AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.
Same-Day
+4.43%
1 Week
+0.80%
1 Month
+15.97%
vs S&P
+9.71%
Transcript
OP
Operator
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vail Resorts fiscal 2008 second quarter results conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts. Please go ahead, sir.
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Vail Resorts fiscal 2008 second quarter earnings conference call and simultaneous webcast, both open to the public and press at large. I’m Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts. Joining me on the call this morning is Jeff Jones, our Chief Financial Officer. Before I get into the discussion of our results, let me remind you that we are using the terms reported EBITDA and reported EBITDA excluding stock-based compensation to report earnings for each of our operating segments, namely mountain, lodging, and resort, which is a combination of mountain and lodging segments, and real estate. Complete reconciliations of reported EBITDA, reported EBITDA excluding stock-based compensation and other non-GAAP financial measures can be found in this morning’s earnings release and on the vailresorts.com website in the investor relations section. I also need to mention that comments made during this conference call other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Certain risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Investors are directed to the risks and uncertainties described in the documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2007, and Form 10-Q for the second quarter fiscal 2008. In addition, the Safe Harbor language in today’s press release also applies to our comments on this call. All guidance and forward-looking statements made on this call are made as of the date hereof and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forecast or forward-looking statement except as may be required by law. So with that said, let’s…
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
Thanks, Rob and good morning, everyone. Earlier this morning we released our earnings for the second fiscal quarter ending January 31, 2008 and filed our Form 10-Q for the second quarter. I’d now like to take you through some of the highlights of our results and our guidance for fiscal 2008. Since many of the same trends we saw in the second quarter are comparable for the year-to-date period as well, I will focus my comments mainly on the second quarter. We were pleased to deliver another record-setting second quarter with resort revenue of $314.5 million, a 3.2% increase over the prior year’s record second quarter and we set a record for the second quarter mountain reported EBITDA, $117.5 million, a 3.4% increase over the prior year’s then record second quarter. Our mountain results were certainly positively impacted by our season pass program. We were able to continue to grow our season pass sales over our strong performance last year, with season pass sales up approximately 8% in sales dollars over the same period last year, although units were down approximately 2% due to an approximate 10% increase in effective pass price. For our Colorado resorts alone, season pass sales were up approximately 11% in sales dollars and up approximately 1% in units. Season pass revenue represents approximately 25% of our total lift revenue and therefore represents an important component of our total mountain segment business. Again, total lift revenue increased 4.2% in the quarter, as Rob detailed for you earlier. Turning to our ancillary mountain businesses in the quarter, which were impacted by the lower visitation in the early season, ski school revenue increased 2.8%, due primarily to increased pricing. The 1.9% growth in dining revenue was aided by the acquisition of two licensed Starbucks stores in June 2007…
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Thanks, Jeff. Turning to our real estate activity, we had a successful launch of the first of a multi-building project at One Ski Hill Place in Breckenridge, including 88 ski-in, ski-out residences ranging from studio to four-bedroom homes, with approximately 102,000 saleable residential square feet. To date, we have released 66 units in five phases, with an average price per square foot of $1,244, 29% in excess of our Crystal Peak project released just a year ago, which has already sold out with construction well underway. Currently, we have 38 units under contract, representing gross sales proceeds of $54.5 million. On the Vail Mountain Club, I am very excited about the progress of sales. To date, we have sold 332 memberships, including 161 full memberships which include parking privileges, and an additional 171 social memberships, which exclude parking privileges, representing total sales commitments of $58.6 million of total proceeds when paid in full. This includes the sale of 41 full memberships and 41 social memberships since our December 10, 2007 earnings release. With the pace of the membership sales, we have recently increased the membership initiation fee deposit on the full memberships to $275,000 from $260,000, and on the social memberships to $150,000 from $105,000, with eight full memberships and seven social memberships sold at the new price points. The strength of the Vail Mountain Club sales in this economic climate is certainly a testament to the unique experience that the club will offer members steps from the Vista Bahn chairlift beginning next ski season. On January 5th, we opened the newest RockResort hotel, the Arrabelle at Vail Square, the crown jewel of our hotel portfolio. Since opening, we have had rave reviews for his new luxury signature property of the RockResorts brand and for the surrounding village we have…
OP
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Felicia Hendrix with Lehman Brothers.
AB
Anthony Powell - Lehman Brothers
Analyst
It’s actually Anthony Powell. I’m calling on behalf of Felicia. A question on February and March -- what’s your visibility for your visitation in February and March and how does it break down between international and domestic visitors?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I guess two things; one is our visibility, obviously we have pretty good visibility into February because that’s just completed in terms of the skier visit numbers. And we do have visibility into -- good visibility into certainly parts of March. One of the things that we have seen this year is that the booking curve has really shortened and so people are booking their vacations much closer in. So what I would say is that we don’t have the -- you know, as you go out a number of weeks, we don’t have perfect visibility but obviously we feel very comfortable with the guidance we just put out. In terms of international visitation, the main holiday week in February, which is President’s week, is not an international holiday, so we certainly didn’t see the same dynamics but we have seen those same dynamics in probably every other week since the end of January, other than President’s week, which is that international visitation is up significantly.
AB
Anthony Powell - Lehman Brothers
Analyst
Great, and also on lodging, do you expect any more pre-opening expense in the third quarter?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
No, we’re -- we should be done with that generally. We might have a little bit, Anthony, as we opened up I think the spa in February and a couple of other things. There might be a little bit more expense relative to some of the things we opened up in February but for the most part, it should be complete.
AB
Anthony Powell - Lehman Brothers
Analyst
Great. And also in the second quarter, was there any sort of variability between how the different mountains performed? Was any mountain stronger than any other and how is that looking going into the third quarter?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I think for the majority of the second quarter, kind of post the early season, I think all of the resorts did -- were all up and doing very well. I think that Heavenly in particular really had some strong results as you went into January because they have unbelievable snow. It was actually in all-time record for January for them. But I think that when you looked at the early season period, I think Heavenly was probably down a little bit more than the others because of their snow where in Colorado, I think the snowfall really came kind of in mid-December. In Heavenly, it really didn’t come until after Christmas week.
AB
Anthony Powell - Lehman Brothers
Analyst
All right, that’s it. Great job, guys. Thanks.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Jeff Randall with Black Creek Capital. Please go ahead.
JC
Jeff Randall - Black Creek Capital
Analyst · Black Creek Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks. Just as a follow-up on the last question, can you all give us what January ’08 skier visit growth looked like?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
We don’t actually release skier visits by month, so I won’t be able to help you out on that one. And also, January is obviously an odd month in particular because it really crosses over the Christmas holiday period. So January on its own is not all that helpful but I think if you look at the early season versus the other period, which is a lot of the numbers that we just gave you on this call and in the release, I think that actually should provide you some good guidance about the pre-holiday versus holiday and post-holiday period for January.
JC
Jeff Randall - Black Creek Capital
Analyst · Black Creek Capital. Please go ahead.
Great, and then Jeff, you commented -- I think you said units, season pass unit sales were up in Colorado. Were they down at Heavenly, is that right?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
That’s true, yes.
JC
Jeff Randall - Black Creek Capital
Analyst · Black Creek Capital. Please go ahead.
What would you attribute that to, given that -- well, I guess you said Heavenly had sort of a weak snowfall in the early part of the season, but --
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
Yeah, I think that -- I mean, Heavenly’s pass sales were not down much and they came back very strongly near the end of the pass sale period. I think what impacted Heavenly sales overall were that coming off of two pretty rough weather years and the fact that it didn’t snow in the early season in Heavenly, I think people were in that wait-and-see approach before they committed to their pass sales. Once they saw the Heavenly snow really coming, and we hold the Heavenly pass sales open later than we do in Colorado, we got a big surge of buying, which got them pretty close to the last year, but down a little bit more. Obviously Colorado was up overall.
JC
Jeff Randall - Black Creek Capital
Analyst · Black Creek Capital. Please go ahead.
Okay and then lastly, I just wondered if you would articulate the RockResort strategy as it stands today, I guess how it’s evolved in the direction given the new leadership under Stan.
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Sure. I think one of the things that we’ve talked about over the last couple of years is that our RockResort strategy is really to -- our widening strategy overall is to have significant lodging presence at the base of all of our mountain resorts and then outside of our mountain resorts, it’s really to have a management opportunity in select locations where we believe there’s good overlap in the customer demographics where we’re really being brought in to kind of recreate a lot of the unique experience that we provide at Beaver Creek and Vail and all of our ski resorts, and so we are really looking for that good connection with both the property, the type of customer, and the type of owner and what they are looking for. And I think that’s something that we are going to be continuing to pursue as we go forward.
JC
Jeff Randall - Black Creek Capital
Analyst · Black Creek Capital. Please go ahead.
Okay, great. Thanks, guys.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Hayley Wolff with Rochdale Securities. Please go ahead.
HS
Hayley Wolff - Rochdale Securities
Analyst · Rochdale Securities. Please go ahead.
Just a couple of questions, trying to further get at what Anthony was trying; you said bookings curve has come in but we are moving into I think two pretty strong vacation weeks in March, so can you comment on what your bookings might look like in those two key vacation weeks? And then what your thoughts are on the implications for the shift in Easter from March to April, contrasting that against the fact that your snowfall, your snow at the end of last year’s season was pretty weak.
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Sure. I think we’ll -- I guess instead -- we elected not to release the booking numbers per se for these couple of weeks but obviously have incorporated all that data in coming out with the guidance that we are providing. What I would say is that there is no question that the third week of March is the strong peak week, with Easter falling at the end of that week and I think we’ve seen a lot of vacation business kind of piling into that week. I think that the week that we are in right now is certainly a little bit softer and then I think there’s no question that April is going to be a little bit softer because of the change of the Easter holiday from last year, and we’ve incorporated all these factors in coming up with the guidance that we are providing. I think that we are seeing some business and some bookings certainly in April but it’s very hard when you move Easter out of April into March to recreate that. Next year, Easter is I think April 12th and I think that probably provides a more balanced vacation schedule, which is more traditional.
HS
Hayley Wolff - Rochdale Securities
Analyst · Rochdale Securities. Please go ahead.
Is there anything about the international vacation schedule that maybe provides an offset?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Well, there is. I think there is some -- there are some vacations, particularly in South America, that do still book into April but again, it’s just not going to be as strong as when Easter is in April. And again, what I would say is we’ve kind of looked at all these dynamics and factored that into actually providing the guidance that we did.
HS
Hayley Wolff - Rochdale Securities
Analyst · Rochdale Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay, and then on the decision to increase the credit line -- is that just taking advantage of the fact that it’s available or are you having difficulty securing financing on some projects?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
I think it’s more the former. We had built in when we refinanced our facility and extended it out to 2012 last year an accordion feature that could allow us to increase by another $100 million, and because our pricing is just so favorable in the credit facility -- again, currently we’re at LIBOR plus just 50 basis points and we all know where LIBOR’s at right now -- it really give us an ability to take additional credit availability while it’s there and I think it gives us flexibility as we said in comparing what’s available for our real estate financing needs to what could be used on our own credit line, which currently is unused at the current time. So I think it gives us maximum flexibility. If we want to wait out certain real estate financing markets until they get better, we have tremendous pricing in our credit facility to do that.
HS
Hayley Wolff - Rochdale Securities
Analyst · Rochdale Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay and then, last question on the Canyons, you said there was $2 million of expense that you are going to take this year that originally -- for legal expenses that you hadn’t anticipated. And then second, is there any sort of timing or schedule you can give us without getting into the details of the legal battle that we should look for?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
What I’d say on the expenses, I think that’s something that we disclosed back in the fall and so there’s nothing new per se from what we disclosed back in the fall on the actual litigation expenses. One, on the timing, no, there’s no real -- I don’t think there’s anything that we can share or quite frankly that we know about the timing of that legal proceeding.
HS
Hayley Wolff - Rochdale Securities
Analyst · Rochdale Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Will Marks with JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
WS
Will Marks - JMP Securities
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I have a first question on CapEx in ’07. What was the final number and what were the major projects?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
The CapEx last year came very close, approximately $100 million in total that we had originally guided. The major projects included the Buckaroo gondola that Rob explained in Beaver Creek, which really has dramatically changed the children’s and beginner ski school experience at Beaver Creek. It’s pretty dramatic when you go over and take a look at it. You have Chair 10 and Chair 14 in Vail, which has really opened up new pods of skiing to more people because of the high-speed nature of the chairlift and the ability to now as we realign Chair 14 get more beginner and intermediate skiers over there and get better access over to Two Elk and to over into the back bowls and into Blue Sky. And we also put a new lift in Heavenly, the north bow lift, which has really, really helped the skiing again in another area that was very lightly utilized before, just due to the nature of the fixed grip chair that this high-speed replaced. So I think those were the more dynamic changes we made in the current year in our capital.
WS
Will Marks - JMP Securities
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Great. And in looking ahead into this calendar year, the Keystone project, does that mean -- and maybe you’ve said this, but that you will launch real estate, some real estate sales this year in Keystone?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I think what it means is that we -- it’s positioned the real estate for launch and we are spending dollars, capital dollars on the planning for that. Obviously the ultimate decision on whether to release or not will be based upon marketing conditions at that time.
WS
Will Marks - JMP Securities
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay, and then kind of beating a dead horse, but on just what happened versus looking ahead in guidance, is 90% of the lower guidance due to November/December? I just want to get a sense of -- and maybe discuss how your average customer making $200,000, has that shielded you from this economy? I mean, why aren’t you seeing that much of an impact?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Well, I think what’s happening is -- I mean, I think the way I’ve kind of talked about the season is I think there are four factors that are impacting the season. I think that you on the one hand have weather, which I think was certainly a negative at the beginning of the season. I think that’s been obviously a positive. We have amazing conditions right now at all of our resorts, so I think that’s -- it’s been a negative at the beginning of the season. I think that’s a positive today. I think you have our season pass business, which I think was a very big positive, going into the season obviously up 11%. I think you then have the international business that was up as we say here 23% and because those people that are coming typically stay longer and spend more on their vacation, it’s up even more than that in terms of revenue. But ultimately you then have a U.S. domestic business that is I think softer than it certainly was last year and so I think what you are seeing is kind of all those factors kind of coming together but I think because of the quality of our resorts and the experience and the investments that we’ve made, we’re still able in our core mountain business for this quarter, if you look for the whole year, to still be able to talk about increasing over the record year we had last year, which for us I think we are very pleased with.
WS
Will Marks - JMP Securities
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay, that’s a great overview, and just one final question; leading into next year, and I know this is early but based on the current U.S. economy, where the softness is, would you consider increasing your season pass pricing?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I don’t think at this point we are prepared to talk about it. What I would say though is that we typically announce pricing for the Colorado and Heavenly passes in early April and so I think those are obviously public once we do that and obviously I’m sure if you have any questions, I’m sure Jeff will be happy to walk you through that.
WS
Will Marks - JMP Securities
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks, guys.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Mimi Noel with Sidoti. Please go ahead.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Can you tell me what kind of pricing you’ve observed at the Arrabelle after-market units?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I think they are up probably in the range of 50% or so I think from where people bought in, so some fairly healthy increases. I think we’ve seen some of the less premium units at $1600, $1700, $1800 a foot. Obviously the more premium units, even higher than that. I think certainly it’s been a good environment and I think as we mentioned on the Ritz, with a lot of those first coming online now, people were not allowed to transfer their contracts but obviously once they close, they can sell their units. I think you are seeing a lot of activity on the Arrabelle right now in the Vail real estate market.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Okay, and then those after market prices, are they comparable to the Ritz, a little bit higher, a little bit lower?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I think that they are comparable in that there’s some -- the pricing overlaps but you really have to compare quality of unit to quality of unit, and so I think that there’s no question that the best Arrabelle units will be above the best Ritz units.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: I see. Okay. Also, in thinking about the Ritz, you had mentioned Ever Vail and some enhancements you’d be making in that immediate area. Can you give me any detail on that?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Well, I think what we are saying is that the land that’s adjacent to the west of the Ritz residence project is where we are going to be putting Ever Vail and I think there’s no question that as we really clarify better exactly what’s going to be there and work through that approval process with the town, which is right now underway, we do feel certainly when next season comes around and those plans are fully set in stone that we’ll be able to show people exactly what’s going to be there and certainly let’s say for the units that face that area, that’s going to be a huge improvement to what’s there today.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Okay. Is it going to mostly aesthetic or aesthetic and functional?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Well, aesthetic and functional because you are going to have the gondola that’s going to land basically just to the west of that project and while we certainly -- we have approval from the forest service to do that, until we show up firm dates when that’s going to go in, obviously that’s a nice to have but will become a key part I think of the Ritz project as we go forward.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Okay. Do you have an idea of the timing of that then, or does it have to do with the construction of the timing of the Ritz?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
No, I think it has to do with -- the Ever Vail project is really on its own timing. I think that we would, as we go through the approval process, I think that will be something that over the next few months that we’ll probably have some more clarity on. And then ultimately, of course, we’ll start taking Ever Vail product to market and that of course will be based upon the marketing conditions at that time.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Okay. Just one or two more questions and then I’ll hop off; you gave a lot of comparisons early quarter versus late quarter. Did you give that visitation? And I don’t mean an absolute number but just a percentage increase, a percentage decline, first half versus second half of the quarter?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
I’m not sure it was -- I don’t think it was in our discussion. I can tell you though that basically what way we said it was that the decrease in skier visits entirely occurred during that early season, so basically I can tell you that visitation was slightly up during the post-early season, during the holiday period and slightly up actually in the 3% to 4% range.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Okay, and that’s for the entire quarter?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
No, in that mid-season. Overall visits were down from the quarter. They were significantly down during the early season and then they were up in the mid-season; net net, they were still down. And remember those visits would include visits by season pass holders where we have the revenue locked in from those pass holders and they would fluctuate based on really more than anything, weather conditions and again, as a reminder, that early season had significantly a lot of snow fall where the front range skiers in Colorado, for example, can have a lot more flexibility to go out and ski in November and early December than a lot of the destination visitors do.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: Okay, and then one last easy question -- the arbitration award from earlier in the year, that’s included in guidance, correct?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
That’s correct.
Mimi Noel - Sidoti & Company: All right. That’s everything. Thank you for your help.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from [Yasuna Murakami] with MC2 Capital Management. Please go ahead.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
I have a couple questions here. I guess the main first question involves the big picture I guess with Vail and Beaver Creek. I mean, you guys have done a great job with Arrabelle. It looks great but now with the Ritz, you know, you’ve mentioned Ever Vail, the Four Seasons all moving into that area. Are you worried about cannibalizing stuff over from Beaver Creek and how does that work into your guidance if the economy does weaken and start affecting the larger market, I guess, out there?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I guess what I would say is I don’t think we’re really worried about cannibalizing for Beaver Creek. I think we’re really -- you know, Beaver Creek has its own identity and its own brand. There’s no question that there’s some crossover skiing. I think that quite frankly in Vail, I think that a lot of the projects that you just mentioned, like the Four Seasons and the Ritz and Ever Vail are all about bringing the quality of the experience that people have in the town up to the quality of the experience that they are having on the mountain. So we think that this is kind of an important progression for Vail on its own and not necessarily for Beaver Creek. In terms of economic impact, what I would say is that I think that we are both on the resort side and on the real estate side, in one of the best parts of the travel and real estate markets. It doesn’t mean that you can be immune to things that are going on in the broader economy but we obviously feel like given that the resorts we have are very unique and have the brand presence and the popularity that they do, and obviously our real estate, as we mentioned, is again a relatively small number of luxury and ultra-luxury units, that helps insulate us. Does it insulate us completely? No, I mean, that’s not possible.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
Understood. But I guess you now have high-end housing in Vail Village itself. Lionshead now is transforming itself to something that Vail Village has and then up I70, now you have -- obviously you have Beaver Creek with the multitude of properties up there. Has there been a concern what are you guys taking into account? Is it that there are two totally separate brands or -- I guess that’s my concern.
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
We do -- we think they are -- you know, and obviously it’s probably a good conversation maybe for our investor conference in early April, probably not for this call but I think they are very separate brands with different identities and I think what we are seeing is what the improvements to Vail allows is the customer that wants to come to Vail, that likes the Vail ski experience but really may only come once, doesn’t come for the second time or comes every other year because we haven’t had the very upper end lodging and I think that’s something that we are really correcting with all the investment and all of the improvements in the base area.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
Next question is what -- now we’ve heard that there was a 25% increase in non-U.S. visitors to the resort. What percentage would that be of total visitations coming to the resort?
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
Just a shade over 10% of total visitation.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
Do you see this number as being a driver for growth in the future or what are your feelings? Is it completely affected by macro issues?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
No, we think -- I guess what I would say is there is no question that the international business this year is certainly being impacted by exchange rates. At the same time, our company made a conscious decision at the beginning of the season to really make a larger investment in all of our sales efforts and in all of our marketing efforts toward the international business. We have a separate, standalone international sales desk and I think what I would say is that we are actually currently looking at how to take that up a whole level next year, so I think what we’ve done as a company is a great job at maximizing the impact from what is already a good trend. I think that the good news for us is that as people come out, especially from Europe, I think that they are -- a lot of them are getting their first opportunities to experience our resorts and I think that we really believe that even if exchange rates shift, we’re going to continue to capture and retain a lot of those customers and so we’re looking to really take this international shift and make some of this permanent for the long haul, even with the fluctuations in exchange rates. Obviously if the exchange rates stay where they are or get even more attractive, no question that that’s going to be a real benefit going forward.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
And now looking at the infrastructure upgrades, you mentioned Keystone getting a new gondola. What about the other resorts? Is there anything else on the horizon? Is it pretty much limited to a chair lift here or there or is there anything we should be aware of?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I think what we’ve talked about is completing the Buckaroo Express experience at Beaver Creek, which is we’re taking that whole children’s ski school experience up a whole notch and I think the upper, the new facility at the top is really going to complete that. We’re doing a full-blown renovation of the Inn at Beaver Creek, which is actually the closest -- the hotel closest to a ski lift in North America. It’s only about a few steps away. And then in Vail, there’s nothing major because we just put in chairs 10 and 14. Keystone obviously is getting a new gondola. Breckenridge obviously just got a new gondola and so there will be some snow-making there. There will be new snow-making and trade gradation work -- trail gradation work at Heavenly and some new snow-making at Beaver Creek. So what I’d say is we’ve highlighted the major products and we probably can go over again in even more detail at our investor conference in early April.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
Absolutely. That’s fine. I guess a last question at the moment is involving competitors like Intrawest. At this point, with all these upgrades, do you see yourselves well-positioned against say the Whistlers of the world, that kind of thing? How do you feel you compare at this point?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
We feel very -- we feel like the resorts that we have today are very, very strong. They five of the ten most visited resorts in North America. I think that we are going to continue and I think our balance sheet and our flexibility allows us to continue to invest in the resorts and invest in the experience so that we are constantly taking what we offer our guest up a whole notch every year. We think that allows us obviously to drive pricing because it continues to keep our value prospect with the customer and value package I think in line, which is we can charge more because we are continually taking up the experience. We think Intrawest and lots of the other resorts out there are very, very fine competitors. It’s not that we don’t pay any attention to them but we are really focused on our own path.
YM
Yasuna Murakami - MC2 Capital Management
Analyst
Okay. Thanks, guys.
OP
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
CB
Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank
Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning. A couple of questions; you obviously had a pretty nice quality of customer in the second quarter. I know some of that was helped by international and the higher ticket prices. What are you seeing so far in the third quarter? Is it similar in terms of the -- what you’d call the customer quality, is it similar to second quarter?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Yeah, I think it is. Again, I think other than the weak -- other than President’s week, which is just not an international holiday so the international visitation on a relative basis doesn’t have the same impact, I think we’re definitely seeing in the other weeks international businesses up and I certainly think that that’s what we’re expecting for the latter part of March.
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
And I think the yields that we talked about are continuing, and I think that’s a good sign that we are -- we get asked that question a lot. Are people that are coming, are they still spending money and we’re still seeing obviously continued strength within the ancillary businesses that we mentioned earlier and even advanced bookings into ski school for the weeks, including that very busy week that’s coming up here, remains strong.
CB
Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank
Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Great, and then with the Arrabelle open, have you already seen an impact in terms of the ancillary revenues around that? Have you already seen an impact? Who is really staying there and maybe do you have an idea of where they stayed before?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
I don’t know that we’ve got the exact data on that. What I would say though is we are definitely seeing people staying in the Lionshead area much more, spending more time there, visiting the shops, the stores, the restaurants, to a much greater degree than they did before. Now, how that impacts our company is in just a lot of different ways. Obviously there’s people actually staying at the Arrabelle itself. There are people who are shopping or dining at restaurants that we don’t own but are getting commercial leasing income from, and then we have our own retail stores through SSV that we are making money on. So the answer is yes, and I think a lot of these are folks -- I think currently the people staying in the Arrabelle itself probably some of them are new to Vail, some of them have stayed in other hotels, but I think the people who are staying in Lionshead are all the same people who would get off the mountain before but would probably disperse pretty quickly and wouldn’t actually spend the extra hour or two [after a ski], and that’s what we’re starting to see and quite frankly, I think we’re going expect that to tick up even more next season when we have the entire area open for a full season.
JJ
Jeffrey W. Jones
Management
And Chris, really to that point, just as a reminder, not only does the Arrabelle have 36 hotel rooms but it has 67 condo units, of which 50 of those condo units have lock-offs with separate keys into the hallways, so -- and the positioning there is to rent those lock-offs for those that put those in the rental -- very similar to a hotel room. So I think given that we just started closing on the Arrabelle units right near the end of the quarter, I think we’ll start seeing more visibility into that and obviously more and higher occupancies into the Arrabelle that same kind of clientele that Rob just described later into this season and certainly as real upside going into next season.
CB
Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank
Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Right, and my final one is looking out to the airlift schedule for next season, I know that -- I believe Eagle is expanding the runway this summer. Do you guys have any knowledge of whether there will be any new airlift in there or any equipment upgrades or anything like that?
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
At this point, I don’t think we could give any clarity on that. I think it’s something that we’ll -- I mean, probably can better talk about as we get into the summer. There’s certainly a lot of discussions going on and I know frontier is certainly considering adding Eagle for the winter but that’s something that we’ll have to discuss when we get closer.
CB
Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank
Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Okay, very good. Thanks.
OP
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) At this time, I’m showing no additional questions in the queue. I’d like to turn the call back over to management for any concluding remarks they may have.
RK
Robert A. Katz
Management
Thank you, Operator. That wraps up our second quarter call. Thanks to everyone who joined us on the conference call today. Please feel free to contact Jeff or I directly should you have any further questions. Thank you for your time this morning and goodbye.
OP
Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the Vail Resorts fiscal 2008 second quarter results conference call. You may now disconnect and we thank you for using ACT teleconferencing.