While they may not be at Kardashian level yet, the South Okanagan’s own Baldy Mountain Resort broke the internet on Wednesday.
The resort’s early bird season pass campaign was due to wrap up its final day on Wednesday, July 31 and organizers said skiers and riders came out in droves to get the deals and benefits before the deadline resulting in a 90-minute shutdown of the website. The resort has announced it will extend the deals and benefits for an additional weekend, now ending Monday, Aug. 5 at midnight to allow anyone inconvenienced by the shut down to still access the deals.
The resort saw a significant upward trend in sales over the past week as last-minute buyers start coming online, but Wednesday it went to a new level.
READ MORE: Baldy Mountain Resort launches parent pass for upcoming season
“I was watching the live analytics and sales numbers and they were peaking off the chart,” said marketing manager Andrew Zwicker in a news release. “On Tuesday we had a record single-day sales record for Baldy Mountain since we re-opened three years ago. It was continuing toward a record day today when all of a sudden the analytics went to zero.”
A huge number of skiers and riders came online to Baldy Mountain Resort’s website all attempting to purchase their season passes at the same time and the hosting server failed.
“It’s always a bit of a worry when your website goes down on what should be your biggest sales day of the year,” said general manager Andy Foster.
READ MORE: Baldy sold to new owners
The site was back online within 90 minutes with sales picking back up. The resort has since already begun the process of upgrading to a more reliable and robust hosting solution.
Foster said part of the reason for the record sales numbers for early bird pass sales this season may be due to two significant new initiatives at Baldy this season.
First, Baldy Mountain Resort joined an alliance of four other independent Southern B.C. ski areas (Apex Mountain Resort, Manning Park, Mt Seymour and Mt Washington) called the ERA (Enhanced Reciprocal Agreement) Pass. As a result, all Baldy Mountain Resort season pass holders this season receive eight free lift tickets — two tickets each to Apex, Manning Park, Mt Seymour and Mt Washington. Over $500 in free lift tickets for a $389 Baldy season pass.
Secondly, Baldy put a huge focus on affordability this year. It created the first parent pass in the Okanagan which allows two parents of young children to share 1 season pass for far less than the cost of two season’s passes. They also launched a new family pass giving families of three or more 15 per cent off their season pass. In addition, a student pass offering all students 19-24 years old a season pass for just $319.
“We did a massive amount of research this year looking into all of the data and business intelligence we could gather, pouring over spreadsheets and most importantly asking our guests what they wanted,” said Zwicker. “The end result as we’re seeing in the numbers is that people have really responded to the new pass options, and our big push to add over $1,000 in value to our season pass.”
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