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Jay Peak Responds  to Scenes of Vermont Review

Friday, August 20th Tim Palmer-Benson Webmaster - Publisher - Editor PB Publishing Morgan, VT.  

I have gone through your "Scenes of Vermont" site, it seems to be well layed (sp)out, colourful, somewhat interesting and also somewhat surprising. I happen to come across your "No Bull Vermont Ski Report"  @ ( http://207.136.230.200/skipage.htm ) , a great idea for people looking all  the resorts together (many top rated sites like rsn.com, snocountry.com already  do so), I am curious as to where you get your information for ski reports as  I do not recall this past winter of sending you a daily report by email or FAX. Though what surprised me the most was your collaboration on a review of Jay Peak at the following site: (http://207.136.230.200/skireviews/jaypeak/index.html) with Mr. Steve Markoff. Resort reviews are plentiful across the internet, and  most of the time, resorts have no way of monitoring them or rectifying problems.

I am very surprised that you yourself would collaborate on such an article/review as you are the webmaster for Scenes of Vermont and the Travel The Kingdom Web Site that promotes the North East Kingdom and ALL that in entails, including  Jay Peak. A webmaster is an impartial position that you hold as manager of the sites, not to be one downgrading a member of the above named organizations. I have since checked into when Mr.Markoff stayed with us and it was during President's Week (Feb. 12-18). Traditionally speaking, when guests stay with us for one  year in the hotel, the tendancy(sp) is to move  into a condo/townhouse the following year. Mr. Markoff has stayed in the hotel  more than once before and specifically asked for 2 joining rooms on a certain floor in the hotel this past February. I know of your past history with Jay  Peak may not be favourable but if there was someone who posted something to your site, common sense would say that as webmaster, you would contact the organization  that had been mentioned in the review to notify them of the displeasure that a guest experienced while visiting, and let the resort handle the disgruntled  customer, not assisting them and degrading the organization as you have done. Furthermore, to make reference to it to other visitors to your bulletin board at the following link : ***** http://207.136.230.200/dcforum97n/alpine/64.html Subject: Jay Peak Name: Timothy Palmer-Benson Time/Date: 21:58:43 3/15/99 Message:  Jay has lots of snow right now...probably more than it has had all winter. Read the Scenes of Vermont review on Jay. You might want to check on area accommodations  if you are fussy about service and good food. ***** is unprofessional. I would ask that you immediately remove the review from the link described above and  remove your post as well. I know that you are trying to drive people through your site for page views etc., but I do not think this is the way to do so.  I would welcome your comments.

Sincerely,

Chris Veillon Communications & Public Relations Director
cc: Bill Stenger, President & COO(!), Jay Peak Inc.

Chris Veillon Communications & Public Relations Communications et Relations Publiques Jay Peak Ski & Summer Resort Rte 242 Jay, Vermont USA 05859 Tel: (802)988-2611 ext. 8252 FAX: (802)988-4049 E-Mail: cveillon@jaypeakresort.com Web site: http://www.jaypeakresort.com

Our comment about this:

Shouldn't the management of Jay Peak and its Montreal owner regard the review  as a wake up call? Obviously, the reviewer found problems, but also enjoyed some fine ski conditions. Perhaps the management should employ a focus group to clearly pin point the issues raised and spend some money making improvements  instead of asking the editor of an internet magazine to become involved in complicity.

Tim Palmer-Benson
Publisher - Editor Scenes of Vermont

Another challenge to Mr. Markoff's review!

I just stumbled upon your site, and was looking at your ski review section. I noticed the Jay review dispute and the option to comment.  Here  are my  comments.

First, I have never skiied Jay Peak. I plan to this winter during a one week vacation through VT.  So I am entirely impartial on this matter. Next, your site takes a very different approach to ski reviews than most pages. Instead of creating a forum and requesting as many reviews as possible, you seem to create one or two reviews with a nice professional layout and design. People will give more credit and consideration to your
reviews as apposed to Forum style reviews in which dozens of unknown 'Joe Shmoes' send in their biased opinion. This means you must understand the role in which your web page plays in influencing people's opinions.

That said, Steve Markoff wrote a highly unprofessional, deeply opinionated, and one sided review of Jay Peak (in my opinion). Not good journalism. Instead of presently the facts, and letting them stand, and letting the reader judge for themselves, the writer made himself judge, jury, and excecutioner of said mountain.

Let's take a look at the conotations and negativism that comes out of the writer's biased style:

"The Jay Cloud"as it's called hangs ominously over the mountain like a vulture over a carcass,"
Ominously? Vulture? Carcass? Even if the writer appreciated the beauty of 'poor' weather or enjoyed the dumping the 'Jay Cloud' creates, these words are biasing people into thinking "Jay has aweful weather all the time." It's a very creepy description of a mountain.

Regarding the 'Slowest Chairs' comment, since implementing a high-speed quad and updating their Tram Cars, I would imagine most people would be pleased with their lift system??? This whole section is one big negativism, and what's more, some people enjoy slow lifts!

Give me the deathly slow ride up Magic Mountain any day over a high speed quad! Thanks!  I'd rather ride a lift of character than the latest and greatest that draws a huge crowd (see Loon's Kanc Quad in which I once waited over 20 minutes).  All I am saying here, is instead of reporting the facts, the author twisted the facts into a biased and negative opinion. In general, it just seems like even when the author states something he enjoyed about the mountain, be makes a snide, biting, negative comment about it.

Further, it seems the review comes from one ski stay in which the writer encountered some bad experiences. If I ever wrote a negative review, I would state up front my biases (in this case, the writer should have stated that he won't be happy unless he is pampered by the hotel and mountain management, has 10 high speed quads, empty slopes, 'Alta Powder', Sunny Skies, Cheap Pricing, and above all, Wendy's quality Chili). Speaking about Chili, journalistic integrity does not involve putting a picture of a mass serving bowl of chili with the caption of "Today's Chili" and "The Cafateria food could be better!" That's just a slap in the face! I've yet to go to any ski resort that offers Five Star Dining... however, I've never ever managed a complaint that rude and crude about any ski food establishment. And this is after the writer says he's stayed at Jay many times over 20 years and never had a food problem ever!  This entire review seems to be based off one bad experience. The writer summerizes his article by saying he's not going back to Jay anytime soon, and instead is thinking about Whistler Blackcomb.  Good riddens! This is the exact skiier I dread having to ride up on the lift with. The 'everything must be perfect for my week long family ski vacation.' Gimme a break! Welcome to New England, heck, welcome to the real world... not everything goes perfectly during your vacations and one experience doesn't dictate a trend.

Regarding Jay's response, I don't think the person wrote the response with precision or clearity of getting their point across. In a matter of fact, it seems a rather hasty response, and not very professionally done (scenes of vermont's intent???  or writer's hastiness?).  In any case, I think Jay has a legitimate beef that an unprofessional and highly biased review based more upon the writer's PERCEPTION of Jay Peak than the reality and facts, probably should not be presented on such a well done and professional website.

I've read many ski reviews both fair and factual, and biased and perception based.  The idea of a review of anything is to put emotion and personal opinion aside and deal with the facts.  I don't like big resorts like Loon, Mount Snow, Killington, etc. However, I would never write a poor review of those places based on my personal feelings. This article highlights what I would expect to find under a ski opinion and personal experience column, not a review. In any case, you're page asked for opinions, and there is mine.

Regards,

Steve Rheaume

You raise some valid points here Steve, but overall Mr. Markoff's review reflected conditions at the time. It was not his first visit to the mountain. He'd been coming for several years. My impression of his comments is that he liked the skiing very much but not the accommodations or the meals and this soured his whole experience.

While I have not stayed at the Jay Hotel, I had heard comments similar to Mr. Markoff's previous to us publishing his review. As you noted in another e-mail, the criticism sparked by this review was partly responsible for the second review which concentrates more on the skiing experience.

Tim Palmer-Benson