Vail Resorts Inc Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Shaun Kelley - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Rob or Angela, I'd love to start with announcement yesterday. Obviously, it kind of builds on the momentum of what you did with Epic Friends over the summer. But just help us think and how you're thinking about quantifying an initiative like this. Just how do you expect it to play out between price and volume as you take another stab at kind of the reduction here for the advanced period. How did you measure it? And when you put these two initiatives together, how are you thinking about just kind of when you're going to know like was this trade-off or was this kind of the right level to kind of to offer this product out to people?

Question: Shaun Kelley - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Great. And then for my follow-up, and maybe just switch gears slightly, obviously, the comments on the weather on the one side, but what we saw on the pass trajectory on the other seem to offset each other here a little bit. But I just wanted to dig into that core message, if you could. Is the message here that all other things equal, we could have actually raised had it not been for what you're seeing in the early conditions on the resorts? And then if so or regardless, just help us think about, is that kind of comment on the weather through today? Or have you also derisked a little bit as we look into the forecast here, just kind of knowing that this is always evolving with the weather?

Question: Ben Chaiken - Mizuho Securities Co Ltd - Analyst : And apologies for any background noise. I guess sticking to the pass, as you strategize for next year, Rob, it'd be helpful to get your current view on pass benefits? And maybe specifically, how do you think about third-party benefits to the pass? How focused are you on this opportunity? And then one quick follow-up.

Question: Ben Chaiken - Mizuho Securities Co Ltd - Analyst : Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. And then as you think about the price investment made yesterday, as we sit here today, does that make sense for the overall path in the future to evolve as well, whether that's through an extended deadline or different price points? I guess just thinking about the positioning of kind of the whole mosaic of the company today.

Question: David Katz - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Firstly, I'd like to just focus on the technology investments. And just talk about the -- how you think about returns on those investments. Obviously, they enhance the experience. But what are you able to measure in terms of maybe school lift or other ancillary spend that may occur as you make those investments?

Question: David Katz - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Got it. And as my follow-up, I'd like to go back to Shaun's first question and maybe ask it in a bit more direct way since it's something that comes up in our conversations quite a bit. With respect to the discounting on lift tickets, I think what we're all at least in part trying to figure out is whether there is kind of a reset in lift ticket revenues separate and apart from pass revenues and/or whether those decisions that you're making are producing incremental revenue now? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 10:00PM, MTN.N - Q1 2026 Vail Resorts Inc Earnings Call Or are they setting you up to create incremental revenue in the future, right? We're all trying to sort of plot your revenue growth and put it all together.

Question: Arpine Kocharyan - UBS AG - Analyst : This is a bit of a maybe unfair question since I'm asking about the current quarter, but I was wondering if you could speak to broader visitation trends into November and early December in terms of seeing traction with some of the promotional initiatives you have going on for the season. But specifically, within this broader bifurcation in the consumer space between upper end and lower end, what are you seeing in regional versus destination resorts? Do you see that leverage of lower pricing kind of discounting working better at your original resorts, while maybe higher end not is price elastic and maybe there isn't much need to discount with those guests?

Question: C. Patrick Scholes - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets - Analyst : As you think about changes to your pass structure, I've seen that there's been the announcement of the Ikon reserve type of pass, would that ever be a consideration for you, folks, that type of pass?

Question: C. Patrick Scholes - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And then sort of breaking news -- well, there's a chance to tell you right, it may go on strike. Roughly, how much does in a normal year does your relationship with Telluride and Epic Pass contribute to your overall earnings ballpark?

Question: C. Patrick Scholes - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. So it's pretty small, I assume, in the big picture of things because you don't own it. It's just a past relationship essentially, correct?

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : I guess, Rob, as you kind of look at this year and understanding the slow start, but if you kind of look at -- I know you've always lodged in bookings for both pay period and then kind of further out into the spring is a little bit of an indicator. Are you seeing any change in pattern or booking behavior in terms of people maybe if you look at same customer coming that has an Epic Pass are they waiting longer to book? Are they booking shorter, longer? Any patterns you can see yet?

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Okay. Understood. And then as you -- and this kind of question relates to both the new friend pass -- friend tickets and also just your overall goal of getting more folks on to the mountains. Any early read on how ancillary spend looks for kind of the first timers and what's kind of embedded in your expectations related to ancillary spend for first timers?

Question: Jeffrey Stantial - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc - Analyst : I wanted to follow back up on one of Shaun's questions from earlier. If I heard you correctly, Rob, I think you described the 30% one-month advanced discount as sort of unique was the term, I believe you used. I guess my question is this, could this represent a bit more of a transition or a long-term evolution towards a suite of, call it, advanced lift ticket discounts, whether it's four weeks, three weeks, two weeks, and it starts to become really more of a yield management exercise more than anything else? Or to that point, you should we think about this more as one-off? And then just as a corollary to this, how do you think about the potential for AI to sort of, we'll call it, simplify the consumer purchasing journey and and help enable some more differentiation that you've been able to drive historically?

Question: Jeffrey Stantial - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc - Analyst : That's great. And then turning over to the lodging side of things. I'm just curious if you think there's opportunity to sort of run similar initiatives as is what you're doing right now with the window and the lift ticket side of things, whether it's more advanced on sort of discount? Just obviously, lodging is a material piece of the budget for a destination guests coming into one of your resorts. So I'm just curious if there's opportunity to sort of rethink pricing there as well.

Question: Brandt Montour - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : So the first question is I think it was pretty clear, the pricing discounts and cuts that you've talked about throughout the call are more than offset by volumes. And you said you're going to -- you had baked in some incremental revenue for these. And so I guess the question is, when you think about the incremental revenue that you baked in, I know you're not going to give that number, but is that piece more coming from what you called out today, selectively being more aggressive on dynamic pricing from window tickets at certain resorts? Or is it more from the thing you announced yesterday the month ahead, 30% discounted ticket program?

Question: Brandt Montour - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Okay. That's helpful. I appreciate it. A follow-up on this, though, would be for that sort of more dynamic pricing, it's like resorts throughout the season. Can you just benchmark us on sort of what the what you did before? I mean we remember you talking about pushing into off-peak before. But it wasn't really a situation where you were taking price down specifically? What were you doing before? And then what also -- what can you see in your data as you were raising prices that kind of gives you the sense for the elasticity that you need to see for this to work out in terms of volumes?

Question: Molly Baum - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : The first one I wanted to ask is about the larger initiative you mentioned to enhance your dining offerings. Can you talk about what the impetus was for that investment? Was it driven by guest feedback? And maybe at a high level, how you're thinking about your value proposition there and how impactful you think the investments will be ultimately for your ancillary business.

Question: Molly Baum - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : Got it. That's very helpful. And then just one quick follow-up on the improvement in pass sales trends post September. You saw it in both pricing and in units, but you mentioned that the marketing investments helped improve mix sequentially. So I guess my follow-up there is, was that an intentional byproduct of your marketing changes? Should we expect to see more improvement from mix going forward? Or do you think maybe units may accelerate a little more as we go forward and as these initiatives mature?