Artificial intelligence has been changing the prices of Swiss ski resorts several times a day for the first time, it has emerged.
The posh Zermatt mountain resort, famous for its ski areas, is believed to be one of the first to operate this system similar to the way petrol prices can change at the pumps every few hours, according to local media.
Marc Lagger, a spokesperson for Zermatt Bergbahnen, told local media: “In Zermatt, price changes for future ski passes can occur several times a day.”
According to reports, the system uses AI which calculates the expected demand based on various factors like the weather.
With this and other data, such as sales from previous years and bed occupancy in the ski resort. The system creates sales forecasts for each day, according to local media.
If a lot of ski passes have already been sold for a day, the system increases the prices more and if the sales are low it reduces it.
Christian Kluge from Smart Pricer company, which provides the software, told local media: “Our system receives fresh data about advance bookings from the cash register system every hour. From which it can theoretically recalculate the prices every hour.”
This means that the customers could pay a different price in the morning than in the afternoon.
According to Mario Gertschen, managing director of Belalp-Bahnenn the Valais ski area of ​​Belalp. Prices also vary within a day if you buy your ticket three or more days before skiing.
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Most mountain railways recommend that customers book the tickets earlier as the prices would tend to rise until the day of validity.
However, last year, the Consumer Protection Foundation criticized dynamic prices as being non-transparent.
Sara Stalder, Managing Director of the Consumer Protection Foundation told local media at the time: “Such models are non-transparent.
“Families can no longer properly budget how much a day of skiing costs. And sometimes have to pay one and a half to twice as much.”
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