Ski Package Calculator page on the Birch Ridge Inn website birchridge.com

Ski Package Calculator page on the Birch Ridge Inn website birchridge.com

The foliage colors at Killington are beautiful right now (if you look through the r@!n drops that are lightly falling today). But they are just a harbinger of more idyllic pictures of snow covered mountains to come.

Late last week the Killington Pico Ski Resort delivered 55 pages of information to their lodging partners (of which the Birch Ridge Inn is one) with information about ski package pricing for the upcoming 2012/2013 ski season. In the days where everyone on every desk has a computer to work(play) with, ski package pricing has gone from a simple chart with a number for holidays and non holidays, to a complex organism with pricing set by day. Just as the airlines load balance their plans with variable pricing, so to do ski resorts attempt to load balance the populations on their ski slopes with variable ticket pricing. Not to bore you with the details, but the pricing model used by the Killington Resort includes prices by day of arrival for normal ski packages ranging from 2 to 7 days. Special discounts are applied for certain stays 5 days or longer. Ski Free midweek options for stays of 3 or more days are available for certain weeks during the ski season. Oh.... and pricing is also available for Adults (ages 19-64) Youth (ages 7-18) and Seniors (ages 65 ) The same methodology is also applied for rental equipment... So...like magic... you wind up with 55 pages of ski ticket information to be used by lodging partners to use with their guests.

Truth be told.... after 15 years of being an innkeeper at Killington... working this stuff is still fun! (Really it is!!)

To make it easy to figure out the cost of an adult ski vacation to Killington staying at the Birch Ridge Inn, on our web site, birchridge.com, you will find our Ski Package Calculator Page. The page provides access to a program which will calculate our best rates for ski packages including lodging for the winter season. In addition to prices for each of our rooms, you can also price out ski packages which include lift tickets, rental equipment, and ski lessons. The program takes into account all of the discount permutations created by the Killington Resort for the winter season, automatically giving you the best price for the package combination you select.

(On a personal note... the ski package calculator on our website is a home grown product that I developed. My background many years before becoming an innkeeper is originally as a computer engineer. Writing computer programs that people can actually use to simplify complex processes is one of the things I enjoy recreationally when I am not skiing or playing golf.)

We hope that you consider a ski or snowboarding vacation to Killington this coming winter. (As if on cue... as I am writing this, a huge flock of ducks heading south for the winter just flew over my office...)

Ski and Ride Package combinations to the Killington Resort thru the Birch Ridge Inn are available for on snow activities starting Saturday November 17th. Before that time, Killington will be offering single day tickets with pricing based upon available terrain. Call the inn at 800-435-8566 for more information. Assuming Mother Nature cooperates, there will be skiing and riding at Killington several weeks before the resort allows their lodging partners to sell formal ski/ride packages. In a normal year, skiing and riding at Killington on limited terrain begins in late October.

In the mean time, where ever you may be keep it in the fairway, and pull out that rule book to review the "fallen leaf rule".