What to Expect of Friends and Family who Work as Ski Resort Employees
Among our wide and varied experience as tour guides, we also have more than one person on our staff who worked at Utah Ski Resorts as instructors. Being a ski instructor is at least one part being a guide. You are the guide for beginners looking to discover how to ski but also how to explore the mountain slopes. It’s on you to answer all the questions in your group, whether they’re tough, vague, or childish. It’s on you to be mindful of everyone’s safety. It also comes with a certain amount of “status” at least in the very local circles of that resort and beginner skiers. Mostly, it’s just a winter seasonal job. But more than wide-eyed kids who think a ski instructor is pretty much the same thing as an Olympic athlete, adults perceive this status as the ability to get free stuff and steeply discounted prices. So, with this in mind, we thought we’d try to dish a little bit on what prospective ski instructors and their friends and family should expect when it comes to getting SWAG and sweetheart deals.
Like other jobs, there are a certain amount of perks that instructors enjoy including free access to the slopes, other select times, and discounted prices for peak times and many items in the ski shop. It may or may not include a free meal provided to the resort staff. Often, it’s a different story when it comes to friends and family of employees. There may be an annual family event for the staff that proves to be the exception, but there is limited perks available for friends and family of ski instructors.
Often times, it’s not that we can’t get bargains at our resorts and for lift tickets, it’s just that what we can get isn’t really any better than websites that offer Utah Skiing Discounts and Deals. Honestly, the best time to get discounts from employees from a ski resort is often in the summertime, when the resort is simply trying to minimize vacancies and support what minimal staff is necessary year-round. Yes, the regular price is lower, too, during the off-season but keeping employees happy and more people talking about their experience at the resort are among the primary objectives during the summer months. Look, too, toward the first and last weeks of the season in which a majority of the town’s shops and restaurants are open and operating but demand is still relatively low.
That said, take everything we say here with a grain of…snow? Even in this day and age in which it feels like every resort is owned by the same three or four companies, there are big differences from one resort to another and region to the next. The relative availability of people who are qualified and willing to serve as ski instructors also likely has an impact on the culture and policies of employee perks. And so, if you’re a friend or family member of a ski instructor, it never hurts to ask but we wouldn’t expect a lot.