One nagging and yet-uncompleted aspect of designing this site is incorporating user reviews (a.k.a. “guest reviews”) for our properties. I know the consumer wants to hear these ‘unbiased’ experiences – and I can certainly empathize. I’ll rarely purchase a $10 computer mouse without reading the reviews of others, so I can understand the desire for a vacationer planning to spend 200 times that amount to research thoroughly. Yet providing a review mechanism isn’t quite so simple, which is unfortunate for me as my job is to ensure consumers on our site find the information they need. I’ve been scratching my head for three years on this topic.
Aside from the logistical challenges of creating a user review system on our site (getting a suitable volume of reviews to achieve critical mass, ensuring properties don’t make fake/shill reviews for themselves, etc), there are certain aspects of the ski industry that add to the complexity.
Lodging in the ski industry is fractured.
If we were a Las Vegas tour operator, a complete product listing to adequately cover all guests’ interests might total twenty hotels in the area (each with an average of 200 rooms). A combined 3000 to 5000 user reviews would equate to 15 to 25 reviews per property, plenty of opinions for the researching consumer.
The nature of North American ski lodging is quite different, however. Sure, most resorts might have a flagship hotel or two with 100+ units (such as Beaver Run in Breckenridge or the Grand Summit at The Canyons). However the majority of properties are 8 to 24 units complexes, and there are dozens to hundreds of these at any given resort. At Sports America we maintain a relatively small offering of properties (we choose what we offer, not simply offer everything we’re contracted to wholesale). And by “small” total number of properties, I mean 1,478 across all the destinations we offer! At that volume of properties, we would need nearly 15,000 user reviews just to have even adequate coverage (10 per property). That’s a daunting goal for even the most optimistic of tour operators.
And that’s really a core problem with user reviews at ski resorts. For instance in Breckenridge, Colorado even industry leader (by a huge margin, and deservedly so) TripAdvisor only has 13 Breckenridge properties with ten or more reviews, and only 36 properties with any reviews at all. We and our ‘limited’ property offerings total 165 lodging options in Breckenridge alone. In other words, even if I had all the resources of Expedia-backed TripAdvisor at my disposal, I’d only have solid review coverage (in my estimation) for ~8% of our Breckenridge properties, or at best – some review coverage for about 20% of our offerings.
The result of this fractured lodging is a tiny percentage of ski resort properties with enough user reviews to provide relevant information to the consumer. The user review systems in place work exceptionally well for destinations with a moderate number of large properties (Vegas, Hawaii, New York) but doesn’t appear to scale to destinations with a splintered lodging base.
In the ski lodging world, two condos next door to each other may well be world’s apart.
In the ski resort lodging industry, it’s not the least bit rare for a 25-unit condo property to have units managed by three (or more) property managers. For instance, the Highlander condos in Breckenridge have units managed by Breckenridge Accommodations, Ski County Resorts, Great Western Lodging, ResortQuest and Ski Village Resorts – and perhaps even more from property managers whom we don’t work with. Every unit is individually owned and every one of those property managers may dictate different policies for their owners (minimum amenities) and their guests (housekeeping policies). That’s a lot of deviation from one condo to the other already.
Next, a given condominium property may have 1 to… say… 10 different unit sizes. Some studios, a few one-bedroom, a couple two-bedroom condos, a three-bedroom plus loft, etc. Perhaps the layout of the one-bedroom condos is such that the kitchen is very small, whereas such is not the case in a two-bedroom condo, much less a 1,600 square foot three-bedroom plus loft. Again, more deviations from condo to condo.
Add to that, many property management firms may differentiate condos by rating level (Gold/Silver/Bronze or Standard/Deluxe) where these ratings reflect the amenities in unit (flat screen TV versus a 1980’s conventional tube) and frequency of update/upgrades (new marble counters versus the original Formica installed in 1977) – and charge accordingly. That’s a whole ‘nother level of variance.
And finally, you have the lowest class of condos in the property, where the individual owner has let the condo slip into such disrepair that no self-respecting property manager will deal with it anymore. This condo is now rented direct by owner, or offered by one of the fly-by-night management firms. More segmentation among the same condo complex.
The above scenarios are not a joke or hyperbole rattled off by the marketing guy for a ski tour operator. This is the case at many, many condominium properties at ski resorts. You really can see condo complexes with 25 units representing 15-20 completely different levels of quality when viewed individually.
You can see the problem here as it regards to user reviews. A user review for a guest who stayed in a 1-bedroom Bronze-rated condo managed by Mgmt Company A will have very little in common with a 3-bedroom Deluxe-rated condo managed by BBB Property Management, and little in common with the owner-direct condo that shouldn’t even be in a rental pool. Yet in a typical lodging review site, it’s virtually impossible for the consumer to distinguish between those three when scanning a set of four reviews.
So, what the solution?
Well, I’m still working on it. I have to believe most ski tour operators are working on it as well. I have some ideas I’m trying to flesh out, but we’ll see how it goes. For now I’d recommend you speak with someone (preferably, one of our reservation agents 
) and seek their input, and not rely too heavily on guest reviews to make your travel plans.
