Theme park builds up price at peak times

The owner of theme parks including Legoland Windsor has revealed plans to start charging customers more on peak summer days at some of its attractions.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Scott O’Neil chief executive of Merlin Entertainments said the company was creating a dynamic pricing model, known as surge pricing, to introduce into its top 20 attractions by the end of this year.

The company has not yet specified which attractions are affected.

The model would give the company the ability to flex prices at particular times, meaning people would be charged more during peak weekends in the summer than on rainy weekdays in the off-season, the Financial Times reported.

Merlin Entertainments owns more than 140 attractions across the world including Legoland, Alton Towers, The London Dungeon, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures in the UK.

The move will see Merlin use machine learning and data to take a detailed approach to scheduling and on-peak and off-peak pricing.

A spokesperson for Merlin Entertainments, said: “To ensure we continue to deliver the best value and experience for our guests, we regularly review our pricing structure and admission prices in line with the marketplace and we reduce them in off peak periods.

“This also makes sure that the peak period experience is optimised by avoiding overcrowding. This approach clearly works because our guest satisfaction is at an all-time high.

“This change brings us in line with competitors and the broader holiday industry that have similar pricing structures, which benefit guests who choose to book off-peak.

“Seven million more visitors last year says that our attractions continue to offer great value for money, and these changes enable greater flexibility for guests booking online to choose discounted prices for select dates and times. Discounted prices are also available on Merlin multi-attraction tickets.”