An industry has been built around last minute, “name your price” / “fill empty rooms” deals. Another industry has been built around advanced purchase / “we’ll give you a discount if you commit now to coming later” type deals. My brain honestly never tried to find a crossover between the two, but that’s exactly what Sugarloaf managed to pull off.

Introducing, Zoom Rooms. Here’s how it works.

Zoom Rooms
Skiers can purchase cards (a great start, it’s a much better word to use than “voucher” in my book) for $99 that give them a room for the night at the resort whenever they need it. Too much apres? Too many bump runs? A big storm coming in tomorrow and vacation time to burn? Walk up, hand them the card, if they have rooms, you’ll get one.

Here are all the details from the website:

“A Zoom Rooms card is just $99 plus tax and entitles you to one night in a hotel-style room or studio condo. Rooms can be reserved up to 48 hours in advance (no longer term reservations — sorry!). Just call our reservations line or walk up to a front desk, and if we have availability the room is yours. The room nights can be used anytime during the 2012-13 ski season — midweek, weekends, holidays… it’s up to you. Plus, the cards are fully transferable so you can use it for yourself, give it to a friend, or purchase them as gifts. “

Simple, right? You presell rooms that are designed to be used at the last minute and, really, can only be used at the last minute. With the 48 hour limit, there is no way to use these cards for vacations. As a trade off for this limit and the uncertainty of rooms, skiers get a guaranteed rate for a nice place to sleep any time they need and Sugarloaf gets advanced lodging revenue and fills rooms that might otherwise have gone empty. The price is not too low, but not too high. Seems like a great balance.

Simple, smart, and great for both the resort and the guest. Well done.

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.