In the mornings, the employee shuttle (the new tri-met busses) have been frigid. So cold you can see your breath on the whole ride up from hood river. It definitely makes the trip miserable up to the mountain. Suggestions: make sure employees know how to turn heat on or have extra time (30 min) in the morning where the busses can be heated up. I know yall have gotten a lot of negative feedback but I also want to give a shout out to Brandon. He has an amazing attitude and makes people's day with the music and party lights in his bus. He made it a point to talk to me and we had a great conversation all the way down the mountain. Hes definitely putting a smile in people's hearts! It's people like him who give people love and the motivation they need to keep going.
Appreciate the commitment from MHM Learning Center to offer trainings & clinics. The opportunity to take adaptive clinics is much valued.
Our adaptive program is growing! Thanks for taking the time to attend these clinics and get trained up for ALL our guests, and especially those with challenges. Our mountain home is OPEN to everyone! - Tyler Barnes, Learning Center Operations & Training Manager
Thanks for the cookies! Came in at break to use the bathroom and was greeted in the corridor with a huge smile and not one, but two cookies! It was a little bit of love/stoke to fuel me to return outside and spread that love/stoke with our guests.
Very cool,
-Jeremy Riss
I take the 12:22 pm bus and the 10:15 pm bus at the Hood River Event Site and there are certain lift operators that are playing music on their Bluetooth speakers on a very high volume. I have asked repeatedly to have the married couple to turn it down and was ignored the first time I asked. The bus driver turned a guys speaker off a few days ago and he turned it back on and ignored the bus driver and continued playing his music at a high volume. He had TWO speakers that were playing too. The songs that these people play are not even appropriate for our guests with young children riding up to the mountain with us. I think that it's very disrespectful to have our employees playing music on speakers at night as well because I can't hear my own conversations I'm having with other people that are right in front of me, I can't concentrate on reading when I need to and I can't even relax or take a nap. I am tired of riding the bus like this. IT IS MY MAIN TRANSPORTATION TO WORK. I don't even want to come to work because of the loud music and the disrespectful employees on the bus. I can't afford to drive up on my own too. Please have more bus drivers make it a rule that Bluetooth speakers are not allowed to be in use on any bus.
Thanks for bringing this up, I've seen a few guest comments about loud inappropriate music as well. It seems like headphones are a great option if you want to listen to music while riding the bus to be respectful of other riders.
-Jeremy Riss
As many other employees are aware, bus transportation has been pretty rough throughout the season. On January, 22, the 4:15 bus ran out of gas on the ramp that merges onto the highway. We waited for about 20 minutes until another bus came to get us, but we couldn't get by the other bus on such a tight corner. After that, we waited for another 15 minutes until someone moved the other bus to let us through. At this point, we thought we were going home, but the bus turned back to the resort where we waited for another 20 minutes.
Not only did this waste an hour of my time and ruin my evening plans, other employees (and possibly customers) on the bus were being incredibly obnoxious, getting angry at the bus driver, and blasting their music out loud.
I know transportation services is working hard to fix these issues, but if we are having to waste our time due to bus issues, we should at least be getting paid for it.
The new busses are unsafe don’t feel comfortable
Everyone asked for more speakers last year and now we have none. It improves the mood of guests and employees so it would be really nice to have them at the lifts.
Also I work at HRE and do early loads on weekends, we have a lot of problems with people not knowing what days we do early loads and what days we don't, and with certain passholders thinking they have early load access when they actually don't. If there could be clearer communication with the guests on when early loads happen and who has access, it would make our job easier and them less frustrated because it is common they come to the lift to be told they can't ride.
The speakers we got last year all got recalled due to a faulty battery that made them unsafe to use. They are all currently going through the warranty process and should hopefully be back soon.
There has definitely been some inconsistencies with the variable conditions we have had the last month. We normally do Early Loads at 08:25 for all pass holders but with the ice and rain we have called it off several scheduled days. Going forward, it should be every Saturday and Sunday as well as Presidents Day 2/17/2020.
Marshal Ellison
Lift Ops Assistant Manager
Employee Parking would be helpful!
One of the things I personally have been grumbling about (and I’m not alone) is the lack of signage as it relates to CLC (or even adult lessons) informing guests that instructor gratuities are accepted and encourage for a job well done. You go to any other point of sale in the mountain and there’s always a line for an added tip whether you’re paying credit or cash. I think having that option when guests purchase a lesson and or clear and visible signage would greatly increase this. I don’t think that it’s people are looking to tip but they don’t know it’s okay. I know from friends of mine when they purchase a lesson package they might think “well I spent over $100+ so I’m sure my instructor is getting a cut of that” which is not the case.
All I’m saying is, let’s find a polite way to nudge (particularly in the CLC) guests that hey, it’s okay to tip your instructor, and it goes a long way. We work to provide a wonderful guest experience in an extremely labor/physically intensive position. If your bartender serving you a $6 beer expects a 20% tip, I think instructors should be entitled to the same
I have been encouraging instructors to have a guest comment cards, business cards and a tip envelope paper-clipped together to hand out to guests. Politely ask them to share their experience at the mountain today and drop off the guest comment card at the Lessons Sales Lobby. When they complete the comment card, and read the sticker on the tip envelope, they will be more likely to tip. Pre-fill the instructor name on the comment card and the tip envelope to personalize this even more. You can get some guest comment cards and tip envelopes in the instructor break room, on the table below the wall mounted TV. Any tips make it to our offices and you can check with Peter, Josey, Jilli or me to see if there are any tips for you.
I've seen a significant increase in tips coming in since we added the sticker to the tip envelopes that says, "It’s ok to tip your instructor if you feel they did a good job. Common tip amounts are 10%-20% of your lesson cost. Your instructor will appreciate it. Thank you!" Part of our job as an instructor is to not only teach the perfect turn but also to educate guests on The Responsibility Code and other related etiquette like tipping your instructor.
If you have some more ideas on how we can better communicate this, please come see me. I am open to subtle ways to share this information. - Tyler Barnes, Learning Center Operations & Training Manager
Our parking crew does a fantastic job. On Saturday the 18th I watched several drivers do everything short of actually hitting a parking crew member with their car because they wanted to the main lot instead of Sunrise or HRM. Can we get them more backup from DPS at the trouble spots (Sunrise intersection & Bennet Pass) so there’s actually accountability for those people who ignore the parking crew’s directions?
Thank you for recognizing the parking team and what they endure sometimes. You may not see it, but DPS, Taylor, Jess, Jeremy (Manager, Supervisor, Director) and myself are often out helping in the lots on the busy days. With radios we can often message ahead and intercept those reckless/rude guests and "invite" them to do better next time in terms of respecting the roadblocks and the team. - Matt Troskey, VP People