Not An Experience Of A Lifetime... - Management Vail Resorts Employee Review

1.0
Apr 14, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Ski Pass is nice (if you have time to use it), Living in the mountains (if you have time to enjoy it), Meeting interesting people.

Cons

I worked for VR for 3 years and actually thought very highly of the company at 1st. However, this all changes once you see how the VR politics work. There is absolutely no room for growth, even if it is promised to you. Important employees with high potential are lost in the shuffle. VR has forgotten they are a ski company. They care more about the bottom line than guest loyalty and employee appreciation. Pay is extremely low. The mountains are expensive, but VR does not acknowlege this. Upper Management is far too disconnected and only care about P&L statements. They care nothing about front-line employee and middle management morale. There is also a lot of micro-managing. If you are a manager, upper management will tell you to own your department, but never listen to any suggestions or good ideas.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Upper management was very helpful

Cons

Seasonal position only, wished it was year round

2.0
May 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Most people are smart, passionate, and enjoyable to work with and be around. - Fairly frequent opportunities for development and advancement through the internal job board. - Nice perks if you're into skiing or riding.

Cons

- There's an unspoken expectation to regularly work significantly more hours because the majority of employees are very passionate about the ski and ride industry, which isn't great for work life balance. There's not much down time either; you're either hustling in season or hustling to prepare for the next season. - Climate change poses a significant threat to the future of the company. The season pass model mitigates some of the impacts, but not as much as senior leadership asserts. And, since bonuses are tied to company results, you can end up working super hard all year and still end up getting half of your bonus target due to uncontrollable weather conditions. - The culture has taken a serious hit since enterprise transformation work began. Lots of people are constantly stressed out and the atmosphere in the office is depressing. - Most of the time, it feels like senior leadership makes decisions in a vacuum without consulting any of the people that would be responsible for the downstream work associated with the decision. For example, I've seen senior leaders decide on a savings target multiple times without consulting the experts, who then have to scramble to figure out how to make it work. It creates chaos and negatively impacts morale. - This organization has a wordsmithing problem. I've never worked at a company that spends such an inordinate amount of time on the framing of a message compared to the actual substance of the message.

3
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All