Snowbird offers sale to increase hotel bookings in December

Snowbird Ski Resort offered a 48-hour sale earlier this week, which started at 12 a.m. Monday morning and lasted until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night.

The sale offered patrons a discounted overnight rate for the resort’s four hotel properties starting at $99 per night valid anytime in December. The normal starting overnight rate for the month of December is $170 per night.

“We are seeing a big decline in bookings for the month of December,” said Bob Bonar, the resort’s general manager. “Right now, there isn’t much snow anywhere in the country. There is no urgency for people to book when it isn’t snowing.”

The sale created a partnership between Snowbird and Ski Salt Lake. Ski Salt Lake is a marketing group promoting skiing in the area. The deal was advertised exclusively through Facebook ads targeting Southern Californian winter enthusiasts.

“Many of our guests come from Southern California,” said Dave Fields, vice-president of resort operations and the resort’s marketing director. “We have six different graphic advertisements in the ad on Facebook trying to attract people.”

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, 137 people had taken advantage of the sale.

“Social media is huge,” said John Collins, the resort’s director of mountain activities and mountain operations risk manager. “Most people have a Facebook account.  Partnering with Ski Salt Lake allows us to pin point a large target of people, which in this case was California.”

While the sale appears to have been successful, Snowbird will have to wait until it ends on Wednesday to see how profitable it was. 

“To put on a sale like this, Ski Salt Lake charges us a pay-per-click amount for the ad on Facebook,” Bonar said. “Any time someone clicks on one of the six graphics that are being advertised on the side of Facebook pages, Snowbird gets charged $1.”

The weeks before and after Christmas are typically some of the busiest times of the year for Snowbird.

With bookings currently down, Snowbird representative’s hope the sale will help increase December reservations.

“All we want is heads in beds,” Fields said. “If our hotel rooms are occupied that translates to making money as a whole.”