Vail Resorts, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Vail Resorts Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Rob Katz, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2021 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on the call this afternoon is Michael Barkin, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that some information provided during this call may include forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties as described in our S&P filing. And actual future results may vary materially. Forward-looking statements in our press release issued this afternoon along with our remarks on this call are made as of today, June 7, 2021, and we undertake no duty to update them as actual events unfold. Today's remarks also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures are provided in the table. included with our press releases along with our quarterly report on Form 10-Q were filed this afternoon with the SEC and are also available on the investor relations section of our website at www.valeresorts.com. So with that said, let's turn to our fiscal 2021 third quarter results. Given the continued challenging operating environment as a result of COVID-19, we are very pleased with our overall results for the quarter and for the full 2020-2021 North American ski season. Results continue to improve as the season progresses, primarily as a result of stronger destination visitation at our Colorado and Utah resorts, including improved lift ticket purchases relative to fiscal 2021 second quarter results. Excluding peak resorts, total visitation at our U.S. destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas for the third quarter was only down 3% compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2019. Whistler Blackhams' performance continued to be negatively impacted due to the continued closure of the Canadian border to international guests, including guests from the U.S., and was further impacted by the resort closing earlier than expected on March 30th, 2021, following a provincial health order issued by the government of British Columbia. Whistler Block Home's total visitation for the third quarter declined nearly 60% to the third quarter of fiscal 2019. While visitation and lift revenue trends improved throughout the quarter, our ancillary lines of business continue to be more significantly and negatively impacted by COVID-19-related capacity constraints and limitations. particularly in food and beverage and ski school. We maintain disciplined cost controls throughout the quarter and continue to operating our ancillary lines of business at reduced capacity. Now I would like to turn the call over to Michael to further discuss our financial results and fiscal 2021 outlook.

Thanks, Rob, and good afternoon, everyone. As Rob mentioned, we're very pleased with our overall results for the quarter and for the full 2020-2021 North American ski season. As a reminder, in the prior year, we announced the early closure of the 2019-2020 North American ski season for our ski areas, lodging properties, and retail rental stores as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning on March 15, 2020. These actions had a significant adverse impact on our results of operations for the third fiscal quarter of 2020. Additionally, The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting limitations and restrictions on our operations continued to have an adverse impact on our results for the third fiscal quarter of 2021. Net income attributable to Vail Resorts was $274.6 million or $6.72 per diluted share for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to net income attributable to Vail Resorts of $152.5 million, or $3.74 per diluted share in the prior year. Resort reported EBITDA was $462.2 million in the third fiscal quarter, which compares to resort reported EBITDA of $304.4 million in the same period in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to strong North American pass sales growth for the 2020-2021 ski season. including the deferral impact of approximately $120.9 million of past product revenue and $2.9 million of related deferral costs from the third fiscal quarter of 2020 to fiscal 2021 as a result of the pastholder credits offered to 2019-2020 North American past product holders, as well as improved non-past visitation to the company operating for the full U.S. ski season in the current year with particularly strong demand at our Colorado and Utah destination resorts. Resort reported EBITDA margin for the third quarter was 52%, exceeding both the prior year period of 43.9% and fiscal 2019 third quarter of 50.2%. These results reflect our rigorous approach to cost management, as well as a higher proportion of lift revenue relative to ancillary lines of business compared to prior periods. Now turning to our outlook for fiscal 2021. Net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. is expected to be between $93 million and $139 million for fiscal 2021. We expect the resort-reported EBITDA for fiscal 2021 will be between $530 million and $570 million, and we expect the resort-reported EBITDA margin for fiscal 2021 will be approximately 28.9% using the midpoint of the guidance range. Our guidance assumes all of our operations are open and aligned with current health and safety protocols and capacity restrictions. Current demand trends continue. We experience normal weather conditions throughout the Australia ski season and North American summer season, and there is no impact from potential COVID-19 related shutdowns or lockdowns. The guidance specifically assumes no impact from potential demand or operational disruptions associated with the current lockdowns in Victoria, Australia. We continue to maintain significant liquidity. Our total cash and revolver availability as of April 30th, 2021 was approximately $2 billion with $1.3 billion of cash on hand, $419 million of U.S. revolver availability under the Vale Holdings Credit Agreement and $203 million of revolver availability under the Whistler Credit Agreement. As of April 30th, 2021, our net debt was 2.8 times trailing 12 months total reported EBITDA We remain confident in the strong cash flow generation and stability of our business model, and we will continue to be disciplined stewards of our capital with a focus on high return capital projects, continuous investment in our people, and strategic acquisition opportunities. While we are not reinstating the dividend this quarter, we remain committed to returning capital to shareholders, and our board of directors will continue to closely monitor the economic and public health outlook on a quarterly basis to assess the appropriate time to reinstate the dividend. I'll now turn the call back over to Rob.

Thanks, Michael. We're very pleased with the results for our season pass sales to date, with tests showing strong enthusiasm for the enhanced value proposition of our pass products, driven in part by the 20% reduction in all pass prices for the upcoming season. Pass product sales through June 1st, 2021 for the upcoming 2021-2022 North American ski season increased very significantly as compared to the sales through June 2nd, 2020 for the 2020-2021 North American sea season due to lack of any spring sales deadlines in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, making the year-over-year comparison to the spring 2020 results not relevant for performance trends. Compared to sales for the 2019-2020 North American sea season through June 4th, 2019, Past product sales for the 2021-2022 season through June 1, 2021, increased approximately 50% in units and 33% in sales dollars. Past product sales are adjusted to include peak resorts past sales in both periods and eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying an exchange rate of 83 cents between the Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar in both periods for whistle-blocking. As a reminder, past product sales for the full selling season through December 6, 2020, as compared to the full selling season through December 8, 2019, increased approximately 20% in units and approximately 19% in sales dollars. Relative to season-to-date past product sales for the 2019-2020 season through June 4, 2019, we saw very strong unit growth with our renewing pass holders and even stronger unit growth in new pass holders. which includes guests in our database who previously purchased lift tickets or passes but did not buy a pass in the previous season, and guests who are completely new to our database. We saw our strongest unit growth in our destination markets, particularly in the Northeast, and also had very strong growth across our local markets. Compared to the period ended June 4, 2019, effective pass price decreased 10%, as compared to the 20% price decrease we implemented this year. We believe this highlights how our lower pricing has increased the propensity of pass holders to spend a portion of the new discount to purchase higher-valued pass products. We expected that the price reduction would result in higher pass renewal rates, increase trade-up for higher-value passes, and drive incremental guests to our network. We are encouraged that each of these trends is evident in the season-to-date pass sales results, which we believe supports our expected results for next year, as well as the expected long-term benefits of increasing guest lifetime value. The past results to date exceeded our original expectations for the impact of the 20% price reduction. However, we still have the majority of our past selling season ahead of us, and it is not yet clear if these trends will continue through the fall. We will provide more information about our past sales results, including comparisons to past sales results for the 2020-2021 North American ski season, in our September 2021 earnings release. In addition, we are very pleased that ongoing sales of the Epic Australia Pass, which end on June 15, 2021, are up approximately 43% in units through June 1, 2021, as compared to the comparable period through June 4, 2019, representing significant growth following the acquisition of Falls Creek and Hotham in April 2019. Given the recent COVID-19-related lockdowns in Victoria, Australia, we will be monitoring any impacts on the EPIC Australia password. Our commitment to reinvesting in our resorts and the guest experience remains one of our highest priorities. As previously announced, this summer and fall, we will be completing several signature investments subject to regulatory approval. In Colorado, we are moving forward with a 250-acre lift-serve terrain expansion in the signature McCoy Park area of Beaver Creek, further differentiating the resort's high-end family-focused experience. We also plan to add a new four-person high-speed lift at Breckenridge to serve the popular Peak 7, replace the Peru lift at Keystone with a six-person high-speed chairlift, and replace the Peachtree lift at Crested Butte with a new three-person fixed-grip lift. At Okimo, we plan to compete a transformational investment, including upgrading the quantum lift from a four-person to a six-person high-speed chairlift and relocating the existing four-person quantum lift to replace the Green Ridge three-person fixed-script chairlift. These investments will greatly improve up-list capacity, further enhance the guest experience, and complete our $35 million capital plan for Triple P. We remain highly focused on investments that will further our company-wide technology enhancements to support our data-driven approach, guest experience, and corporate infrastructure. As part of these efforts, we are continuing to invest in resources and technology to improve our customer service experience including significant staffing increases in our call centers and self-service technology that will provide our guests the ability to better manage their own accounts. We will also continue to invest in ongoing maintenance capital to support infrastructure across our resorts. As we head into next year, we know that talent and staffing will be critical for our success as it always is. And we have announced that we will be raising our minimum entry wages in Colorado, Utah, Washington, and California to $15 per hour, while also making material increases in the entry wages of our Eastern Resorts, which will be set based upon their local market dynamics. This will be our largest discretionary investment in operating expense for next year, which we believe will be offset by a portion of other savings we will carry from this year into next year. As we transition to summer operations at our North American Resorts, I would like to take a moment to thank all of our employees for their passion and tireless dedication to delivering a safe and exceptional experience to our guests during full 2020-2021 North American ski season, despite the incredible challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm deeply grateful for the commitment our teams continue to demonstrate throughout these unprecedented circumstances. At this time, Michael and I would be happy to answer your questions. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you were using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, press star one to ask a question. We'll take our first question from Sean Kelly with Bank of America.

Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I just wanted to start on, obviously, the past sales. You know, Rob, there are a couple of data points in there that were really interesting. I wanted to start with the product mix, if you could talk a little bit about the meaning of sort of that effective price statistic you gave, the 10%, and how that sort of lines up versus the kind of down 17 gap that we see. Is there sort of a like-for-like difference in that, or could you just help explain that a little bit more clearly? Sure.

Yeah, it's really just, you know, I think when you do the percentage, right, so if you take our units up 50%, right, and then take an EPP down 10%, you wind up with revenue up 33%. So that's a little bit how the math works. But what I would say is that, you know, I think what we saw was something that, you know, we did expect, which is that people trading off from lower-priced products to higher-priced products. And we saw, you know, a material increase in kind of what I would call like the net trade-up. So every year we have people – who trade up from one past product to another or trade down from one past product to a lower-priced past product, you know, as they renew. And this year, you know, we saw a material increase in that net number, which, you know, does not surprise us, and that obviously, you know, significantly ameliorated the decline, the 20%, you know, kind of price reduction and the revenue impact again.

Got it. And, you know, just the other question I have is the sort of cadence on the balance of the season from here. Sometimes you give a little color, but it's obviously, you know, very early in the period that we have remaining. Could you just help us think through some of the puts and takes on kind of what's coming when you think about the sort of bigger deadline that you had set last September, the introduction of some of the new products, and that has made things a little bit more back half loaded. Just kind of how should investors sort of be prepared for these numbers and to balance out across the season, and then specifically your remark on the majority of the past selling season ahead of you, is that just a comment in days, like literally there's the majority of the days left, or is that in terms of relative to your historic mix, you actually sell more than the majority of your products in the remainder of the period?

Yeah, I think it's – actually, I haven't counted the days, but I think it's both potentially, but it's, yeah, definitely more focused on historically we do more past sales, past Memorial Day than before. But what I would say, though, is, yeah, on the balance of the season, obviously, last year, we had a very significant Labor Day, or it wasn't exactly Labor Day, but in September deadline. I think this year, when we report results in our September earnings release, we will, you know, largely be comped from last year. Now, I think last year, certainly, we had another driver, right, of those sales in September, which was that the credits that we issued to people last year expired. So if you were a renewing passholder who had a huge reason to renew last September and this September there'll be a price increase or there were spring pass sales which gave you spring benefits, but probably for many people not as significant as the credit that was there last year. So that'll be something that's not exactly comped even when we get to the end of September. I think the new information that we've – the new products that we've put out, I do think, yeah, well, in order to the benefit of the second half of the season, especially the more, you know, the limited resort option on Epic Day Pass. And I do think, you know, last year, as we talked about at the end of the year, we did a lot of new business in Epic Day Pass. These are folks that typically tend to buy in the fall. We definitely see that be the predominant selling season for Epic Day Pass. So, again, I think that offers an opportunity as we go to the fall season. And I think, you know, maybe the only other thing is obviously the price reduction created a fair amount of enthusiasm in the spring and, you know, how much of that, you know, may have pulled some sales, either renewers or even new people into the spring. Yeah, we won't know until we actually get through the fall, but I think there are some trends that go both ways as we, you know, head into the rest of the fall season.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Tom.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Ben Chaykin with Credit Plus.

Hey, how's it going? On M&A, you know, you guys saw a lot of growth from in the past outside of just returning customers. I would guess presumably from some new geographies as well. Does this inform your view of M&A in any way that's worth highlighting? You know, obviously not like whether you want to do it or not, but more so like are there any geographies that are any more or less compelling after getting a look at the most recent past data of up 50 in units?

You know, I think we feel like, you know, the dynamics that we can glean from the results to date, I think, support, you know, our approach in the past around past sales. But, yes, as you mentioned, I think when we've done M&A before and we open up new markets, there's obviously we're bringing on that resort, historical past sales. But then typically, we can grow on top of that, right? And I think we've seen that, you know, pretty clearly for most of the acquisitions that we've done. In part, it's also because we're picking our markets very selectively, knowing, you know, where we believe we can have an impact by having a local resort, knowing the market that's there. So I don't think that means that any resort we buy necessarily has that impact, but we're pretty, you know, thoughtful about it and disciplined about it. So I would say that our results to date, I think, just really reconfirm that strategy that we've had. And our approach to M&A remains the same, which is we absolutely are aggressively looking for opportunities in different markets that we think will add value, but we're going to remain disciplined and only do things that we think, you know, will really make a difference.

Gotcha. Okay. That's helpful. I just felt like it sounded like there was a lot of strength from passes sold in the Northeast. I just didn't know if that made, if you're even that much more convicted on the geography or not. That's kind of where I was going with it.

Oh, I mean, yeah, I would say we certainly have a lot of conviction on the geography at the same time. Yeah. I think we also have a lot of resorts in the geography. So I think we're always looking at which resort would, you know, would be additive versus just duplicative where we see the incremental opportunity. And, And it doesn't mean that you just buy more resorts in exactly the same geography. So, you know, in our minds, right, it's like it's important to be selective. And so, yes, there's no doubt that we have a lot of conviction about the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic for that matter. And we feel like they've added, you know, to our efforts greatly. And at the same time, yeah, we've got to pick the right opportunities.

Gotcha. That's super helpful. And then one more, if I may. Sounds like there was a lot of strength in both the returning past customers as well as the new path holder side of things. On the new path holders, is there any way to break this down? Like how much came from basically new to the database entirely as well as returning old past customers versus the conversion from single day to past? That didn't make sense. I can try and say it differently.

No, no, no, I understand. And obviously, yes, we have that data and we have that insight, but we're not providing specifics on that. But I would say I think we saw, yeah, a lot of strength across all of those pieces, right? So I think we saw strength on lapsed pass holders, people who once were pass holders for us coming back. I think we saw strength on people who were lift ticket buyers previously, either last year or before that. I think we also saw strength on passers. you know, what we might call prospects, somebody who's not on our database. So, you know, I think the, you know, a lot of strength in new, you know, which was terrific to see, especially in the spring, because typically we see more of that strength in the fall. And so it was great to see here, whether some of that, again, like I said earlier, we pulled forward, you know, or will be additive to what we do in the fall is not yet clear, but either way, it's a positive for us because we always want to move folks as early into the selling cycle as we can.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Jeff Stanchel with DFL.

Hey, great. Thanks. Afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking our questions. You know, I wanted to follow up on the question right there on the new passholder base, specifically on the customers that are completely new to your database. Just curious, what have you learned about this new cohort as they enter the database? Are there any interesting differences here versus the existing passholder base? Just any high-level color there would be helpful.

Yeah, at this point, I mean, I think, yeah, we're not going to share breakdowns on the kind of demo details on those folks. But I would say it was a fairly broad base in terms of the strength that we've seen. And I think we'll probably have more information on that by the time we get to the end of the selling season and maybe even more information as we go through the season itself and see how their behavior translates throughout the season. So at this point, I don't think there's any specific thing to share, but just the broad-based strength that we saw in that overall cohort of new people coming in.

Okay, great. Understood. And then for my follow-up, you know, I recognize this likely depends in part on how the past selling season trends this year, but I wanted to just get some initial thoughts on how you might think about pricing for the Epic Pass next season and beyond. You know, now that you've sort of reset the baseline with the 20% cut, do you think that you might return to more ratable mid-single-digit price inflation moving forward on this new lower base? Or do you think based on some of your recent learnings that, you know, something more tempered, maybe inflationary or something like that might better drive this next level of advanced commitment conversion?

Yeah, I think we definitely saw this, the price decision this year as a discrete opportunity. And, you know, we felt like we, it was a substantive change and one that, you know, aligned to the data requirements. that we were looking at. And, you know, I think we've also candidly, we do believe in the long run that having a rateable approach to pricing does make sense. And I think when you look over the previous, you know, 12 years that we've had the epic path, that certainly was our approach. And I don't think the pricing decision this year necessarily changes that view. I think it was more, yeah, that we had new data and we felt like, you know, we could have a reset. And, yeah, you know, I'm not – that's a broad takeaway, but, of course, yeah, we're not committing at this point to what our pricing will be, you know, in the future. But, yeah, I don't think this – people shouldn't read the decision this year necessarily take this away from our longer-term approach of providing, you know, more rateable and price stability to our guests and to the product.

Okay, great. That's a really helpful call. I appreciate it.

Thanks, guys.

Sure.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Brent Montour with JP Morgan.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. So my first question is just on the competitive landscape. I mean, I think we're all sort of assuming at this point that ICON isn't going to match your price cut. And I know your retention data that you have so far is really strong. Do you guys think that you are – gaining share at all from their system, maybe losing share at the high end, maybe a little bit on the margin? What's your sense from the data?

Yeah, very hard to tell. You know, I think, you know, I think there's been an opportunity over the last number of years that as ICON came into the market, you know, I think the past market grew quite a bit. And I think it was a real positive for the overall industry. And, you know, I'd like to think that obviously our decision this year ultimately will bring even more people into the past market, providing more stability to the overall industry. And, you know, after Icon came in and launched, you know, we continue to see very strong growth in past sales in our own products. Obviously, we have no insight into how they've performed this year. So I think what I would say is, you know, we feel good. I think we feel like we made real progress in almost every category that we were hoping to. And, you know, aligned with all of the strategies and opportunities that we felt were there when we first launched the, you know, the new approach. And so, you know, we're so good at all about that, but yeah, it's hard for me to comment on market share dynamics because I'm not aware of their trending.

Okay. Thanks for that, Rob. And then just on the balance sheet, you have, you know, 1.3 billion of cash on hand. What are the priorities for this excess cash and what does the board think need to see before re-implementing the dividend? You know, is it temporarily hindered or tied to potential M&A opportunities, like in terms of just keeping plenty of dry powder, or how should we really think about that?

Yeah, thanks. I think, you know, our capital allocation priorities continue to be quite consistent, which is continuing to reinvest in the business. And, you know, in our comments, Rob outlined some of the ways in which we're investing in the resort and technology in the coming year, which we'll continue to prioritize. I think certainly second is strategic investment opportunities. And so, you know, we do feel like we will continue to be aggressive on acquisitions, as Rob said. And I think we also, you know, feel like with the current state of the balance sheet and the liquidity that we have and the access to the capital markets, we certainly have a lot of flexibility to pursue those acquisitions. So I feel like we're in a very comfortable spot with that. And I think as I mentioned earlier, we're going to be focused on the dividend as we look at the outlook. And obviously we feel very good about the business's performance and the outlook as we've described it, but we'll continue to monitor that with the board. as we go into the next quarters and evaluate that relative to the dividend.

Got it. Thanks for all the helpful call, guys. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess given where you appear to be on volume, given your initial past sales update, and I know it's early and you have a lot more to go, but it sounds like it's well ahead of your own internal expectations. Is there any refreshed thoughts about, you know, having to move to some kind of more permanent reservation system or any other thoughts on how this is going to impact capacity next season?

Yeah, you know, I don't know. It doesn't really change our view. We don't, you know, assuming that nothing changes on COVID-19, we're not anticipating having a reservation system for accessing our mountains. And no, we feel very good about the experience for next year. We do have a lot of things that will be in the works and we'll be talking more about as we get into the fall around how we manage capacity better. A lot of things that we learned, you know, over this last year. But I think it's always important to remember that, you know, a lot of the folks that are that we're seeing the growth from, of course, are coming from people who were previously paid lift ticket holders or renewing pass holders. We're also seeing people just upgrading their pass in terms of buying a higher value pass. So all of those things are critical. We also see pass holders spread their visitation out to see them, especially some of our key time periods. Of course, there's limitations when it comes to lodging and other pieces. So what we tend to see is that people with passes you know, will adjust their vacation, you know, even at Christmas, right? You know, moving to the 23rd or 24th and 25th, you know, or moving from, you know, ending on the 1st to ending on the 2nd or 3rd. Those things are all hugely incremental to us and great opportunities. And so, and I think are actually positive for the resort and positive for the entire ecosystem in the community, which is to try and continue to spread the capacity out throughout the season. And so, no, we feel very good about this and are feeling, you know, good about absolutely the experience for next season and a lot of things, including new lifts and new process improvements that we're going to have that I think will make it, yeah, you know, the experience of a lifetime, which is, of course, our commitment to everybody.

Okay, great. And, you know, you've obviously given pass holders a really nice value proposition on lift tickets, but any – opportunity to take pricing on some of the list pricing or menu pricing on things like ski school or dining, given how strong the consumer and the economic environment should still be in the fall?

You know, I think we, yeah, we price all of these products independently. And for many of the products are priced really at the resort level based on the local unique dynamics that each resort has. And I think, you know, that even if sometimes we lean in and are a little bit more aggressive on price in some areas, we still try and keep, you know, to my earlier comments, a more rateable, more consistent, you know, approach to price increases. You know, we feel like that's important. We don't want to see huge gyrations. And certainly there are other products out there, you know, certainly like the, you know, room rates on hotels that will move quite a bit, right? week to week, month to month, day of the week, based on the season that we're in. And of course, we're following the rest of the hotel market in that respect. But a lot of our other products, we tend to, yeah, you know, kind of certainly in a strong economic environment will be a bit more aggressive, but nothing that would gyrate because we don't think that that's good for the overall consumer experience.

Okay. Very helpful.

Thanks, guys.

Great, thanks.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Patrick Scholes with Truist Securities.

Hi, good evening. A couple questions here. In light of Mount Snow now instituting paid parking for parking lots that were formerly free for the upcoming season, I have two questions in this regard. Will you be expanding the paid parking initiative to other resorts And along those lines, will there be any other initiatives for parts of the ski experience that may have been free in previous seasons, which could now become a tack-on charge for the skier visits? Thank you.

Sure. You know, I think, you know, each one of our resorts goes through their own assessment, you know, as I just mentioned, certainly on pricing. And I think with parking, you know, that is a component that we do think is sometimes important for certain resorts at certain times to help ration capacity. I mean, it's not, you know, in the end of the day, we want, you know, we want to incent people to carpool. We want to incent people to take, you know, other forms of transportation when they can. And we do use that at a number of our, some of our resorts have paid parking at the base. Some of them don't. I'd say more and more you're seeing not just, you know, us as the resort operator, but many of our communities instituting paid parking. I think you're seeing that outside the resort environment in many cities. So to us, it's really just one component. Parking for us is not a big moneymaker whatsoever. So in terms of it being material to our overall financial performance or valuation of the company, it's not at all. It's really something that is used by the local resort to assess how to best manage the capacity. And so we take it on a resort-by-resort basis.

Okay, thank you. I guess what I was more meaning that, you know, this was sort of a new tack-on charge. Will there be, you know, other tack-on charges for this coming season that you're working on, you know, not just that resort, but, you know, items that maybe had, again, in the past been free for usage?

Sure. You know, again, every resort looks at each of their dynamics and makes decisions that are important to manage the capacity of their own unique resort. Obviously, you know, to the extent that we're making changes, we always like to try and get those out as early as possible. And, yeah, so, you know, to the extent that those come up, obviously we'll communicate them when we do. But, again, not really a material item to the overall performance here. Not something that I would see that is No, it's definitely not a strategy of ours at any corporate level. It's really a local kind of, you know, unique decision by decision. And even on parking, we have parking lots across all of our, you know, resorts. Some of them, yeah, may add a charge for parking to help manage capacity. Some of them remain free. So we take a, you know, kind of situation by situation approach.

Okay. I was just curious if this was some, you know, part of like the macro strategy to make up in the discount pass price by adding on additional items?

No, no. Unfortunately, that's not going to do it. And, yeah, we're really more focused on all the things we talked about up front in terms of how we drop passes.

Understood. And then just a quick question here. You had mentioned instituting a $15 minimum wage at some of your resorts. What was the comparable wage last season for those resorts? How much?

Very different. Yeah, some of the resorts, you know, were, I think it's, you know, obviously in California, we probably were the highest. In Washington, you know, a little bit below California and Colorado and Utah, somewhere around the mid-12, or 12.50 an hour was, you know, our lowest entry wage. So, you know, especially for those two resorts, it's a pretty meaningful increase. And, you know, again, it'll be resort by resort in the east, but they'll also see some pretty meaningful increases in that entry wage as well. Okay.

Thank you for the update. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from David Katz with Jeffrey.

Hi, afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the quarter. Covered a lot of ground already with respect to passes. And I wanted to just touch on M&A and specifically the international piece of it, because it does come up. pretty frequently about Europe or Asia, which, you know, the discussion goes back a long time. What are the sort of puts and takes or gating factors, aside from just finding the right partner, the right price, at, you know, getting some international exposure going? And the follow-up to it is, you know, whether they're, you know, how much leverage there would be toward your domestic business or North American business as a result of it?

Yeah, I think, you know, it is, you know, I think many people, you know, probably forget, but it was, you know, similar in the U.S. when you go back 10 or 20 years in terms of the challenge of trying to do M&A even here in North America. And I think, you know, we stuck at it. We, you know, were pretty disciplined and diligent about it. I think we're able to make some real progress. I think the same is true internationally and in some cases even more challenges given some of the local connection to many of the resorts and, of course, so much of the national pride, just like we have here in the U.S., that exists for these resorts. And so it's important, I think, that you find the right person who wants to partner or sell the resort, that we are the right buyer or partner for that resort and we have the right plan that goes forward. And I would say, you know, we in part also been quite busy, right, in the U.S. and, of course, in Australia over the last decade. And so, you know, while there's no doubt that we've been having these conversations, of course, it hasn't been as front and center as some of the opportunities that we were trying to pursue and then, of course, integrate here and then COVID hit. So I think coming out of COVID, I feel like we still have this opportunity. It's very critical to us. We know that it's a critical strategic direction, and especially because, you know, there's unique, specific opportunities that still exist in North America, but obviously less so today than five years ago. So we know that that's an area that we want to, you know, focus in, I think. And, yeah, quite confident that we will get there. But, again, we're going to be disciplined about that and make sure that we use our capital and our time, you know, wisely around it. In terms of incrementality, I think no doubt doing something in Japan, you know, would have immediate benefits, I think, to our connection between Australia and Japan, Canada, and the U.S. And so I think that would be a stronger immediate boost. In Europe, I think less so because you don't see those same visitation patterns. On the other hand, the market in Europe is much bigger. So the longer-term opportunity, I think, in Europe is quite strong. But of course, it'll take more time to get going. And it is more about creating a unique platform in Europe on a standalone basis that, you know, has been some overlap as we've highlighted with the UK and the US and even in, you know, certainly in South America and other, you know, growing parts of the world economy. So, yeah, very much still on the radar and obviously just hasn't been front and center as much as some other things, you know, over the last couple of years.

Got it. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Lawrence Veselescu with Exane BNP Paribas.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on Patrick's question with regards to the minimum wage increase. Curious to know what you're seeing in the labor market. You know, is there enough talent out there to hire? And do you anticipate that the U.S. border will reopen and you can potentially hire foreign talent as well for the upcoming season?

I think it's definitely a challenging labor market right now. I think, you know, I think in some respects, right, it was before COVID hit. And so I think you're seeing, you know, some of that pick up, you know, as we come out of the pandemic. I think for us, you know, it's certainly a concern for the summer. It's not as big a concern, of course, as it is for us in the winter. You know, we are hopeful that we will be able to return to bringing in workers from abroad through, you know, our J-1 student, you know, visa program and the H-2B program for certain select positions, as we did in the past. But obviously, we're also very committed to continuing to grow and improve all of our recruiting efforts in the U.S. That was something that I think was critical, even with the staffing challenges of the couple of years before COVID. You know, we continue to improve our both our competitiveness and the way we went about recruiting, and that helped us quite a bit as we went into, you know, the 19 and the 20s season. And I think we're going to be leveraging and leaning on that again as we go into next year, and obviously felt that it was critical for us to have a more aggressive entry wage and increased wages even above that level. So, you know, yeah, not only are we getting talent, but getting the best talent and you know, getting kind of out front of the current trend.

Very helpful. Thank you. And as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about Australia. I think your guidance specifically assumes no impact from the lockdown. Just curious to know, with boots on the ground there, what you're seeing with your three resorts across Australia, and why was there no impact assumed in guidance for 4Q on the lockdown? In terms of unit growth, I think the passes were up 43% on a two-year stack. Anything interesting you'd like to share with regards to that, just the breakdown of the consumer? Is it also similar to what you saw in the U.S. so far?

Yeah, I would say, one, I think, you know, Parashare opened. And so, you know, I think we're seeing, you know, good enthusiasm and engagement in New South Wales. you know, the Sydney market to Parisher. And so I think feeling very good about that. And I think, you know, it's hard to say, obviously, I don't want to prejudge what's going to happen in Victoria and in the Melbourne market. But, you know, they did relax some of the restrictions for the rest of the state outside of Melbourne. And, you know, right now, we are, you know, planning to open on schedule. Of course, it's subject to, you know, as things unfold there, but We're optimistic. I think we feel like there's a good opportunity for us to have a very good season all across all three resorts. And I think the, yeah, broad-based strength. So I would say that, you know, obviously with that kind of unit growth, you know, we're seeing growth across, yeah, lots of different markets and consumer segments. And, you know, feel good. I think it's similar in some ways to the pent-up demand that you have here across I think you also were very competitive in terms of the way we price our products in Australia, like we are here. And obviously the border in Australia is closed, so travel outside of Australia is more limited. And so, you know, we're anticipating stronger domestic travel for the country, at least for the time being.

Very helpful. Thank you very much, and best of luck. Yeah, thanks.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Paul Golding with Macquarie Capital.

Thanks so much for taking my question. The first question I have is around ancillary services coming back. I'm just wondering if you could give some color on how the experience either for dining or other ancillary services has been made maybe more efficient or the user experience has been digitized. Just trying to get a sense of what margin impact could look like conscious of the ancillary services being lighter through COVID, but, you know, margin this quarter coming in where it was. And then I have a follow-up on labor after that.

Yeah, I think on margin, it's important to remember, right, that part of the margin improvement this year was, of course, by us being disciplined around cost. Some of it was also because we did really well in the highest margin business, which was lipstick, and had more challenges in lower margin businesses. Now, our ancillary businesses are actually all high-margin businesses or just lower margins than the flow-through that you get from ticket sales. I think we've absolutely learned quite a bit, you know, particularly about, I'd say, our dining business, our F&B business, and absolutely intend to implement a number of, you know, improvements and opportunities as we go into next year, I'd say, around efficiency, not really around, you know, necessarily cost efficiency, but around process efficiencies. And I think, you know, using, having the reservation system that we did have for all of our dining, most of our dining establishments this past year, I think gave us a lot of insight on a lot of factors that we didn't know before. So I think we can use that, even if we don't use the reservation system in the same way again, I think we can actually use that data as we go into next season. So I feel, yeah, very good about that. And I think we certainly saw, I think, you know, on C-School, obviously that business operated more closely We couldn't have the capacities and we didn't have the opportunity for class sizes. We didn't have the opportunity for lunch, you know, with the instructor, you know, in most cases. And so I think, you know, those were takeaways from the guest experience, unfortunately, for this year. But I think we – but I would say the experience itself was, you know, much closer to, you know, what it just has been historically. So I think good takeaways and insights on that. but probably not as much given the huge disruption that we saw on F&B.

Thanks for that, Rob. And then on labor with the current backdrop, just wondering if the bulking up on customer experience staff, is that more a transitory trend where you're going to plateau just because of how many new past members are onboarding and the COVID disruption, or is that something that you see just for the business just sort of sticking around long-term?

Yeah, I think the commitment to it and the investment in it is obviously going to stick around. I think we're not going to go backwards to where we were before. And, you know, because I feel, you know, yeah, we were understaffed and under-resourced in a lot of different areas. And, of course, this past year was a unique year that, you know, in terms of the complexity with credits and with COVID and unique epic coverage situations, all of which I think made it more challenging. But, you know, as we've been clear and as I've been clear, obviously, we fell behind on that. That was a mistake, you know, that we had to correct. So I think going forward, yeah, we likely will not see the same complexity, hopefully, because the environment will be more stable. But there's no doubt that, you know, We operated over this last past selling deadline, which was, you know, quite strong. And a lot of people obviously coming into the deadline, you know, and we had great response time, you know, both on the phone and on our chat rooms. And so, you know, that I think goes well for us as we go to the future. And we don't want to move backwards on that. We want to make sure that we stay within, well within industry standards, you know, and best practices on that. So, yeah, that's not something we're going to give up on.

Right. Thanks so much.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. We'll take our next question. Yes, we'll take our next question from Ryan Sunby with William Blair.

Yeah, hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for giving me a question here. Rob, maybe you have an example you can lean on for a resort that's seen bad weather for a couple of seasons. But when you look at the challenges that woods are faced in the past, I think it's a year and a half now, with the border restrictions, the early resort closures. Do you have any concern about getting guests back to that resort either next year or behind? And I guess you start to see a resort leave maybe shared mind or relevance with Skeeter if they can't for a season or two. Yeah, really no concerns about that at all. I think, you know, Whistler is, yeah, one of the most spectacular places resorts in the world. And, you know, with a, you know, an experience on so many levels, it's really unparalleled that, and a long history. And no, I, you know, we feel very good that with the border opening and obviously, you know, with good weather, which by the way, you know, of course, unfortunately, we didn't have a border that people could cross, but the, you know, snow quality this year was certainly better than the previous year. And, No, we feel quite confident, actually, in Whistler's long-term future and in both the resilience of the resort and in the strength that Whistler will continue to show. I think, again, it's not obviously the mountains. It's the largest key mountain in North America. It's the community itself and the vibrancy and uniqueness of that community is also another huge draw for people in terms of why they come. And, yeah, the access that people have from different markets outside the U.S., you know, and certainly Asia and Australia. We don't see that moving at all. I think, you know, again, prior to COVID, they were also, you know, making good inroads in Mexico, something that, you know, we were helping to support and South America. So, you know, it's just truly one of the gems, right, you know, anywhere in the world. And, you know, it's not something – we're not concerned at all that it's going to, you know, miss a beat once. Once we really get past, you know, the current challenges of COVID. Great. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure there weren't any kind of long-term impact there. Thanks for the question.

Sure.

Thank you. As a final reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1. Take our next question from Alex Marosha with Barenburg.

Hi. Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question pertains to the resumption of the capital projects you outlined. There's plenty of headlines about supply chain and employment constraints these days. Have you seen major price increases in material and labor costs that can impact the CapEx assumptions you outlined earlier this year? And then do you think it could impact your budgeting for next year?

Yeah, I don't think, yeah, we're not, we're not, I think that's those dynamics that you're highlighting are real. And, you know, there's something where we're looking at, but I don't see that as, at this point, as something that's going to impact the overall budgeting that we gave for this year. I think, you know, as we go into next year, possible, like we, you know, obviously we don't know yet until we get there, but You know, I think in the end for us, it's something that, you know, we're still going to be aggressive on reinvesting in the resorts. And, you know, there's no doubt that as we come out of COVID, you know, there's going to be opportunities, continued opportunities for us to improve lifts and restaurants, add new terrain where we can, improve the experience, you know, all of that. And I think, you know, if we do see some inflation, that could be an impact, but that won't deter us from continuing to, you know, make these investments.

Okay, understood. That's helpful. And then secondly, a less discussed topic is your real estate segment. Obviously, the housing market is pretty robust right now, and many of your mountain communities are seeing impressive price increases. Is it possible to see a bit more opportunistic strategy with the real estate portfolio in these types of cycles?

You know, I think we'd certainly love to see that the current strength in these markets will help. We have, by the way, a number of projects where we have sold the land to developers and those developers are now working on either getting approvals for their project or actually working on construction or getting their projects off the ground. And so we are hopeful that the current market will absolutely help with that. And yeah, I think to the extent that there are other projects that fit out there, we could absolutely use the current market to attract and engage with new developers. Obviously, we're not going to really go into the development business on our own. We also think it's critical to continue to invest in affordable housing. We think each of our communities, this is another issue that I think is a barrier for many of our communities. And some of these projects can certainly have, you know, debate about where they should be or how they should be done. But our hope is and we remain committed to putting capital behind and real focus on also getting affordable and employee housing projects done to ensure that the resorts remain livable and accessible to a wide range of people.

Okay, that's great. Thank you, Rob.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Rob Katz for closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator. This concludes our fiscal 2021 third quarter earnings call. Thanks to everyone who joined us today. Please feel free to contact me or Michael directly should you have any further questions. Thank you for your time today and goodbye.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.