Q3 2023 Vail Resorts Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Angela Korch; Executive VP & CFO; Vail Resorts, Inc.
Kirsten A. Lynch; CEO & Director; Vail Resorts, Inc.
Benjamin Nicolas Chaiken; Research Analyst; Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division
Brandt Antoine Montour; Research Analyst; Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division
Chris Jon Woronka; Research Analyst; Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
David Brian Katz; MD and Senior Equity Analyst of Gaming, Lodging & Leisure; Jefferies LLC, Research Division
Shaun Clisby Kelley; MD in Americas Equity Research & Research Analyst; BofA Securities, Research Division
Xian Siew Hew Sam; Research Analyst; BNP Paribas Exane, Research Division
Presentation
Operator
Good day, everyone. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Vail Resorts Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)
I will now turn the call over to Kirsten Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts. You may begin.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2023 third quarter earnings conference call. Joining me on the call this afternoon is Angela Korch, our Chief Financial Officer.
Before we begin, let me remind you that some information provided during this call may include forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties as described in our SEC filings, and actual future results may vary materially. Forward-looking statements in our press release included this afternoon, along with our remarks on this call, are made as of today, June 8, 2023, and we undertake no duty to update them as actual events unfold.
Today's remarks also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures are provided in the tables included with our press release, along with our quarterly report on Form 10-Q were filed this afternoon with the SEC and are also available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.vailresorts.com.
Let's turn to our fiscal 2023 3rd quarter results. We are pleased with our overall results for the quarter and for the 2022/2023 North American ski season with strong growth in visitation and spending versus the prior year.
After the challenges experienced in the second quarter of fiscal 2023, driven by weather disruptions in Tahoe and across our Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast resorts, collectively referred to as our Eastern U.S. resorts, the results in March and April improved as expected with strong demand from local and destination guests, driving visitation and resort net revenue above prior year record levels.
Favorable conditions enabled an extended season at resorts across Utah, Tahoe and the Northeastern U.S., while some resorts in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions closed earlier than originally intended due to the unseasonably warm weather and lack of terrain. Our results throughout the 2022/2023 North American ski season highlight both the stability that comes from the advanced commitment of our season pass products and our strong operational execution through the season.
The winter season included significant weather-related challenges from the travel disruptions over the peak holiday period, abnormal weather variability across our Eastern U.S. resorts and significant storm-related disruptions at our Tahoe resorts during multiple peak periods throughout the season. Despite these weather events, the company grew visitation, resort net revenue and resort reported EBITDA to record levels supported by the stability created from our advanced commitment strategy and a strong finish to the season with good spring conditions at our resorts in Colorado, Utah, Tahoe and the Northeastern U.S.
Our ancillary businesses, including ski school, dining and retail/rental experienced strong growth compared to the prior year period when those businesses were impacted by capacity constraints driven by staffing and in the case of dining by operational restrictions associated with COVID-19. Staffing levels enabled our Mountain resorts to deliver a strong guest experience, resulting in a significant improvement in guest satisfaction scores, which exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels at our destination resorts.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Angela to further discuss our financial results and fiscal 2023 outlook.
Angela Korch
Thank you. As Kirsten mentioned, we are pleased with our overall results for the quarter. And as expected, we saw improved results in March and April.
Net income attributable to Vail Resorts was $325 million or $8.18 per diluted share for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 compared to net income attributable to Vail Resorts of $372.6 million or $9.16 per diluted share in the prior year. The decrease in net income attributable to Vail Resorts compared to the prior year is primarily due to an increase in expense associated with the change in the estimated fair value of the contingent consideration liability related to our Park City resort lease.
Resort reported EBITDA was $623.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, an increase of $12.8 million or 2.1% compared to the same period in the prior year. Resort reported EBITDA was impacted by the timing of recognition of pass product revenue as a result of delayed resort openings in the prior year and early resort openings in the current 2022/2023 North American ski season. This change in resort operating dates -- opening dates resulted in a pass product revenue decrease of approximately $40 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2022 and represents a timing difference that offsets with our second quarter of fiscal 2023.
Now turning to our outlook for fiscal 2023. The strong finish to the season produced resort reported EBITDA results that were in line with our expectations. And we now expect net income attributable to Vail Resorts for fiscal 2023 to be between $251 million and $283 million and resort reported EBITDA for fiscal 2023 to be between $837 million and $853 million.
Our balance sheet remains strong, and the business continues to generate robust cash flow. Our total cash and revolver availability as of April 30, 2023, was approximately $1.5 billion with $896 million of cash on hand and $628 million of combined revolver availability across our credit agreements. As of April 30, 2023, our net debt was 2.3x trailing 12 months total reported EBITDA.
The company repurchased approximately 1.8 million shares at an average price of $225.01 for a total of $400 million during the quarter, representing 4.4% of the company's outstanding stock as of the beginning of the third quarter. We have approximately 1.8 million shares remaining under our authorization for share repurchases and remain focused on returning capital to shareholders while always prioritizing the long-term value of our shares.
Additionally, the company declared a quarterly cash dividend on Vail Resorts common stock of $2.06 per share. The dividend will be payable on July 12, 2023, to shareholders of record as of June 27, 2023. We will continue to be disciplined stewards of our capital and remain committed to prioritizing investments in our guest and employee experience, high-return capacity expanding capital projects, strategic acquisition opportunities, and returning capital to our shareholders through our quarterly dividend and share repurchase program.
Now I'll turn the call back over to Kirsten to discuss our spring pass sales.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Thank you, Angela. We are pleased with the results for our season pass sales to date and with continued unit growth over the strong pass sales results the business achieved last spring. Pass product sales through May 30, 2023, for the upcoming 2023/2024 North American ski season increased approximately 6% in units and approximately 11% in sales dollars as compared to the period in the prior year through May 31, 2022. Pass product sales are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying an exchange rate of $0.74 between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar in both periods for Whistler Blackcomb pass sales.
Relative to season to date pass product sales for the 2022/2023 season, the company achieved strong unit growth among renewing pass holders. The company successfully grew units across destination, international and local geographies with the strongest unit growth in destination markets, particularly in the Northeast and across all major pass product segments, with the strongest product growth in regional unlimited pass products and Epic Day Pass products as lower frequency guests and local Northeast guests continue to be attracted to the strong value proposition of these products.
Pass sales dollars are benefiting from the 8% price increase relative to the 2022/2023 season, partially offset by the mix impact from the growth of Epic Day Pass products. While pass results to date have been strong, we still have the majority of our pass selling season ahead of us. And given our efforts to drive more guests to purchase passes in the spring, we expect the full year pass sales growth rate may moderate relative to our spring growth rate. We will provide more information about our pass sales results in our September 2023 earnings release.
We are pleased with the performance from ongoing sales of the Epic Australia Pass, which end on June 14, 2023, and are up approximately 16% in units through June 1, 2023, relative to the comparable period through June 2, 2022. These passes provide advanced commitment for this winter in Australia but also provide advanced commitment from Australian guests for our North American ski resorts for the 2023/2024 winter season.
Our commitment to reinvesting in our resorts and the guest experience remains one of our highest priorities. As part of this, we are pleased to be launching a new innovative business and new technology for the upcoming 2023/2024 North American ski season, we are piloting My Epic Gear at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone for a limited number of pass holders during the 2023/2024 North American ski season, which will introduce a new membership program that provides the best benefit of gear ownership but with more choice, lower cost and no hassle.
My Epic Gear provides its members with the ability to choose the gear they want for the full season or for the day from a selection of the most popular and latest ski and snowboard models and have it delivered to them when and where they want it, guaranteed with free slope side pickup and drop off every day.
In addition to offering the best skis and snowboards, My Epic Gear will also offer name brand, high-quality ski and snowboard boots with customized insoles and boot fit scanning technology. The entire My Epic Gear membership from gear selection to boot fit for personalized recommendations to delivery will be at the members' fingertips through the new My Epic app. My Epic Gear will officially launch for the 2024/2025 winter season at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Whistler Blackcomb, Park City Mountain, Crested Butte, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo and Mount Snow and further expansions are expected in future years.
The company is planning to introduce new technology for the 2023-2024 ski season at its U.S. resorts that will allow guests to store their pass product or lift ticket directly on their phone and scan at lift hands-free, eliminating the need for carrying plastic cards, visiting the ticket window or waiting to receive a pass or lift ticket in the mail. Once loaded onto their phones, guests can store their phone in their pocket and get scanned hands-free in the lift line using Bluetooth low-energy technology, which is designed for low energy usage to minimize the impact on a phone's battery life.
In addition to the significant enhancement of the guest experience, this technology will also ultimately reduce waste of printing plastic cards for pass products and lift tickets and RFID chips as part of the company's commitment to zero.
For the first year of launch, to ensure a smooth transition, the company will provide plastic cards for passes and lift tickets to all guests. And in future years, plastic cards will be available to any guest who cannot or do not want to use their phone to store their pass product or lift ticket.
We are also excited to announce the launch of our new My Epic app, which will include mobile pass and mobile lift ticket, interactive trail maps, real-time and predictive lift line wait times, personalized stack, My Epic Gear and other relevant information to support the guest experience.
The company is also investing in network-wide scalable technology that will enhance our analytics, e-commerce and guest engagement tools to improve our ability to target our guest outreach, personalize messages and improve conversion.
Additionally, as previously announced, this summer and fall, we will be completing important strategic capital projects. At Keystone, we plan to complete the transformational lift-served terrain expansion project in Bergman Bowl, increasing lift-served terrain by 550 acres with the addition of a new 6-person high-speed lift.
At Breckenridge, we plan to upgrade the Peak 8 base area to enhance the beginner and children's experience and increase uphill capacity from this popular base area. The investment plan includes a new 4-person high-speed 5 chair to replace the existing 2-person fixed grip lift as well as significant improvements, including new teaching terrain and a transport carpet from the base to make the beginner experience more accessible.
At Whistler Blackcomb, we plan to replace the 4-person high-speed Fitzsimmons lift with a new 8% high-speed lift in calendar year 2023.
At Stevens Pass, we are planning to replace the 2-person fixed grip Kehr's chairlift with a new 4-person lift, which is designed to improve out-of-base capacity and guest experience.
At Attitash, we plan to replace the 3-person fixed grip Summit Triple lift with a new 4-person high-speed lift to increase uphill capacity and reduce guest ride time on the longest lift at the resort. These lift projects are currently planned to be completed in time for the 2023/2024 North American winter season. Additionally, the company plans to expand parking by more than 500 spaces across Heavenly, Mount Sunapee, Liberty and Roundtop to improve the guest experience.
In closing, we greatly appreciate the loyalty of our guests that visited across our entire network of Mountain resorts this pass season and the continued loyalty of our pass holders that have already committed to next season. With the North American and European ski season coming to an end, I would like to especially thank our frontline employees for their passion and tireless dedication to delivering an experience of a lifetime to our guests.
Our employees are the core of Vail Resorts' mission to create an experience of a lifetime. We cannot create an experience of a lifetime for our guests without first creating an experience of a lifetime for our employees. And we are all looking forward to a great winter season at our 3 Mountain resorts in Australia.
At this time, Angela and I will be happy to answer your questions. Operator, we are now ready for questions.
Question and Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Shaun Kelley of Bank of America.
Shaun Clisby Kelley
Kirsten, maybe we could just start off with the pass sales. Obviously, plenty of color and an encouraging start. But if we go back to last season, there was some commentary around some of the full-price products. And I was wondering if you could kind of update sort of where we sit with some of the behavior you saw in the renewal period here towards full-price Epic passes? Are you seeing some of that same behavior you saw last year? Or has that started to normalize at all?
Kirsten A. Lynch
Shaun, thanks for the question. Overall, yes, we are very pleased with the start to the pass-selling season being up 6% in units and 11% of dollars, especially on top of a strong start to spring pass sales last year. I'll give a couple of dynamics that I think are particularly encouraging and also talk about what I assume you mean our high-frequency products as well.
So one of the dynamics that I see that I think is really encouraging is strong loyalty. Our renewals among existing pass holders are very strong and is the driver of the growth versus prior year. We're seeing growth across all geographies, destination, international, local geographies, also in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Northeast where there were some challenges, as you know, with conditions in terrain.
And we see growth across all major pass product segments, and that includes our high-frequency products, Epic and Epic Local. It also includes our regional unlimited high-frequency products as well as our limited frequency products like Epic Day Pass. We saw strong growth across the board.
Epic and Epic Local as the back tier or segment of products was up slightly versus prior year.
And then the last dynamic that we saw that I think is very encouraging is strong, effective pass price with units up 6% and 11% on sales dollars. Really pleased to see the price realization on that.
Shaun Clisby Kelley
That's great. And then to change gears with my follow-up, I don't typically ask about buybacks or capital return too much. But obviously, it was a very large amount in the quarter. So just kind of wanted to ask what made now the right time to lean in there? Perhaps how should investors think about that versus some of the other investment opportunities you have? I think we all know there was a lot of cash on the balance sheet. But yes, sort of what made now the right time given the size of that relative to sort of your past behaviors on the buyback program?
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. Thanks, Shaun. We are very focused on being disciplined stewards of capital allocation, prioritizing high-return capital projects, investing in our people, strategic acquisitions and returning excess capital to our shareholders. We did share in March that our Board had approved an increase in authorization for share repurchase and our intention to be aggressive in returning capital to shareholders.
We really were leveraging the capital we have raised opportunistically over the past few years at extremely low cost of debt to capitalize on this opportunity to repurchase shares at an attractive valuation. We're very confident in the stability of the business, encouraged by our growth outlook.
Dividend continues to be the primary method of returning capital to shareholders but we are pleased to have had the opportunity to repurchase the shares and have about 1.8 million shares remaining in our authorization. And intend to continue to return capital to shareholders while being very disciplined in prioritizing the long-term value of those shares.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Laurent Vasilescu of BNP Paribas.
Xian Siew Hew Sam
It's Xian on for Laurent. Also wanted to echo the nice start on the pass unit sales and dollars. I was just wondering, though, you mentioned that pass sales growth could moderate versus the spring to the fall as consumers, you're pushing them to purchase earlier. But I think you mentioned that last year as well. So I guess, has anything changed versus last year? Or are you starting to see the mix accelerate to more pre-Memorial Day or is there anything to kind of think about there?
Kirsten A. Lynch
I don't think there is a change in dynamic necessarily year-over-year. I would say it's something we're always focused on. Ideally, we would like to get our guests to commit as early in the sales cycle as possible, and we're always striving for that. And I'd say, given that focus and intention that we have, it is -- it has been typical for our growth rates to moderate throughout the sales cycle. We are still expecting strong sales growth on a full year but expect that it may moderate from where it is right now because of that dynamic.
Xian Siew Hew Sam
Okay. Got it. And then maybe as a follow-up, maybe you can remind us a bit about the durability of revenues in the event of a downturn. I think things like ancillary might be a little more exposed, but maybe a reminder of how they've performed in previous downturns or how you think about things like ancillary?
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. In previous downturns, we've seen strong resilience in our visitation and our lift revenue because of our strategy to get our guests to commit in advance. We have seen some impact historically in downturns on ancillary spend but actually, the commitment in advance has given us a lot of stability through those downturns.
Operator
We'll take our next question from David Katz of Jefferies.
David Brian Katz
I wanted to just to follow on the question regarding capital returns and how you've thought about the balance between a hardy dividend and a hardy repurchase. And obviously, the circumstances dictate those, but I'd love just a little more color on your philosophy between the two.
Angela Korch
Thanks, David. As Kirsten mentioned, dividend continues to be our primary method, and we also increased the dividend last quarter. And so that will continue to be kind of a recurring way that we return kind of excess cash to shareholders.
Yes, I think this quarter, we repurchased the $400 million. Really, we had raised a lot of capital during COVID. And so we did have some excess cash on the balance sheet. And so we said we were going to be a little more aggressive in returning that back to shareholders. And so we took the opportunity during the quarter to return it. Yes, we think it was an attractive valuation.
David Brian Katz
Okay. And just as my follow-up, with respect to the new technology that you discussed at Investor Day and discussed a bit more today. Is the revenue and profitability opportunity around preordering gear intended to drive people toward the pass? Or is the pass intended to drive people toward the gear? And is the gear more or less profitable in the new model than it's been the old-fashioned way, if you'll allow.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. A couple of thoughts on that, David. Starting with your last question, I think we are in a very unique position to do this innovation of My Epic Gear because we have so much existing infrastructure already that we're leveraging. So it is not the same as building a business from scratch because we already have over 200 retail/rental locations, distribution centers, the rental delivery business, gear valet services. You can think about us sort of spring boarding or catapulting off of an infrastructure that we already have, which is very helpful for this business.
We are investing in gear to be a part of the program, but life of that gear and our ability to use the gear in My Epic Gear and then also use it through our rental stores makes that also very attractive capital investment for us. And then the intention of My Epic Gear overall is how do you create loyalty and higher retention within our owned and operated resort network consistent with our subscription strategy approach.
So we see an opportunity to convert Gear owners to improve the experience for people who already rent with us and possibly to attract new guests to Vail Resorts. So I think it's all of those things. I think it is beneficial for our pass holders and I think potentially also could be a reason why someone would want to come to our resort network and become a pass holder and a part of this program. But the overarching, if I were to summarize it, is the lifetime value and the retention within our Vail Resorts owned and operated network.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Ben Chaiken of Credit Suisse.
Benjamin Nicolas Chaiken
My first question is on the Epic Gear initiatives. There's going to be a trial this winter. I guess first part, high level, what questions are you hoping to answer this winter? Is this a demand pH test? Or is it more on the logistics side?
And then as we move into '24, I think the equipment angle is pretty straightforward, but on the kind of delivery and logistics side, how do we think about your ability to leverage existing labor? And then I have a follow-up.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. I mean I think the pilot will give us a lot of learnings. We primarily are trying to make sure that the logistics and the guest experience are smooth and meet the expectations for the model so that we can scale the business model that we have.
So if you think about what the business model is promising, we are designing a back-end logistics, delivery gear storage system to ensure that, that is a smooth experience for the guests so that they actually see the value of being a member of this program.
And I'd say, for me, that is primarily what I want to make sure that we have really filed in the pilot. I think we'll get some feedback from the guests on demand and how often they'll use it or how they think they would use it, but the guest experience is really critical that we deliver on.
Benjamin Nicolas Chaiken
And then just the ability to leverage existing labor? Can you kind of help us think about that?
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. I think it's a similar answer, Ben, to the infrastructure point, which is we are leveraging something we already do. So we already have gear valet services. We already have rental delivery business. We already have distribution center employees and distribution centers. We already have retail/rental and tuning location employees and centers.
So when you think about the leverage we have from that, without getting into specifics about expectations on it, you can hopefully envision that a lot of this exists, but we're now using it to enable a different business model. So whether it's labor or the actual brick-and-mortar facilities, there is a lot of leverage assumed in this model because we're so heavily already in this business.
Benjamin Nicolas Chaiken
Okay. That makes sense. And then for my second question, on the cost side, historically, you've talked about 3 areas. I think you highlighted, workforce management, guest self-service and automation. Regarding the workforce management, any color on the timing of that broader rollout? And then separately, how incremental was this initiative at Park City and Whistler, where I believe you've been trialing it the last couple of years, meaning is there a noticeable improvement in EBITDA margins at those properties and guest experience? I'm just trying to get a feel of how those assets performed relative to prior years or comparable to similar mountains, if that makes sense.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. We piloted workforce management for 2 years at Park City and also with Whistler Blackcomb. We did see a noticeable improvement in a couple of areas. One is our managers in our Mountain operations ability to be efficient in their allocation of labor based on the demand of the business.
And we also saw a noticeable improvement in the impact on our employees' experience in terms of their ability to understand what hours are available across the resort that they can actually sign up for based on what their particular needs are, which right now is managed very differently resort by resort and function by function. So those were some real improvement areas.
You will see us expanding workforce management for this upcoming season because of the positive impacts that we saw on our ability to be efficient with labor and also the positive impact for the employee experience. So yes, we do plan on expanding that this coming season.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Chris Woronka of Deutsche Bank.
Chris Jon Woronka
I guess Kirsten, Angela, now with the '22/'23 North American season in the books, can you maybe give us a little bit of a sense on ancillary? How much of your gains there came from pricing versus volume compared to last season? I think -- I guess I'm thinking about things mostly like food and beverage and ski school and stuff like that.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. I mean, on a high-level comment -- and I'll let Angela comment on it as well. On a high level, we saw very strong growth on ski school rental, retail and food and beverage. I think we've shared this in prior earnings call that even though food and beverage growth was very strong versus prior year, we still didn't get all the way back to where we expected to be on food and beverage and have very specific plans in place next year to continue to build and get that business back to where it was pre-COVID. And F&B was really differentially impacted because there were so many restrictions that we had put in place associated with F&B that were unique and different relative to our ski school and our rental/retail business.
Angela may have some additional comments that she wants to make. Go ahead, Angela.
Angela Korch
Yes. The only thing I'll add, I mean those were the key themes. I mean we obviously had a very strong rebound from where we were at last year because of our staffing initiatives, right? Getting us back to full staffing allowed us to fully operate and so that had a big impact year-over-year. And then relative to pre-COVID, we saw some really strong continued improvements, and we start passing on more than the inflation to your question on price versus volume.
And F&B, as Kirsten mentioned, is the one picture that we have not [seen] volumes return all the way back to pre-COVID.
Chris Jon Woronka
Okay. Very helpful. And then I guess as a follow-up, I know you mentioned Northeast, you called that out. It's one of the areas that had strong growth in the season pass sales in the spring selling season despite challenges. I mean, I know you don't get into specific numbers, but would you say it was even better than you would have expected from that region given the challenges or just kind of in line? And do you think there's still more gains to be had from that region on advanced pass sales?
Kirsten A. Lynch
It's always a concern when we have some resorts that are in geographies where there's extreme weather disruptions. And there's always a concern about what impact is that going to have on our pass holders and their desire to hold a pass. And so we watch it very closely. And I would say I'm very pleased, and there's a -- if you break down what we call the East resort into Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, we collectively call that our East region resorts.
We have growth in the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. And I think that's very encouraging, and it shows the loyalty of our pass holders and the value of the pass that even after a tough season, they still believe that they will get the usage and the value out of their pass, whether that's being locally or taking a destination trip or maybe even both.
Do I still think there's growth potential? Absolutely I do. And I've talked about this at the investor conference. We believe that East region, it has a lot of growth potential for us still. We have very strong resorts that we own and operate in that region. We have a lot of guest data from guest fat ski and snowboard in that data. We have incredibly strong brand awareness of Epic Pass. And every year, we have been growing our penetration in that particular region, and I have full confidence that we will continue to do that this year.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Brandt Montour of Barclays.
Brandt Antoine Montour
Just starting on the labor side, you mentioned that you're expanding the workforce management program. I imagine that wages you still probably expect some growth looking into next year. I know you haven't said that, not putting words in your mouth, but just broader hospitality, let's say, is still seeing wage inflation. And so I guess my question is, when you think about offsets within that segment for you, is there a world in which last year you may have overhired a little bit on labor to make sure that you could rebuild that customer experience?
And looking back on the last season, do you think maybe that there's -- you don't need quite as many people or sort of what's the take on looking back on last season after it's all done now?
Kirsten A. Lynch
Thanks, Brandt. I would say, overall, I'm very pleased that we got to staffing levels that enabled us to have full operation of our terrain, our lifts and normal operation of our ancillary. It obviously makes a significant impact in the guest experience and our guest satisfaction, which ultimately impacts our pass sales and our loyalty to our resorts.
I think in terms of what our plans are next year, we our Mountain operations teams always assess what staffing levels they believe that they need. We are always looking at what is the optimal staffing and the most efficient staffing we can have. And then we have tools like what I just spoke about, workforce management that can help our managers allocate labor and understand what labor and hours they need.
And so I'd say the off the positive of the wage investment, absolutely 100% believe that, that was the right thing to do for our business, given how critical the guest experience is. And do we always have opportunities to be efficient in how we apply that labor? Absolutely. And we're putting very specific plans in place like this workforce management tool that will enable the decision-makers that are decentralized out in the resorts deciding how to allocate the labor. It will help them to be more efficient.
Brandt Antoine Montour
Okay. That's helpful. And then just a follow-up back toward the beginning of the call. You were pretty crystal clear about the outlook for pass sales growth potentially moderating throughout the rest of the selling season.
I guess I'm just curious how we should think about the fact that you started selling a little bit earlier this year. And so you're comparing a period that had a little bit, I think, I guess, a couple of weeks maybe of extra time to sell versus last year. And -- but you also probably -- you might look to open mountains earlier this year later. And so maybe that's just part of the longer-term sort of incremental growth strategy. But how should we just think about that comparison given you should expect some level of moderation?
Kirsten A. Lynch
Yes. I don't think I would think about that as a major driver one way or the other. It really is highly driven by deadlines and the calls to action. And so we have a deadline in the early part of the sales cycle that is about benefit to pass holders and then we had the deadline over Memorial Day, the call to action around the price increase. And so we are always looking for ways to use our data and our insights to influence behavior to make a decision as early in the selling cycle as possible.
And this has been our approach for many, many years on pass sales. And so a strong start with 6% on units and 11% on dollars and I think the potential for that to moderate is because of our approach, because we're always trying to get that decision making earlier. I would not view that the number of weeks on sale is a big driver of that.
Operator
This concludes the question-and-answer portion of today's call. I would now like to turn the call back over to Kirsten Lynch for closing remarks.
Kirsten A. Lynch
Thank you, operator. This concludes our fiscal 2023 3rd quarter earnings call. Thanks to everyone who joined the call today. Please feel free to contact me or Angela directly should you have further questions. Thank you for your time this afternoon. Bye-bye.
Operator
This concludes today's Vail Resorts Fiscal Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day.
