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We’ve seen a really intriguing trend evolve in the industry over the last number of years. It’s always existing, but there’s a lot of creativity being applied to it right now. In a sentence, resorts are recognizing that many of their skiers have a lot more to spend at the resort than they currently do and are looking to offer exclusive perks to this group that offer an exclusive experience while preserving traditional access for everyone else.

For example, Fast Tracks at POWDR resorts is a simple and commonly-discussed example of experimentation within this trend. Windham’s private/public hybrid model is another.

Today I want to share a recent addition to this list. My point isn’t to decide if it’s good or bad, but rather to keep this discussion going and more resorts start to put actual products and campaigns around these ideas that have been simmering for a while as resorts try to enhance the experience for some without significantly impacting the experience for others.

Black Diamond Club

Alyeska’s approach takes a product that is already heavily tiered based on your budget and desire for exclusive experiences – hotel rooms – and simply takes it one step further. In this case they’re doing this with the top floor of their hotel and calling it the Black Diamond Club.

There seem to be three types of perks they’re rolling into this concept.

1) Top Floor Perks

The first is perks that will actually be part of this top floor, “hotel-within-a-hotel” concept. This would include a private lounge and in-room upgrades. There is only so much you can do with the limited square footage, so it makes sense that this list is somewhat short. This is also where the lion’s share of the investment was required to get this concept off the ground.

2) In-Resort VIP Treatment

The next set of perks is one that includes VIP treatment throughout other parts of the resort. Here’s the copy that describes what that means:

From our 8th-floor exclusive ski valet to exclusive booking access at Alyeska Nordic Spa and priority reservations to our premium restaurants, enhanced VIP access makes your Black Diamond stay stress-free.

This group of perks is more similar to the fast tracks / early ups style of perk where you’re giving a higher-paying customer faster/easier access to something.

3) Help With Other Experiences

The final set of perks appears to be the ability to get help from a team of experts to 3rd party activities and experiences like glacier tours, heli skiing, and private excursions. This is a really clever way to broaden the offer without having to actually deliver anything more than a knowledgable staff member who can help them book those experiences.

Very Intrigued

I think this is a really interesting approach that I’m excited to follow and learn more about. One question I had was pricing and it looks like the range is anywhere from mid-$600s a night to around $2,200 a night during an average winter week.

The website that accompanies the club is really well done, the concept seems sound, and the investment is probably small relative to alternative approaches given they are primarily remodeling an existing building.

Curious to see how this one goes.

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.