Disappointing, Frustrating, Overly Corporate - Anonymous employee Vail Resorts Employee Review

2.0
Aug 11, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Front Line employees are fun people, Working on the mountain is beautiful, Breckenridge is an incredible town to live/work in, Large amounts of recreational opportunities.

Cons

Senior Leadership consistently displays an uncaring attitude towards the staff, Communication between departments is horrible, Compensation levels are far below a living wage for the area. Constant talk about "having fun" but nothing to back it up, Promotions are more likely to go to "yes men" types than to talented types, A big miss on the whole "Experience of a lifetime" thing. It is frustrating to listen to people speak of passion and commitment but then watch the company display the exact opposite towards its employees. It basically wants to be Disney, so it is not an attractive place for thrill seekers. There is no skiing/riding on the clock for most employees. You do not receive health benefits until you have worked 750 hours. Retention rate is extremely low. Jobs are boring and repetitive.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
Jun 30, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing company to work for! Appreciate the environment, the benefits.

Cons

Seasonal position which can make benefits a challenge.

2.0
May 14, 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.

5
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