Vail Resorts Inc Q4 2025 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 : Robert, Angela, maybe I just wanted to start with kind of the broad backdrop for visitation for this upcoming season. So Rob, in the prepared remarks, you talked a lot about some very, I think, interesting initiatives to start to address the visitation -- some of the visitation challenges and some of the opportunities you see there. Obviously, the Epic Friend tickets being a piece there, and I imagine you expect utilization on those to be pretty good. So can you help us just kind of think about that underlying backdrop and what you're doing on marketing and with Epic Friends? And contrast that with kind of in the bridge for the year on the financial side, it seemed like the implication was that the expectation given the pass units are down a little bit, was that maybe visits are down, but I might be misreading that. So just wondering kind of how you expect really this season to play out from a visitation standpoint given some of the initiatives in play. Thanks.

Question: Shaun Kelley - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Got it. Makes complete sense. And then just as my follow-up, you kind of touched on a little bit of it. Just for the 2027 and beyond plan, some of the outline for maybe the Chief Revenue Officer and some of the opportunity. But just how big of a change is on the table here, Rob, just in terms of like -- look, the big initiative done was to push for volume to push pass utilization up at the expense a little bit of price, right? That was sort of the compromise made back during the pandemic. Is something as fundamental as that shift on the table here as we think about moving forward, whether it be raising the pass price in its entirety of balance out that ecosystem differently? Or maybe think about it differently, just the possibly charging an add-on, which has been proposed at a major kind of high-value resort like a Vail just to change the composition of price versus volume? Just how are you thinking about sort of that very fundamental idea as we turn the page to next year?

Question: David Katz - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : With respect to the sort of single-day visitation or the walk-up window, one of the debates, I guess, you're having is on sort of that price, right? And whether any of the strategies around improving walk-up visitation includes adjusting some of the price schedules that are out there or some of the pricing strategies.

Question: David Katz - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Understood. And interesting about the discussion around media channels. And historically, the company has always been particularly advanced at data gathering. How much of this strategy about sort of reaching customers through the right channels is also about data gathering that builds intelligence for the future? Or is it just the right connection channel?

Question: Jeffrey Stantial - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc - Analyst : Maybe just starting off on the initial fiscal '26 guidance, which is where we're getting the most questions this afternoon. Angela, you looked at out some of the puts and takes that factored in. One that seem to be missing or early that we didn't hear was sort of how you're thinking about lift ticket or window ticket sales this year. So is it your expectation that lift ticket unit sales are down year on year again similar to sort of what we saw this past season and one or two before that? Or is it an expectation that should stabilize on some of these efforts as quickly as fiscal '26? And similarly, just how should we think about sort of the blended price growth or decline, just given these changes to the buddy pass system and the more dynamic pricing strategy, maybe net of the typical price taking action that we've seen from you historically? Thanks.

Question: Jeffrey Stantial - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc - Analyst : Yeah, that's great. Thanks for that extra color, Angela. And then turning over to the Epic Friends changes to the structure there, Rob, or Angela. Can you just maybe start off by helping frame for us the materiality of Buddy passes historically, whether in terms of total units, revenue contribution, just any metrics that that you could provide there? And then as we think about sort of the overall return on this change, is it your expectation that one-time sort of pricing hit in year one can be recouped by higher volume of lift ticket sales? Or should we really think about this more as a longer-term investment where the return manifests over time through sort of long-term replenishment of that funnel for new support and lapsed skiers and ultimately, conversion over to pass sales. Just any extra color there would be great. Thanks.

Question: Stephen Grambling - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : A couple of follow-ups on the moving parts you ran through in the guidance for the year ahead. Do you generally anticipate that some of the efforts to communicate the new pricing and marketing will be incurred this year? Or is that more of a 2027 thing? So as we think about the potential for recovery in visitation in top line '27, will there also be a step-up in incremental costs?

Question: Stephen Grambling - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : That's helpful. One other follow-up. How are you thinking about the net impact from the disruption at Park City last year versus this year? Is that a tailwind in your expectations or a headwind? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 / 9:00PM, MTN.N - Q4 2025 Vail Resorts Inc Earnings Call

Question: Laurent Vasilescu - Exane Bnp Paribas - Analyst : The March Investor Day laid out a vision, I think, on slide 45, to have pass revenues go from 64% of the mix to over 75% over time. Rob, with the comments provided earlier on the lift tickets, where do you want that mix rate to go over time? Should they still go over to 75%? Or are you happy with that rate at 64% currently?

Question: Laurent Vasilescu - Exane Bnp Paribas - Analyst : Okay, very helpful. Thank you. And then tonight's press release outlines that you expect the December 2025 season date growth rate to be comparable to what you saw for the month of September. Can you maybe comment a bit more about this? What gives you the confidence that the trends remain consistent going forward for the next few months?

Question: C. Patrick Scholes - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets - Analyst : I'd like to talk about the dividend coverage. When I run some back of the envelope numbers, and certainly, I could be off in my assumptions here. At the low end of the guide, it looks like the dividend is not fully covered by the free cash flow, assuming I'm not completely wrong in my calculations. My question is, how comfortable are you taking on some debt, assuming you come in at the lower end of the guide to maintain that dividend? And along that line, at what's net leverage ratios are you comfortable with? Thank you.

Question: C. Patrick Scholes - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. So would take on a little bit of leverage if needed to be in that scenario. Next, or my follow-up question here. Curious as to -- in your pass sales, what have been the trends for international guests? I know you've got probably a lot of moving parts there when we say international, kind of depends what country wants to visit us at this moment and what doesn't. How is that looking, say, Mexico versus Europe versus Canadians, what are the trends you're seeing? And has sort of the negative rhetoric, has that been, I guess, a negative for you because you did see some deceleration in pace since your May update? Thank you.

Question: Arpine Kocharian - UBS - Analyst : I was wondering if you could give a little bit more color where you're seeing most weakness in your consumer base and maybe where you're seeing more sort of resilient customer. And anything else you would highlight on destination versus regional resorts that you saw in past sales trends. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 / 9:00PM, MTN.N - Q4 2025 Vail Resorts Inc Earnings Call You also talked about less tenured pass holders maybe not renewing at the same rate as last year. Anything else you would highlight that you saw in past purchase trends that we should be aware of getting into this season here? And then I have a quick follow-up.

Question: Arpine Kocharian - UBS - Analyst : Just to go back to the EBITDA bridge, you mostly covered this question earlier. But I was wondering what needs to happen for you to hit the upper end of your guidance range versus midpoint? You obviously talked about more nimble pricing in off-peak periods, maybe more targeted approach to driving window traffic. It sounds like that has the potential to impact lift volume as soon as this season. Is it just a matter of sort of the strategies working for you to hit the upper end of the guidance range? Thank you.

Question: Arpine Kocharian - UBS - Analyst : Yeah. So what needs to happen for you to hit the upper end of your visitation guidance? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 / 9:00PM, MTN.N - Q4 2025 Vail Resorts Inc Earnings Call

Question: Ben Chaiken - Mizuho Securities Co Ltd - Analyst : Rob, you mentioned evaluating the past product offering in the release and the Q&A a few times. I guess just taking a different perspective, I guess, where do you see the largest holes with the past? So not asking like the strategy necessarily, which I think is where the conversation has been, but what are you trying to solve for? Like where do you think Vail is lacking to the extent that you do and what are the largest areas to improve? Thanks.

Question: Ben Chaiken - Mizuho Securities Co Ltd - Analyst : Got it. That's helpful. And then just one quick follow-up. You've mentioned kind of benefits a few times. I guess, what's your thought process on adding like additional member benefits or perks to the pass and the attempt to increase the year-round utility? I think there's a few passes out there that provide these other ancillary benefit to pass holders. I mean it would be great to get your take on that strategy. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 / 9:00PM, MTN.N - Q4 2025 Vail Resorts Inc Earnings Call

Question: Brandt Montour - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : So my first question is on the guidance. You guys gave the usual sort of normal weather implied in guidance. I just was hoping, maybe, Rob, you could put a finer point on that is -- last year, it seemed like it was really good weather, but was that normal? Or was that better than normal? I know the years prior to that would be obviously firmly worse than normal, but maybe you can just give us a little bit of help with what you sort of baked in there.

Question: Brandt Montour - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : And then on the lift ticket strategy and the discussion around that, I think the pitch was pretty clear. The message from you guys today that the optimization opportunity exists. When you think of -- while I was absorbing this from you guys, and I don't want to say it sounds like discounting or anything like that, but just smarter marketing, smarter pricing. Is there a risk that as you improve the attractiveness of the lift ticket, you could cannibalize early commitment? I know that would be a little bit on a delay because you're marketing day tickets after -- pass the past selling season. But those same folks are probably going to overlap in terms of who you're reaching with that marketing. Is that a risk for the following year going down that road?

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : So I guess the first question I'm thinking about, Rob, is strategically, the idea to kind of go after more volume. You've talked about making ski more accessible to a wider range of people. Is this more about an age bucket or a certain demographic? I'm trying to kind of square like where those people are going now if they're not going on skiing. And this price, how confident are you on if you've done survey work or other things around that? How confident are you that investment in price, so to speak, and other things in the experience is going to get those folks to your mountains versus whatever else they're doing today? Thanks.

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : I just have a follow-up on CapEx. And the question is kind of almost like what you're solving for there. I know over time, you guys have identified specific projects. There's a maintenance piece to it. But I guess, do you think CapEx, is there a step function or CapEx you think needs to jump up to try to -- is that part of your plan to get people back and adding new amenity moving along faster or whatever it might be or you think, hey, capital plan is going to be what it's going to be year to year. There's constraints based on where we are in EBITDA and that kind of thing. I'm really just trying to get at whether you think a bigger uptick in CapEx would actually help if it's necessary or you plan to do it in the near future? Thanks.