How to choose ski area management software.

Most independent ski areas run on a patchwork: a ticketing system bought years ago, a card terminal that doesn't talk to it, paper patrol reports, clipboards for lift checks and a spreadsheet schedule. Replacing all of it at once is rarely the right move. Replacing the right parts, in the right order, at the right time of year usually is.

Start with when, not what

The ski year decides what you can change:

• November to March: don't change the ticket window or the gate mid-season. Paper processes (patrol reports, lift and park inspections, scheduling, waivers) can be replaced any time, because nothing breaks if they go slowly.
• March and April: list what hurt this season, and book demos.
• May to August: the window to choose ticketing, point of sale and the online shop, with time to import data and train.
• September and October: setup and training only. Too late to choose a new ticketing system for this season.

Decide what you are actually replacing

Write down every system and paper process you run today, who uses it, and what it costs in money and time. Then mark each one: keep, replace this year, or replace later. Common candidates, roughly from easiest to hardest to change:

1. Paper: patrol incident reports, lift and park inspections, grooming logs, timesheets.
2. Stand-alone tools: a separate waiver service, a scheduling app, a lesson booking form.
3. The guest-facing systems: the online ticket shop, season pass sales, rentals.
4. The ticket window and the gate: point of sale, card payments, RFID or barcode scanning.

What to compare

Fit for a small operation

• Can you turn on only the parts you run, and pay only for those?
• Does it run on the computers, tablets and phones you already have?
• Can a seasonal crew learn it in a morning?

Safety records

• Are patrol, lift and park records kept intact, with who changed what and when?
• Can a lift or feature that failed inspection be kept from being marked open?
• Does patrol keep working when a phone loses signal on the hill?

Money

• Where do guest card payments go: into your own processor account, or through the vendor?
• What does each card payment cost, all fees included?
• Can the counter take cards on a reader that the software charges directly, so nobody types amounts twice?

Your data

• Can you export everything, at any time, without asking?
• What happens to your data if you leave?
• Can they import your customers, pass holders and products from your current system?

Support

• Who answers at 8 a.m. on a holiday Saturday, and how fast?
• What counts as urgent, in writing?
• How often do they release changes, and never on which days?

Questions to ask every vendor

Print this and take it to every demo. The same questions for each vendor make the answers comparable.

• What does it cost in total for our mountain for a year, including setup, hardware, card fees and support?
• Is there a contract, how long, and how do we leave?
• Where do our guests' card payments go, and when do we get the money?
• Can we start with one part and add others later?
• Can we see it with our own data, or a demo mountain like ours, not a slideshow?
• How do you import our customers, pass holders and products?
• What hardware do we need, and does our current hardware work?
• What happens when the internet drops at the counter or on the hill?
• How are patrol and inspection records protected from being changed or deleted?
• Can we export all our data ourselves, any time?
• Who answers on a peak Saturday morning, and how fast?
• Can we talk to two ski areas our size that use it?

Run a real trial

A demo shows what a product can do; a trial shows what your crew will do with it. Before you sign, put your own lifts, trails and products in, and have the people who will use it every day try their part: the ticket window, the patrol director, the lift mechanic, the ski school lead. Their questions are better than any feature list.

Verdynt/OS has a demo mountain you can open in about 20 seconds, and a 14-day free trial on your own mountain with no card needed. See pricing for what each plan includes.

Common questions