of pass holders won’t be able to use their passes on peak holiday dates.
Step 5 – Rake in the cash.
Forkboy2 (via Reddit)
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.
Director in Broomfield, CO (via Glassdoor)
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 