A new lodging business model for ski resorts

Why buy or rent a luxury mountain home or condo when you can park your RV at the ski resort?

I was at Baker Mountain last ski season when I first saw RV’s, campers and vans parked at a spectacular setting. Ski in ski out right at the chair lift with no other lodging on the mountain. Right then I knew this is something I would jump into. Not as a business trend, just a great way to experience skiing. Now I see this is bigger than I thought and might be on the way to a real explosion. The picture above is snipped from the Crystal Mountain (near Seattle Washington) web site. I have never been there and my intention is to write about places from personal experience. Share pictures and little treasures about these places. However, this is so interesting I needed to share and offer up some opinions.

Based on a phone call to Crystal just now, my understanding is they have been supporting RV’s in the parking for a number of years. Electricity is installed for every site and even Wi-Fi is part of the package. About $30 to $50 per night with some surge pricing during holidays and weekends. Details here on their website.

The most interesting development is this year they offered a “season pass” for an RV parking spot. $3,799 for a large RV, $2,999 for medium and small. Guess how long it took them to sell those 15-20 season pass sites?…….She told me “30 seconds”.

Now granted, an RV in a parking lot is not the same as a nice condo or luxury house at a ski area. For grins I did a quick search on houses for sale at Crystal Mountain. Ready for this….. 2.376 acres for $995,500. No house, just a lot. Maybe all in for 2 M+?  Property taxes alone probably 20K +  versus a very nice RV trailer for maybe 70K that you can take different places.

Also think about this from the perspective of the resort owner. A small portion of the parking lot with minor infrastructure cost to put in electricity. 100% control and annual recurring revenue since the resort would never “sell” a postage stamp piece of the parking lot. Perhaps a win/win. The consumer and the resort.

Expansion of this RV campground in the parking lot would have to be carefully managed. I think it would be be fun hanging with 25 to 50 kindred skiing RV soles but I would have no interest in a music concert type of scene with row after row of RV’s in a parking lot.

What if small parking lots could be created specifically for this new RV scene? Keep the numbers modest so the ambience is nice. Think about an RV campground is like. A warm bathroom with running hot water. This is a game changer for those in a van. (Even those in large luxury RV’s would appreciate the gang doing number 2 in a bathroom that wasn’t 5 feet down the hall.)

Imagine an even bigger step up to a nice bathhouse where these RV folks could take a long hot shower, heck maybe even a hot tub, pool or even “club house” where you could sit and read a book and get away from the small space of RV for a bit. This “club house” could perhaps be the same facility that the hotel/condo homeowners use.

The “club house” concept would likely be a bit over the top for some of the smaller resorts, but even the addition of heated bathrooms would be huge for some. Especially the van folks who are using little compostable toilets.

Love to get your comments and different perspectives. Larger RV’s, smaller vans, resort owner/managers.