Ski passes scaled back at resort hotel

Stowe Mountain Resort has historically offered a free ski pass as a perk for employees and volunteers, and while it and Stowe Mountain Lodge were both owned by American International Group, lodge employees also got free passes.

In June, the ski operations at Stowe Mountain Resort were purchased for $41 million by Vail Resorts. Vail did not purchase Stowe Mountain Lodge, which is operated by Two Roads Hospitality, formerly known as Destination Hotels & Resorts.

Changes in ownership mean a change in employee skiing perks, according to Stowe Mountain Lodge managing director Scott Huntsman.

Skiing “has been a perk, you can call it a benefit of employment in the past, when we were owned by the same company,” but now, “there’s no guarantee,” Huntsman said.

Now, “we have an agreement with our friends across the road for a certain number of passes. There’s a cap on how many we are able to give away. They could set that policy. In previous years, at least it was last year, there were unlimited passes for employees and dependents. That has been changed,” Huntsman said.

However, there will be no changes to employee benefits, including ski perks, at Stowe Mountain Resort, according to Jeff Wise, director of communications at the resort.

The same goes for volunteer perks, Wise said.

But at Stowe Mountain Lodge, Huntsman said he doesn’t know exactly how many passes it will be able to distribute among its employees, and declined comment on the criteria for deciding who gets to ski for free. Ski privileges will not be granted on a first-come, first-served basis, Huntsman said.

Stowe Mountain Lodge employees who do get ski passes could be able to extend them to their dependents as they have in the past, Huntsman said.

“We hope to be able to offer as many passes as we can for dependents as well. … We’re going to try to make it an equitable thing. If we have passes for everybody and their dependents, great. If not, there will be some sort of equitable solution where people have the opportunity to participate,” he said.

“I’m fairly confident that it’s going to have very little impact on the ability to give out passes, whether that’s for year-round or seasonal employees. … It’s just not an automatic like it used to be.”

The husband of one Stowe Mountain Lodge employee expressed his disapproval of the change.

Ben Wright says his wife works at Stowe Mountain Lodge and was informed he won’t be getting a ski pass this year. Last year, he did, and skied about 20 times at Stowe.

“So, I’m going to ski at Sugarbush,” Wright said.

Some of Wright’s wife’s coworkers “have kids, and some of them aren’t going to be allowed to ski up there anymore” for free. “That’s one of the reasons I got kind of emotional,” Wright said.

In a letter to the editor Sept. 21, Wright decried the change, saying it would have social effects on young people who use the mountain as a winter recreation outlet.

“In my letter, I was more commenting on the social effects of that. I think it’s one way for local kids to get up on the hill, is for an employee family member to work up there and get passes for the kids,” Wright said.

Huntsman was philosophical about Wright’s objections.

“Change is change, and it takes a little time for people to adjust,” he said. “That kind of change was inevitable. … Some are positive, and some can initially be viewed as a takeaway.”

Huntsman said there will be no other changes to employee benefits at Stowe Mountain Lodge.

Esbert Cardenas, who owns iShare in Stowe, has volunteered for about eight years at the resort, and plans to continue.

He doesn’t do it for the free ski pass, but he knows many who do.

“Me personally, I never ever did it for the benefits. I did it really to get out of the house, to avoid cabin fever,” Cardenas said. However, “everyone has a different reason.”

Benefit economy

The ski perks that come with being an employee or volunteer at Stowe Mountain Resort are important to the Stowe economy, says Ed Rovetto, who owns Piecasso.

“We have a lot of younger people working at Piecasso, and in the past, with the pass being as expensive as it was, they would either work for Piecasso so they could get a discounted Stowe Area pass, or they would work up at the mountain in some capacity to get a free pass. That was the benefit for them, to get a free pass at the mountain.”

Now that the Epic Pass pricing is significantly lower than a Stowe Mountain Resort season pass, Rovetto says more people may be able to afford it, but it still isn’t as inclusive as it could be for the young 20-something set, who are out of college but who still might not have much disposable income.

The Lamoille County pass “took care of them,” but that doesn’t exist anymore, Rovetto says. “Your only option is the Epic (Pass), and for that group of people, the pass went up. I had several of my employees unhappy about that fact.”

Piecasso is a member of Stowe Area Association, which arranged a skiing discount for its member businesses and their employees. However, that program has been discontinued.

Free or discounted ski passes bring people to town, and those people often work in the service industry as well as at the resort, Rovetto said.

If those passes were cut, he foresees an even more severe dearth of food and beverage workers than Stowe already has.

“I think it would cause a big discourse between the town of Stowe and the majority of the people that live in it, and the mountain. I feel there’s always a bit of animosity between the town of Stowe and the resort, and I feel that Vail was going to come in and try to break down those barriers, which I’m all for,” Rovetto said.

But taking away ski benefits for employees and volunteers could alienate Stowe residents from their home resort, he said.

“My hope would be that those barriers would be broken down and we could work together, and who better than to promote the mountain as an awesome place to work and live and be (than) all of the locals and townspeople that work up there, (who) are going to sing its praises if they’re treated properly.

“If they’re not, we may be in the same place we were before,” with a divide between the mountain and the local skiers, Rovetto said.