Aspen Skiing Company has relaunched its Tenants for Turns program. Jeff Hanle, vice president of communications for Aspen Snowmass, says the program offers incentives to property owners willing to rent a unit, a guest house, even an extra bedroom to an Aspen Snowmass employee.
“We're undergoing a housing crisis,” Hanle said. “It has been as long as I've been here, and I've been here 30 something years. So, it's worse than it's ever been now. So, we got creative.”
If there’s a bed to rent, Aspen Skiing Company through the Tenants to Turns program is offering a full season’s pass, 10 single-day lift ticket vouchers or a $1200 gift certificate valid for any Aspen Snowmass product. Hanle says one tenant equals one season pass or equivalent product.
“So anything that we control, we’re offering landlords that bonus on top of the rent they get that they would agree upon with our employee,” Hanle explained. “So, the way we run it, as we push it out there, landlords touch base with us, we have a list of employees who are looking for lodging, we put them in touch and let them work out the details. And then once the lease is signed, we can then go forward and provide that incentive for the landlord to do that.”
This incentive is available for new leases that take effect after Oct. 1. Landlords who participated last year and sign a new lease for the coming winter are also eligible.
Hanle says working with the county’s employee housing program, the resort knew that there were three- and four-bedroom units that only had two people living in them because children had moved out or tenants moved on.
“So, we thought, wow, there's a lot of empty bedrooms out there,” Hanle said. “Let's see if people are willing to rent them. If we throw in a little -- sweeten the pot a little bit for them.”
About 40 employees were able to find a room last season through the program. Hanle says they hope to increase that this year. Aspen has just over 750 beds that it owns and operates for seasonal employees. But it’s still short by about 250 for the 1,000-plus employees they hire every winter.
Lease terms are between landlord and resort employees but must contain some basic parameters and leases must be for longer than six weeks to trigger the incentive package.
KPCW reached out to Deer Valley and Park City Mountain resorts to find out if they had considered something similar.
Senior Communications Manager Emily Summers said Deer Valley is always exploring programs and incentives that support their employees. As housing continues to be a challenge in the community, Summers said, ways to increase options nearby the resort is one of their “highest priorities with many possibilities currently being evaluated.”
Park City Mountain Resort Senior Manager of Communications Sara Huey said she wasn’t aware of whether something like Tenants for Turns had come up for discussion with resort management.
