With the holiday season upon us, we wanted to provide a quick reminder of what constitutes appropriate gifts and entertainment.
Giving and receiving holiday gifts is appropriate and customary for many of our vendors and suppliers. However, we always need to keep in mind the company’s guidance on what is and is not acceptable:
✅ Permitted Gifts and Entertainment:
- Holiday gift baskets of food and/or wine
- Promotional gift items bearing the supplier’s logo (t-shirts, water bottles, fleece apparel, reasonable branded novelty items such as ear buds, heated mug, etc.)
- Gifts of reasonable cost
- Tickets to reasonable, regular season sporting or entertainment events, provided that representatives of the supplier are present
🛑 Prohibited Gifts and Entertainment:
- Cash or cash equivalent (e.g. gift certificates)
- Any item given or accepted as “quid pro quo” (meaning an exchange of “this for that”)
- Excessive or expensive consumer electronics, household goods, sporting equipment or in-kind services (e.g., skis, bikes, iPods, iPads, AirPods, computers, compensated hotel rooms, lessons, rental equipment, etc.)
- Any offers that are illegal, break the law, or are for a single person and deemed excessively expensive
- Tickets to any sporting or entertainment events without representatives of the supplier present, and excessive offers of entertainment beyond the regular season (e.g. SuperBowl, World Series, etc.), regardless of participation from supplier
As a reminder, it is not permissible to give or receive gifts or entertainment at any point during contract negotiations or renewal.
If you have any questions about acceptable gifts or entertainment, please review the Conflicts of Interest Policy and email EthicsQuestions@vailresorts.com. Thank you for always Doing Right.