Vail Resorts, Inc. reported a 12 percent drop in ski pass sales for the 2026/27 season and a 10 percent decrease in ski days through September 18, indicating sales weakness has continued following last season’s adverse weather.

In the fiscal fourth quarter ended July 31, resort net revenue inched up 0.3 percent year-over-year (y/y), to $272.1 million, with the gains primarily driven by strong performance at Grand Teton Lodge Company, partially offset by unfavorable weather conditions in Australia. Australian results were below expectations, as cumulative snowfall in the region during the quarter was approximately 57 percent below the 10-year average, which pressured visitation and revenue, partially mitigated by the growth in Australian pass sales. North American summer demand was in line with expectations.

Resort reported EBITDA improved from a loss of $122.4 million to a loss of $123.6 million a year ago, primarily due to $8.1 million of CEO transition costs incurred in the prior year, disciplined cost management and $4 million lower one-time resource efficiency transformation costs, including $1 million of a timing shift into next year. These benefits were partially offset by weaker performance in Australia due to unfavorable weather conditions, typical cost inflation and increased marketing investments.

The net loss for Vail Resorts in the quarter swelled to $190.2 million, or $5.34 a share, from $182.4 million, or $4.99, a year ago.

For the full year, resort revenue decreased 4.5 percent to $2.83 billion from $2.96 billion in the prior year, primarily driven by unfavorable weather conditions that impacted visitation and revenue for both local and destination guests, particularly at the Rockies and Tahoe resorts. Compared to the prior year, total lift revenue declined 3.5 percent, despite visitation being down 13.4 percent, primarily as a result of pass revenue increasing 3.9 percent for the year.

Resort reported EBITDA decreased 11.7 percent to $745.7 million from $844.1 million a year ago, which was primarily driven by weather-related headwinds, and were partially offset by disciplined cost management, $45 million of resource efficiency transformation cost savings, $16.7 million of reduced costs from company-wide performance-based management incentive plan expense that were not earned, and $6.2 million favorable EBITDA impact from changes in foreign exchange rates relative to the prior year. These cost benefits were partially offset by an incremental $20 million in marketing investment to support growth in pass sales, lift ticket initiatives and branding.

Net income in the year fell 47.3 percent to $147.5 million from $280.0 million in the prior year.

Executive Commentary
Commenting on the company’s fiscal 2026 results, Rob Katz, chief executive officer said, “This past winter was one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S. for the ski industry, which negatively impacted financial performance for the year. Conditions were particularly severe in the Rockies, where snowfall and snowpack were at or near historic lows and significantly below prior record-low seasons, resulting in the most difficult weather environment we have ever experienced. With that backdrop, this past year demonstrated the resilience of our business model and encouraging signs for the future. Our advanced commitment model and cost discipline provided considerable stability, and our investments in talent, technology and our resorts drove record guest satisfaction scores and strong employee engagement, which are critical measures of our success.

“Looking back over the past year and a half, we have taken decisive action and accelerated the pace of change across our business, strengthening leadership, advancing growth initiatives, enhancing the guest experience, and improving operational efficiency. In addition to appointing a new CEO, we have brought on a new Chief Revenue Officer and a new independent board member with hospitality and operations expertise, with an ongoing search for a second director. We refreshed our marketing approach and increased our investment across media, channel strategies, branding and optimization of our products and pricing. We also announced our multi-year Epic Experience growth strategy to further differentiate the guest experience to drive increased guest engagement and loyalty, and the expansion of our resource efficiency transformation plan to deliver an additional $30 million of savings by fiscal 2028.”

“While this past season had a challenging weather backdrop, we are encouraged by the early progress we are seeing across these strategies, including strong performance from our new product and pricing initiatives, lift ticket and pass sales trends that are outperforming the industry, increased brand awareness, and exceeding our original resource efficiency plan savings. Looking ahead, our Epic Experience strategy provides a clear roadmap for growth by placing the guest at the center of everything we do, in areas where we can drive clear competitive differentiation. By enhancing, personalizing and reducing friction at every stage of the guest journey, we see a significant opportunity to drive greater visitation, guest spending and loyalty through our differentiated resort network, marketing capabilities, and technology investments.”

Mountain Segment Operating Results
Total Mountain revenue, which represents the company’s business subset generating revenue from mountain-related operations, slid 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter to $175.9 million. The EBITDA loss slightly widened to $129.8 million from $127.7 million. For the year, Mountain sales were down 4.8 percent to $2.5 billion. EBITDA declined 11.2 percent to $729.4 million from $821.3 million the prior year.

Season Pass Sales
Pass product units sold through September 18, 2026 for the upcoming North American ski season decreased approximately 12 percent, days sold decreased approximately 10 percent and sales dollars, inclusive of sales and admissions taxes, decreased approximately 6 percent, as compared to the prior year period through September 19, 2025. Results through the Labor Day sales deadline were generally consistent with trends experienced during the spring selling period, when excluding auto-renew, as demand across the industry continued to be impacted by the effects of last season’s historically challenging conditions.

Results following the Spring deadline in May showed modest improvement in Colorado and Utah local markets, while weakness remains concentrated among Destination frequency products, especially lower frequency passes. Vail Resorts said, “Third-party data continues to show Vail Resorts outperforming the broader industry, especially amongst comparable unlimited products. The company’s recently introduced product and pricing initiatives have continued to generate encouraging results, with relative strength in unlimited pass products compared to lower-frequency product offerings driving improved mix and pricing performance. As unit declines remain concentrated among Destination frequency pass products, the company believes these trends may reflect delayed purchase behavior among less committed guests rather than fully lost demand, creating an opportunity to recapture visitation through pass sales in the remainder of the selling season and/or lift ticket products during the season, especially given the company’s ability to seamlessly and efficiently market broad-based and resort-specific season passes and lift tickets across all of its channels.”

Fiscal Year 2027 Guidance
The company is providing its initial guidance for the year ending July 31, 2027 and expects:

  • Net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. of $158 million to $233 million.
  • Resort Reported EBITDA of $805 million to $865 million, including approximately $14 million of one-time costs.

Vail Resorts said, “Fiscal 2027 guidance reflects a meaningful recovery from the weather-impacted fiscal 2026 season, supported by increased lift ticket visitation, pricing growth, increased guest spending across ancillary businesses and approximately $25 million of incremental efficiencies from the resource efficiency transformation plan. These benefits are expected to be partially offset by lower pass demand trends, the normalization of operating expenses, inflationary pressures, additional strategic investments to support future growth and approximately $14 million of one-time costs.

“At the midpoint, guidance implies an estimated Resort EBITDA margin of approximately 26.9 percent, or approximately 27.3 percent excluding one-time costs.

“Relative to the company’s original fiscal 2026 expectations issued in September 2025, fiscal 2027 guidance assumes visitation is modestly lower with overall lift revenue flat from pricing and product optimization efforts, along with increased marketing investments to drive visitation. As a result, ancillary revenue growth and savings from Resource Efficiency Transformation are not expected to fully offset inflationary pressures, resulting in a lower Resort EBITDA margin than originally expected for fiscal 2026.

“The guidance also assumes (1) a continuation of the current economic environment, (2) a range of normal weather conditions for the 2026/2027 North American and European ski season and the 2027 Australian ski seasons, and (3) foreign currency exchange rates as of September 25, 2026 noted below, and does not include any potential impacts related to future fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which may be impacted by tariffs, trade disputes, or other factors.”

The following table reflects the forecasted guidance range for the company’s fiscal year ending July 31, 2027 for total reported EBITDA and reconciles net income attributable to Vail Resorts, Inc. guidance to such total reported EBITDA guidance.

Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan
Vail Resorts said the company’s multi-year Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan remains on track. The company expects to deliver approximately $25 million of incremental efficiencies in fiscal year 2027, excluding one-time costs, resulting in approximately $110 million of annualized cost efficiencies by the end of fiscal year 2027. The updated fiscal year 2027 outlook reflects the accelerated realization of $5 million from the next phase of its resource efficiency transformation plan due to certain technology transformation initiatives that were previously expected to benefit fiscal 2028, with an additional $25 million of savings in fiscal year 2028 that includes a portion of capital savings. The company incurred approximately $11 million of associated one-time costs in fiscal 2026 and expects to incur approximately $14 million in associated one-time costs in fiscal 2027.

Liquidity and Return of Capital
Vail Resorts said that “despite difficult conditions in fiscal year 2026, the company remains confident in its long-term cash flow generation strength and its stable business model.” Balance sheet updates include:

  • As of July 31, 2026, the company’s total liquidity as measured by total cash plus highly liquid short-term investments and revolver availability was approximately $0.8 billion.
  • Net debt was 3.9 times trailing twelve months total reported EBITDA as of July 31, 2026.
  • The Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $2.22 per share of Vail Resorts’ common stock that will be payable on October 27, 2026 to shareholders of record as of October 8, 2026.
  • The company reaffirmed its calendar 2026 capital plan of approximately $215 million to $220 million in core capital, consistent with its long-term capital investment guidance. Including growth capital investments at the company’s European resorts and in support of Resource Efficiency Transformation and real estate planning projects, the company plans to invest a total of approximately $229 million to $234 million in calendar year 2026.

Image courtesy Vail Resorts, Inc.