Conditions 100%: This is clearly the most important info feature for skiers and riders, particularly those who are at a winter destination like Tahoe, British Colombia, Park City, UT or Colorado where there are multiple resorts to choose from that may have different conditions. Web Cam 82%: We want to know what it looks like. Numbers, stats and graphs tell a lot about a resort, but web traffic clearly shows that skiers and riders want to see what’s going on in real time. Having this available from a mobile phone is a big deal. Mountain status 71%: Not every lift and run is open all the time. For ski destinations, visitors may have favorite runs, lift, or areas of multiple mountains. Resorts need to tell them what is open both to attract them and keep them from being disappointed. Contact 76%: Directions 53%, Roads 41%: Consumer apps like Yelp, google places and others put this info right up front, so it’s a no-brainer that a ski resort mobile site would too. Road conditions can be a deciding factor of where to go and how to get there, so it’s good to have that available. There’s no better source for road info than the state DOT website so it’s best to just link out to them or feed in the content if possible. Finally, if you need live human help, click to call is a must. Social: A few of these sites have links out to social media profiles, but none feed in the updates. Twitter and Facebook can be more top-of-mind places for customers to track updates. We see this as part of both the Alerts and Contact features of the matrix. Including links, content or both from social sites gives users the option to connect how they prefer. Tickets 24%: and Deals 12%: It’s surprising that so few resorts post their ticket prices to the mobile site. Pricing can be a deciding factor when heading up to ski / ride and making that information available should be a priority. Additionally, adding deals and specials content to a mobile site could also attract visitors doing research from a mobile device. Maps 29%: This is a no-brainer for us as many visitors are looking for info they can use while they’re on the mountain – and it saves someone from tossing a trail map into the trash at the end of the day. A viewable and downloadable trail map that someone can revisit from the smartphone while on the lift is an easy and useful addition to a mobile website. NEEDED: Two things we are not seeing often that should be mandatory are mobile site redirects and links to both the mobile and full versions of the sites. In our opinion, the term “mobile” website is already a lost term and websites should simply display in the best available format. Adding a sniffer that detects from what platform the user is accessing the site and then displaying the best content available is the best solution. Additionally, adding links to switch back and forth help give the user some control should they prefer one over the other. Overall, resort mobile sites need to be presented in a manor that is intuitive, easy to navigate, provides key information for a mobile user and takes into account fat, cold fingers. What’s your favorite resort mobile site? This list wasn’t meant to be all encompassing, but it’s a start, and I’ll update this post as I add more to the mix.
-Mike]]>by mhenderson