Northstar Announces it Will Charge for Parking this Winter
Northstar California Resort recently announced it will be charging for parking at the ski resort beginning this winter, drawing sharp criticisms from its paying customers. The plan includes charging $10 on weekdays and $20 on weekends at the Village View parking lot. The ski resort will still offer free parking down at its Castle Peak lot.
The park says the move will ease congestion at the resort and encourage people to carpool and use ride sharing apps to get to the slopes. For many locals, it was seen as a money grab for the resorts new owners, Vail Resorts.
When the complaints began flooding in from season pass holders, the Northstar communications team needed to respond.
“Really what it comes back to is what we’ve built this program around — improving congestion on Northstar Drive and the guest experience,†Tony Karwowski, Northstar director of base operations, said to the Sierra Sun. “The idea is that the time it takes to pull into Castle Peak, boot up, and hop on a bus, and then ride to the village is equal or less than the time it takes to drive up Northstar Drive, drive through the village, boot up, and walk down to the village to the lift.â€
Even with the explanation, season pass holders didn’t buy the plan, asking for a refund of their passes based off the announcement. Northstar responded that all sales are final. By the way, their adult day pass lift ticket is already $125.
What do you think? Will this help guest experience or is it just a money grab from Vail Resorts?
It will make skiing an super expensive sport with this crazy pricey parking. For families whose kids are in team, those cost are unbelievable. Say bay to NS in 2020.
This is an absolute B.S. excuse. Those that wanted to park close to the Village got their early and secured a space near the Highlands Gondola. We were able to avoid the long walk thru the village and could ski down Home Run at the end of the day. If they really thought there were people who ignored the signs why not just station an employee telling them the lot was full. There would have been a whole lot less customer dissatisfaction. This is nothing but corporate greed on the part of Northstar management. I for one will no longer ski at Northstar and will not buy an Epic pass in future years.