Lift Line Business Idea

T

TomK1

Member
Hey so i had to come up with a business idea for one of my classes so I

decided to make a service in which you can text a number and receive up

to date info on the lift lines at any of the Colorado 5 mtn Pass (Vail)

resorts. Anyway, tell me what you guys think.

Opportunity:

With a large and relatively affluent population base in Denver and

the surrounding area, the Colorado ski resorts have enjoyed great

success and are among the premier ski resorts in the World.

Unfortunately, the

large volume of people that visit these high end resorts often results

in

extraordinarily long lift lines that can extend upwards of an hour.

Solution:

Slipstream Systems is a text/web subscription service which

allows users to enter the resort name into their cell phone and receive instant

feedback on the wait times for each lift at the resort. The website will

present compiled data and provide line forecasts and trends so that guests may

better plan trips to the mountains.

Value Proposition:

Many of Colorado’s

premier resorts have season pass prices that are pushing $600. Locals that pay

this premium want to get the most for their money and are usually avid skiers

who would prefer to spend more time on the slopes and less time standing in

crowded lines. Our service will allow users to find which resort or even which

individual lift has the shortest wait times in real time. This is done by

utilizing new RFID technology which is being implanted in the 2008/2009 season

passes. Our service will allow people to make informed decisions on were they

would like to ski that day or even which part of the mountain to head to after

lunch.



Competitive

Advantage:

There is currently no direct competition in this niche

market. There are currently websites that display traffic updates for driving

to the mountains but little has been done to consider the crowds at the resorts

themselves. Initially, we will be working exclusively with Vail Resorts in

which there is currently little being done to provide info on lift lines other

than rough estimates posted at the line itself or on the large maps situated

around the resort.



Marketing Strategy:

Our marketing strategy will be focused on two areas. We will

be posting advertisements at ski movie premiers, online forums and ski related

magazines as this is often reasonably cheap and hit on our target market of Colorado locals almost

exclusively. As we expand, we will also invest in more expensive physical

advertising space such as billboards and signs posted at the resorts

themselves. Depending on how closely we work with Vail Resorts, we may include

our service as an option when guests sign up for season passes online.
 
Oh my god I'm in love. I go to school up in Denver and that would be amazing.

If you need any help at all getting started, let me know and I'll gladly pitch in to assist
 
Thats a super solid idea but you would need very many employees for it to work effectivly.
 
I would set it up so the RFID pass would automatically trip a sensor at the beginning of the line which will begin a timer that would stop when the other sensor is tripped right before a skier boards the lift.
 
denver does not even have an affluent population. mountains in new england and california are close to way bigger populations. most people that ski in colorado are from the east coast.
 
you'd probably be better off by convincing the resort to pay you to offer the service free of charge to all of its customers, instead of individually charging each customer.
 
haha definitely not true, everyone that skis in colorado is either a local or a texan or other assorted rednecks. there really are no that many east coasters that come and ski here.
 
1) lift line lengths vary throughout the day. If someone texted in the morning when no one was at the resort, but then a surge of people or a busses came up, the text would have been useless

2) you would have to have some way of monitoring the length of the lift lines throughout the day, at every chairlift, at every resort. the cost to install technology (or hire someone to report the times) would be extensive. Disneyland can't even do it all that well and they have a lot more capital to work with, in a more centralized location

3) How would this business make money? Unless people are paying a monthly service fee to access the lines, or are being charged an enormous amount per call, i dont understand how you'd make money?

4) You'd have to look into how large an influence lift lines are to skiers when they decide which mountain to go to. Unless length of lift lines are more important than terrain, snow conditions, reputation, price, accessibility and a bunch of other factors, this technology probably wouldn't be that usefull. I mean, when I decide to go to a resort its usually based on what their park setup is looking like, and how close they are to me. Would people really want to drive an extra half hour so they can save 4 minutes in a liftline each run?

5) this probably isnt worth my effort to type anymore.....
 
i think it would be better to just have the billboards/signs to update realll time so you just can make a decision at the top of the hill then ski to where you want to go.

giving it to everyone would be a little crazy and useless for most resorts to actually have a good market for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top