Everything is getting more expensive. Everything! Yes, even BIKE was cheaper five years ago. Sure, you don't want to mutate into a grandfather wistfully raving about the 10-penny ice cream scoop. But a little moaning is allowed - especially when you realise that the bike parks are now asking you to pay twice as much.
The latest scam: car parking charges. In addition to the lift tickets, which are already increasing every year, parking your car is now also charged. The successful model from winter tourism - where skiers have long been used to paying for every square metre - is thus finding its way into the bike world. Yes, hotels are doing it too. Even high-priced ones.
Visitors have no choice but to bite the bullet. Or rather: into the sour barrier. At least some parks are gracious: in Leogang, for example, the parking fee is refunded when a lift ticket is purchased - as a reward for taking part, so to speak. Unfortunately, this is not standard everywhere.
In Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis (8 euros), Bischofsmais (3 euros), Sölden (7 euros), Zugspitz Bikepark (5 euros) and Lenzerheide (CHF 5), you pay twice: once for riding up, once for standing in front of it. This makes a visit to the park, including the journey, a luxury.
Opinion of the editorial team
Parking fee at bike parks? It's like paying not only for a beer and schnitzel in a beer garden, but also for the table and bench you're sitting on.
Of course everything is getting more expensive, that's a reality. Inflation, increased operating costs, higher wages - of course! But then please be honest and adjust the lift ticket accordingly, instead of sneaking through the back door with separate parking fees.
In the end, the customer pays either way - but with this trick, the lift ticket still looks reasonably reasonable on the website. The nasty surprise only comes on site, when the barrier remains closed. Transparency? Not a chance. But in the end, visitors will have to eat it up, just like petrol prices at the filling station.
Laurin Lehner
Editor
