Filters are everywhere. They’re on Google, they’re on Facebook, they’re in your email inbox. So this week we’re talking about resort optimization to work with these filters to get your content the most visibility possible.

Liftopia sells a lot of tickets. That’s no surprise, nor is the fact that some resorts sell more tickets than others.

Now, the yield management side is a critical topic and one we’ll save for another day, but what about the listings themselves? How does Liftopia decide that your search for Colorado tickets in January starts “Winter Park, Arapahoe Basin, Sunlight” and not the other way around?

A while back I asked Liftopia’s Evan Reece this very question. Here’s are a few takeaways to remember from his reply.

Factor 1: PRICE
First an foremost, Liftopia looks at the price of the ticket being sold.

“All else held equal, price is a key factor in determining the value of a product and therefore has an impact on sort order…Both on-mountain and Liftopia price are taken into account for this piece of the algorithm.”

Remember, however, that this is only one piece of the equation and price alone won’t put you at the top.

Factor 2: SAVINGS %
Tied into price, and the comparison to on-mountain prices especially, is the savings percentage of any given ticket. Remember, people are on Liftopia for deals. The discount percentage is what humans often look at first, so it makes sense that Liftopia, in an effort to display relevant results, would use this number as well to determine what they show any given visitor.

Factor 3: NUMBER OF PRODUCTS AVAILABLE
Here’s what Evan said about the impact of your selection on listings:

“This may be surprising to folks, but the more products a resort has available for sale at any given time has a tremendous impact on the likelihood of that individual resort making a sale. Therefore, having more products available at any given time positively impacts resorts’ sort order.”

Factor 4: MARGIN %
Again, I’ll let Evan’s words tell the story here.

“Much like Google Adwords bid amount impacts placement in search results, Liftopia’s margin impacts placement on the Liftopia site.”

Factor 5: QUALITY RANKING/DEMAND CAPTURE
It’s important to remember that Liftopia is not a link directory but a business. Like Google rewarding advertisers that have a high click through rate (remember, for Google, the click is the transaction with the advertiser), Liftopia rewards resorts whose products sell well.

“‘Quality Ranking’ is not an objective ranking of products, but a ranking of how successful any given product is at capturing sales on Liftopia. This means resorts that are more successful at completing sales on Liftopia improve their placement, as consumers are ‘telling’ us that the deals are compelling by buying at various rates.”

Recap
So, if I had to put this into one sentence I’d say: create a wide variety of compelling offers and you’ll have a good chance of making the most of your resort’s Liftopia offers.

Good luck.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.