Moonlight Basin Resort is now operating its own lodging program through a new company, Moonlight Lodging in Big Sky.
For the last decade, the Utah-based East-West Resorts ran the lodging program at Moonlight, working as 50-50 partners, with Moonlight paying East-West a management fee.
“We thought it was in our best interest to own and operate that lodging business ourselves,” said Greg Pack, the resort’s general manager.
The new company will offer cost advantages to both homeowners and renters, offering discounted lift ticket and spa packages, snow sports lessons and equipment rentals. They’ll continue to offer on-call transportation services and front desk service at the Moonlight Lodge.
Moonlight combined maintenance, front desk and service teams, retaining most of the employees who previously worked there through East-West. The new company will have seven full time employees and up to 25 seasonal employees. They’re still looking to hire a Director of Lodging.
Through this consolidation, Moonlight tripled its marketing budget, hoping to drive more lodging to Big Sky, Pack said. The website, staybigsky.com, should be up by the end of November. It should make Moonlight more visible to potential guests, and also streamline the reservation process.
“Now we’re in a better position to market to our destination customers,” Pack said.
Using a Colorado PR firm and the Big Sky-based marketing firm Outlaw Partners (publisher of explorebigsky.com), the resort is working to get national press about its “great lodging and incredible skiing,” Pack said.
“One thing that sets us apart is our premier properties… We have a wide variety of high-end properties that make it easy to access the skiing.”
