In the city - Senior Buyer Vail Resorts Employee Review

2.0
17 May 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Working for the corporate arm of Vail Resorts was interesting and enlightening. The office was new and well maintained. Coworkers are friendly and, more often than not, like minded. It is an easy place to get comfortable and float through years of life on 'easy'.

Cons

The compensation is poor, if even comparable to other top companies (outside of the 'hospitality' industry). There is a lack of professional development opportunities from accredited sources. Many employees in management positions have worked their way up from the bottom and lack formal education and basic computer skills. Paid vacation is less than any previous position I've held. The headquarters are two hours from any of the resort locations and forget about a quick drive on the weekends, you can double that time if you get caught in winter weekend traffic.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Upper management was very helpful

Cons

Seasonal position only, wished it was year round

2.0
14 May 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
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