How to prepare your website for ski season in a ski town

How do I prepare my website for ski season?

Start in early October, well before the lifts turn. Put winter hours, rentals, lessons, shuttles and one booking path on the first screen. Link the resort’s snow report and DriveBC. Set Google special hours for the holidays. Then test the booking on a phone two weeks before your resort opens.

This guide is for the businesses around RED Mountain in Rossland, Whitewater near Nelson, Fernie Alpine Resort, Kimberley Alpine Resort, Kicking Horse in Golden and Panorama near Invermere. The ski shop, the lodge, the ski school, the shuttle and the café by the gondola all face the same winter visitor.

That visitor may be planning from a phone in Calgary or Vancouver. They want to know if you are open, what it costs and how to book. Summer has its own list, and getting a website ready for tourism season covers it. This one is winter only.

When do people start planning a ski trip?

Months before opening day. Resorts sell next winter’s season passes in the fall, and a skier who buys one has picked a mountain. Your own Search Console shows the week your winter visits climbed last year. Plan to be ready a few weeks before that week.

Panorama’s early-bird pass sale for 2026/27 ran until October 15, and its season pass is listed from December 4, 2026 to April 11, 2027. I read both on its site in September 2026. The other resorts post their own dates as the snow allows.

To see your own pattern, open Search Console and choose the Date filter. Pick the last 16 months. Google’s own help pages use this view to spot a change that repeats each year. Note the week your clicks started to rise last fall. That week is your real deadline.

What should a ski town business update first?

Update the six things a winter visitor checks before booking: your winter hours, the conditions links, rentals, lessons, shuttles and the booking button. Each one answers a question someone would otherwise phone to ask.

1. 01

   Winter hours and the day they start

   Put your winter hours on the first screen, with the date they begin. A visitor planning a December trip needs to know you will be open when they arrive. If your hours change on opening day, say so in one line.

2. 02

   Conditions links

   Link the resort’s own snow report and DriveBC for the roads. Do not retype a snow report on your site, because it is wrong by lunch. Add one line to your directions page about winter tires. BC requires winter tires or chains on most routes from October 1 to April 30.

3. 03

   Rentals

   List what you rent, this season’s prices, and how to reserve. Say when gear can be picked up the night before. A family of four wants to know the kids’ sizes are covered before they drive.

4. 04

   Lessons and guiding

   Give the ages, the ability levels, the meeting point and what to bring. Say what happens when weather cancels the day. Get this page current by November.

5. 05

   Shuttles and getting here

   Post pickup points, times and the airport runs you serve. Say how to book a seat and what happens when a flight is late. A skier without a car can decide where to stay from this page.

6. 06

   One booking path

   Pick the one action you want most, whether that is book, call or reserve gear. Put it on every winter page. Then test it on a phone, on mobile data, from start to confirmation email.

If a lot of people call before they book, look at your booking path. How booking friction costs local businesses money shows where a path usually loses people.

How do I set holiday hours on Google for ski season?

Use special hours in your Google Business Profile for each day that changes. Special hours cover up to 6 days in a row. Closed 7 days or more, Google asks you to mark the business Temporarily closed. Set your main hours to “Open with main hours” or the special hours will not show.

Ski season holds the busiest holidays of the year. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day all fall in the first weeks of the season. BC Family Day follows in February. Google asks owners to confirm official holidays even when the hours stay the same.

Change your main hours to winter hours on the day they start, and change the website the same day. If the rental counter keeps different hours from the shop, Google’s More hours setting is built for services with their own times. The Google Business Profile guide for Kootenay businesses walks through the rest of the profile.

When Google and your website show different hours, the visitor believes neither one.

What is the ski season checklist from October to opening day?

The checklist runs seven steps across about ten weeks. October is for prices, pages and holiday hours. November is for photos and links. The two weeks before your resort opens are for testing on a phone. Opening day is for looking at your own site the way a visitor does.

1. 01Early October. Pull up last winter in Search Console and note the week your visits started to climb. Draft the winter hours and add the winter tire line to your directions page. BC’s requirement starts October 1.
2. 02Mid October. Update rental, lesson and shuttle pages with this season’s prices and times. Book a test appointment yourself and cancel it.
3. 03Late October. Set Google special hours for Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day. Add Family Day in February while you are there.
4. 04Early November. Swap summer photos for winter ones on the home page. Add the resort’s snow report link and your shuttle schedule.
5. 05Two weeks before your resort opens. Run every booking path on a phone. Check the confirmation emails, the phone number and the map pin.
6. 06Opening week. Change your main hours on Google and on the site on the same day. Remove anything that still says summer.
7. 07Opening day. Open your own site on your phone in the parking lot. If anything is hard to find there, fix it that night.

Before opening day, every line below should be true.

• The first screen says you are open for winter, with the hours.
• Rental, lesson and shuttle prices are this season’s.
• The booking button works on a phone and sends a confirmation.
• Google shows the same hours as the website.
• Christmas, New Year’s and Family Day hours are set on Google.
• The snow report and road links go to the live pages.
• Nothing on the site still talks about patios, paddling or wildfire smoke.

What if opening day moves?

Some years it will. Opening day depends on snow, so the resort sets it and the resort can change it. Keep the date in one place on your site, link the resort’s page beside it, and write offers that start on opening day rather than on a fixed date.

One short notice line at the top of the home page does most of the work. You should be able to edit it from your phone in a minute. Use it for a late opening, a road closure or a power outage. Take it down the day the news is old.

What if my website makes this hard?

If changing your hours means emailing someone and waiting a week, the website is the problem. A ski town business may change its hours, prices and photos several times before Christmas. The owner should be able to make those changes alone.

I build sites for tourism and resort businesses, and switching the hours and notices to winter is a quick message to me. Small fixes like that are always free. The Trailhead is $2,000 once, or $500 at signing and 12 payments of $142 ($2,204 total) on Own It Monthly. It is typically delivered in 2 to 3 weeks, counted from when I have your content. Kootenay businesses get 10% off the build, and I work with ski town businesses anywhere.

If you are near RED, web design for Rossland businesses shows how I work there. On the other side of the region, web design for Fernie businesses does the same for the Elk Valley.

Sources and further reading

• How to set special hours, Google Business Profile Help

  Read September 23, 2026. Special hours cover changes or closures of up to 6 days in a row. Closed 7 days or more, mark the business Temporarily closed. Main hours must be set to “Open with main hours” for special hours to show.

• Designated winter tire and chain routes, Province of British Columbia

  Read September 23, 2026. Winter tires or chains are required on most BC routes from October 1 to April 30. Select highways outside mountain passes and high snowfall areas end March 31.

• Panorama Mountain Resort season passes

  Read September 23, 2026. The 2026/27 season pass runs December 4, 2026 to April 11, 2027, and the early-bird sale ran until October 15.

• Debugging drops in Google Search traffic, Google Search Central

  Last updated December 10, 2025. Shows how to set the Search Console date filter to the last 16 months to see a pattern that repeats every year.

• DriveBC

  The province’s live highway conditions. Link it from your directions page and let it describe the roads.

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

• Tourism and resort websites
• Lodging and hotel websites
• Adventure operator websites
• Web design in Rossland
• Web design in Fernie