Pick your price at Holiday World...

Dynamic pricing? Here ya go! From the good folks at HW/SS...

http://www.holidayworld.com/ticket-options/pick-price-tickets/

Such a great example of what Holiday World does so well.

Dynamic pricing based on demand becomes "Pick Your Price."

Genius, really.

They're not influencing crowds or charging you more on weekends or whatever the normal silly complaints are...they're letting you pick your price for tickets.

I honestly can't think of a better way to sell customers on the idea of dynamic pricing.

Isn't it crazy that the little park in the middle of nowhere is better at being a park in certain ways than giant companies with more resources?

This is so brilliant it's a little bit scary. What's also scary is how long it's taken someone to do this. At least DL and WDW has the annual passes with blackout dates, but it's absurd that for multiple decades Six Flags and Cedar Fair have been charging the same price for ghost town weekdays in March and packed to the walls Saturdays in July. At the very least, they ought to have known they were leaving money on the table when they have to turn people away or park them a 20 minute walk from the front gate.

Edit: The Republicans absolutely should steal this idea for their next run at health care. "Pick your price insurance" is pretty catchy.

The problem with "pick your price insurance" is that the MRI ride is very expensive and down for maintenance on all the low-cost plans... :~P

Stupid Six Flags Mercy Hospital.

I would love to know how 2017 crowd dispersion compares to 2016.

I sure hope it helps with "leveling" the crowds, because while I love slow weekday crowds, I don't think the accountants are as excited about them. Busy Saturdays are better for the books, but it can easily get to a point where the guest experience suffers from too many people in the park...yes, that can happen even at HW.

Cedar Fair parks do this also. If you buy tickets online you can pick any day for one price or a "weekday summer saver" (or something like that) for $3 or 4 less. I think the gate price is the same any day, but it's a lot more than either online price.

Kennywood was doing this back in the 90's, with separate weekday and weekend pricing.

Having lived on the West Coast now for over 10 years, I was shocked when I actually looked at the HW operating calendar for August. I knew that school start dates were creeping earlier and earlier, but damn. They're only open weekdays through August 9th. That's got to be tough, running an Amusement Park and losing precious peak days.

(I'm sure that the calendar is consistent with recent years, I just hadn't noticed).

Will be interesting to see how much they can influence behavior with price. A significant part of the difference in demand is not related to price. Kids are still in school early in the season. Most people work during the week and do not have a lot of flexibility to take time off during the week for a trip to an amusement park. Weather is typically better (and more predictable) in the summer. I wouldn't expect $3-4 to offset those other factors enough to make much of a difference. $20 would help more. We shall see.

Never underestimate the suggestion of saving money. $20 saved on a family of 4 might just be the deciding factor in taking a weekday off of work vs. just waiting to go on a weekend.