Vail Resorts vows to build more worker housing as WFH hot spots become the new company towns
![A Tennessee town near Dollywood, which is building more housing for theme park employees [George Rose/Getty Images]](https://cdn.robinhood.com/static_content/mwphzyq69oso/en-US/assets/files/3j4FmQyNpvUk8QVIuM94k7_1_GettyImages-619022526.jpg)
No room at the inn… Resorts have a new customer: their own employees. It’s so hard for mountain residents to find affordable housing that resorts are building their own apartments for workers. Publicly listed ski biz Vail Resorts said yesterday that it plans to “aggressively” build affordable housing for its lift operators and other employees. The ski biz is also bumping wages for hourly workers by 30%.
- Ski bum-mer: Vail already had 7K corporate beds across its 37 mountains. But after rent prices in many ski towns spiked 20%+ during the pandemic, it needs more. Ultrawealthy Aspen, Colorado, has 3K affordable housing units in a town of 7.5K — including hundreds owned by Aspen Ski Co.
- Not just the slopes: An auto-shop owner in Breckenridge built apartments on top of his garage. Employers in FL, WI, and TN have also developed staff housing.
Last resort… In the past two years, high-earning remote workers have ditched big cities for the mountains, beach towns, lakeside spots, and other desirable WFH destinations. The result: rental prices in attractive locales have soared, pricing out the lower-paid service workers who keep those economies humming.
- From mountains to sea: Colorado ski town Crested Butte declared a housing emergency in June, and rents in warmer resort hotspots in Hilton Head, SC, and Orlando, FL, surged 24% in the past year.
Not all services work on Zoom… Many companies are offering remote options to keep workers through the Great Resignation. But hospitality businesses like Vail need IRL staff. So Vail’s becoming a landlord to hold on to talent, not to create a new revenue stream. It’s a throwback to the early 1900s, when big employers like Hershey, Steinway, and Kohler built entire “company towns” to house workers, though with mixed results.