I am giving my feedback with the background of being mistreated by Vail Inc. I am an American who has skied at Whistler since 1967. Last year, as we are all aware, us Americans could not come across the border to Canada. I paid for the local season pass for that year and was promised on the contract to be reimbursed for the money spent. After numerous inquiries to Whistler, Vail Resorts, and the so-called insurance company in California, I was denied a refund. I also had a local season pass at Stevens Pass which I did use that year.
At Stevens Pass, more than 40,000 people signed a petition to get reimbursed by Vail Resorts for several reasons. It could have created a big problem for Vail. Vail did the right thing and hired Tom Fortune, a past local at Stevens, to fix the problems. He has done a fine job to lessen the issues there. In my opinion, Vail Resorts needs to let the people at Whistler deal with the problems there. They do not need to be hampered by corporate Vail Resorts. Give locals the authority to run Whistler.
I will list some of my issues with the service at Whistler: The food and service on the mountains has been very bad and expensive. We used to love eating lunch at the restaurants on the mountain. Ski tuning, waxing, and adjustments used to be handled by Whistler personnel. No longer, just closed facilities. Vail Resorts could have eased the transportation problems caused by the transit strike. All we got was overcrowded parking lots with huge potholes. This has not been very good treatment of staff and visitors. There are other issues as well that I will not add.
Whistler has excellent staff to care for its customers if Vail Resorts will let them do their job and make decisions that make the experience better. If so, then corporate Vail may be able to increase cash flow and grow.
