Feedback Opportunity for Aramark and NPS

A few weeks ago I sent this to the NPS about the Wahweap Marina and some of the problems we and many of or dock mates have noticed this year, along with friends that have rented houseboats from the marina. This is the response I got back from the NPS.

"To whom it may concern, over the last 4 years we have been renting a slip at Wahweap Marina and the last 26 years we have been visiting the marina. We have noticed a decrease in the condition of the marina and the services. This last year has been the worst we have ever seen it. Bathrooms and showers locked for weeks and open ones not cleaned and restocked for days. We have seen staff wander around with cleaning supplies and have watched them go into bathrooms together and come back out. But when we go in after they have been there they have been left in the same condition that they were before they went in. There is one gentlemen that does do a great job cleaning when he does it. But for the most part the others wander around in groups and don’t do any cleaning or stocking. The docks are dangerous with screws missing and loose sections that have caused me and others to fall on occasion. Paint chipping where the docks have been painted and bumpers missing for years. In fact we have had to buy and install new corner pieces on our slip because the work order we requested was never fulfilled. The wood on the docks is so rotted that it is hard to install them and keep them on. It seems like there is always something broken every time we come down. The personal to help with cart and porter services is very limited. We see the same few people work every time we are at the marina and that is every other weekend for us from March until October. We have begun asking why they are so short staffed and the answer is Aramark wont hire any more staff.

A few weeks a ago we were on the beach with family and friends who had rented houseboats from the marina. The first rental went to leave the beach in the early morning and they had no power steering. They pulled back on the beach and called the marina for help. They sent someone out to check it out. He arrived and concluded that it was low on power steering fluid. He didn’t have any on his repair boat and told the people to drive the boat from Gunsight to the cut (which was barely open) and they would meet them there. At 1700 they were on a beach in Warm Creek bay waiting for someone to come and help them. If there had been a storm with wind they would have not been able to control the boat from gunsight to Warm Creek Bay. They didn’t get back to the rental marina area until 2330 that night. The next people who were up there with us did the houseboat walk through before taking the boat out. They had chef in their crew who just happened to check the propane for the stove and oven. It was empty so they had them refill them. They also had a couple of wave runners that they drove up to the beach. All the gas gauges said they were full of gas when they arrived at the beach in Gunsight. When they arrived at the beach they went to fill them up and the axillary (toy tank) was empty. They were told all the gas tanks were full when they did their walk though. When they got a hold of Aramark, they were told to drive the boat down from Gunsight to Antelope Point and they would reimburse them for the gas or pay the $200 an hour for Aramark to bring them gas up. That is a waste whole days use of their rental boat that was spent on getting gas that should have been checked before they left the marina. They took a faster boat down with some gas cans to get the gas. At the end of their trip on their way back to the houseboat rental marina, they ran out of gas just past Antelope Point Marina. Aramark again sent some out to check the boat concluded it was out of gas. One of our that boats that was in Gunsight with them had to tow them to the rental marina. Then they tried to charge them for the gas saying that they ran all the gas out of the tank. The gauges still red full when they got back to the rental marina. The only place the houseboat went was up to Gunsight and back. The Manager of the houseboat rental area of Aramark would not even come out of his office to have a conversation about the problems with they had with the houseboats. He left it to some young people to deal with it. The people who spent the money to enjoy the beautiful lake for the first time was marred by the service they got from Aramark.

There should be some accountability for Aramark when it comes to running and maintaining the Marina. Running out of gas in a houseboat that was supposed to full of gas in a storm could be costly and life threatening to both the marine life and the people on the houseboat or having part of the docks pull apart and fly around in the storm could hurt someone or damage our boats, We all pay good money to rent the slips or rent houseboats. What has started out as minor inconveniences has become a dangerous mismanagement of the marina. Lake Powell is a beautiful place to visit but if the infostructure isn’t maintained by the people who we pay to take care of it including the rental boats it becomes a dangerous place for the people who have an expectation of safety from those we pay to take care of it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. We all want to enjoy this beautiful place and feel we safe and secure while doing it."

Response From the NPS
Thank you for your comments regarding Aramark's quality of services.
I've forwarded the content of your email to the concessioner for response and awareness. The concessioner provided the following:

Our marina restrooms and showers are cleaned every morning and touched up and restocked in the afternoons.
The porters and cart drivers are frequently on the lookout for trash on the marina. Each cart driver is assigned a specific part of the marina during their shift. The decking on the main walkways of each dock are checked daily to ensure they are secured.
We appreciate the feedback and will ensure we visit with our teams to enhance our guest service and maintenance of the facility.

Thank you again for submitting your comments to the park. This type of feedback is valuable to the park when evaluating our concessioner's performance.

Sincerely,

Nichelle Rich (she/her)
Concessions Management Specialist
Wahweap Marina & Dangling Rope Marina Concession Contract Manager
Commercial Services Project Management
 
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Here’s my questions/thoughts

The issues noted in this thread are all very valid, but it feels to me like we are addressing the symptoms, while failing to identify and treat the underlying disease.

When we first started going to the north end of the lake in the late 80’s/ early 90’s both marinas were busy, weekend launch lanes extended for miles and there were at least 2 competitive vendors providing services outside the park, in addition to mechanical service at both Bullfrog and Halls. Halls had a well stocked store with wide selection of critical need items; food, first aid, fishing gear, flip flops and a few mechanical items; stuff you really needed. I don’t need Starbucks coffee or Krispy crème donuts, or even beer. I do need a quart of oil, ice and more ice.

Why was there so much demand back then and so little now? It was just as isolated then, as it is now, but all the businesses were able to staff adequately and lake usage was high. What’s the root cause of the change In demand? Lower demand definitely is leads, though to lower services, though it’s not the only contributing factor.

Personally I think one of the root causes is that Aramark has tried to shift focus to the ‘High end” “luxury” travel and rental market instead of services for the average American, the shared ownership boats and tent/RV campers. The rental market may be appealing from a spreadsheet perspective, but you can see from @Canyon Nights story they actually demand a very higher level of service and maintenance; reservations processing, onboarding over site, training renters, cleaning, repairs and mechanical maintenance between trips, and long trips to provide on lake service for breakdowns. Just consider what services could be provided if the same employees who were running around in “service boats” spent that same time staffing marina stores, maintaining docks and cleaning restrooms? Aramark needs to return to the core operational needs, and at the same time ensure they are an attractive and competitive employer. The housing units for employees need to be liveable; cleaned and updated, and they need to pay a rate that reflects the challenges of the isolated environment. Keep some of that $2.40 a gallon gasoline profit if you use it to ensure the right staffing and services.

Powell with its expensive high end rentals (who really needs a hot tub or fire pit on a rental houseboat) has priced out many miDale income and virtually all low income families. ITS CAMPING - not a 5 star resort. Plan services and staffing accordingly.

Thats my unsolicited 2 cents, thanks for listening
 
The fact, there is no benefit for Aramark to provide great service anymore, no other contractor wants that concession. They pretty much bid against themself. Concession companies are not really set up to own Houseboats and everything that comes along with it. Most of these large companies wants to sell you a t-shirt and Ice Cream when you come thru town. The model is broken.

If I was NPS, I would look to break up the monopoly and figure out a way that there is some competition?? Maybe Halls and Bullfrog have different concession companies?

In my experience, dealing with Concession companies at Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and so forth (as a vendor), they all kind of suck in the customer service department and professionalism. The employees and managers are all judge on budgets, nothing else.
 
A lot of great points by @PowellBride

Antelope Point Marina siphoned off significant business from Bullfrog and Halls, so that is where I see significant movement of visitation. They did so by offering better and more timely services, catering specifically to the high end market. Coupled with the better access to So. California and Arizona, it was inevitable that there would be a more robust market near Page.

However... There are more slips in Bullfrog and Hall's than there were in the 1990s by a long shot. There are approximately 2x the number of slips, though there doesn't appear to have been any growth in the buoy field. That would theoretically mean there is 2x the business in houseboat maintenance in the north end as there was in the 1990s. The level of services continues to go down, largely because they lack personnel and both Aramark and NPS are unwilling to invest in infrastructure improvements in a timely manner (both are my opinion). They don't even care about selling anything anymore, except gas at a massive markup, considering the stores are literally closed most of the time.

There is no bidding by Aramark... They own some of the assets and NPS owns others, making it genuinely difficult to divorce the two entities without an act of congress. Every time I go to AP, I am jealous of the amenities there and wish there were some ability to attract a real entity interested in providing true service to the community. I understand it may be more expensive, but last year as we waited week after week for our outdrives to be repaired, many in our group would have been willing to pay 2x what we did for repairs in order to get expedited services, since our vacations were cancelled and had to be rescheduled for other venues last minute at significant cost. When there is no service available and an exclusive contract, how are you supposed to get things done?
 
My understanding is that the north lake concession is on a separate contract from south lake (Wahweap & DR) However, I also understand that when the contract has come up for renewal, there have been no other vendors, willing to bid against Aramark for either contract.

I was once told that if a new vendor wins the contract, they have to buy the hard assets of the previous vendor, and apparently the previous vendor gets to set the price on the assets. If that’s true, you definitely have a broken model as the outgoing vendor tends to inflate the value of their assets, making it prohibitively expensive for somebody new to come in.
 
Pretty simple off employees a wage worth working for. Some want good employees and to do some hard work but want to pay them minimum while they charge a premium for the service. But to a big corp it’s all about profit this ain’t a big city to get employees from either you are limited.

My old job payed good at one time but no raises over the years everything went up. Employer wondered why we all left and was forced to shut down and close up.His prices went up double over the same time.
 
77charger said:
Pretty simple off employees a wage worth working for. Some want good employees and to do some hard work but want to pay them minimum while they charge a premium for the service. But to a big corp it’s all about profit this ain’t a big city to get employees from either you are limited.

My old job payed good at one time but no raises over the years everything went up. Employer wondered why we all left and was forced to shut down and close up.His prices went up double over the same time.
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It's a total package though. If you have benefits that offset some of the wage, that should work too. Aramark and the State of Utah are both treating these areas like they are places will want to work without considering the remoteness and difficulty of the assignment. We tip well at the gas pump and for other on-lake services because there needs to be something to keep people coming back to those jobs. The base salary doesn't do it.
 
I just received my response back from the NPS which I've attached here. Their most recent responses are in green. Overall I'm very disappointed with their explanations (or lack thereof). I'm becoming less hopeful of anything as there can't seem to be any accountability for what is going on.

- Didn't give a time when the concessionaire will be up for bid again
- Halls Crossing fuel dock will not open up until a new fuel dock is constructed as the current one has reached the end of it's service life. No explanation as to why this hasn't been planned for.
-Halls Pump out to open as 'soon as possible'. No explanation as to why it can't be opened today...
-The concessioner has the right to run their business in a way that maximizes profits (even if that means shutting down Halls Crossing).
-No response on why fuel pumps have had so many issues this year.
-Stated that the max price for gas should be $6.37 right now but fuel prices are currently $6.89
 

Attachments

  • Ashton Complaint- More Q's.pdf
    142.8 KB · Views: 47
It is the last opportunity to tank up heading north, and Antelope knows it. Also, heading back towards Wahweap on fumes, they know that people will pay that price rather than take a chance on running out in the Maytag Straights or the narrows of Anchovy Point.

If I remember right, when the water is high enough to keep Castle Rock Cut open as a regular shortcut, the Antelope price is the same as Wahweap Main.
 
ashtonc77 said:
I just received my response back from the NPS which I've attached here. Their most recent responses are in green. Overall I'm very disappointed with their explanations (or lack thereof). I'm becoming less hopeful of anything as there can't seem to be any accountability for what is going on.

- Didn't give a time when the concessionaire will be up for bid again
- Halls Crossing fuel dock will not open up until a new fuel dock is constructed as the current one has reached the end of it's service life. No explanation as to why this hasn't been planned for.
-Halls Pump out to open as 'soon as possible'. No explanation as to why it can't be opened today...
-The concessioner has the right to run their business in a way that maximizes profits (even if that means shutting down Halls Crossing).
-No response on why fuel pumps have had so many issues this year.
-Stated that the max price for gas should be $6.37 right now but fuel prices are currently $6.89
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If Aramark has routinely been marking up gas beyond their agreement, that may warrant a class action lawsuit.
 
nzaugg said:
If Aramark has routinely been marking up gas beyond their agreement, that may warrant a class action lawsuit.
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I did respond and ask for additional clarification on the gas. I believe we have purchased over 500 gallons of fuel from Bullfrog this year and will probably purchase an additional 300+ gallons in September which would have caused us to pay an additional $400+ in gas that they are allowed to charge this year. A class action lawsuit would make perfect sense knowing the thousands of dollars they would have been overcharging throughout the years.

One thing that also wasn't addressed in NPS's response was when Aramarks contract expires. Does anyone have any information regarding the expiration of their contract or have a current copy of the contract? Thanks!
 
Sorry for all the posts today. I've gone down a little bit of a rabbit hole with many of the NPS documents being public. Here's a few things I have found (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

Aramark is currently operating under 2 contracts on the lake: Uplake- Bullfrog, Halls and Hite (GLCA002-88-CC with amendments where Hite was removed several years ago) and Downlake (GLCA003-69-CC). I've mainly been researching the Uplake Contract so that's where most of my findings will be shared.

See the Attached NPS Concessions Act Documentation: In 1998, the NPS passed a concessions act (reform) to create more competition with concessionaires. The intent was to improve facilities as there was a recognition that concessionaires were becoming a monopoly which attributed many problems with their facilities. At that time, they shortened the maximum concession contract to 20 years. I'll discuss this more below, but the GLCA002-88-CC contract was put into effect on January 1, 1988 (over 35 years ago).

See attached GLCA002-88-CC document (all Contractual documents from 1988-2018 that NPS has provided)
Now let's talk the history of the contract- Del Webb Recreational Properties, Inc. initially secured the contract starting January 1, 1988 extending through December 31, 2007. It appears that on December 20, 1988, Aramark bought out the contract from Del Webb and has been running it ever since. Within the initial contract there were requirements for making the lake and facilities a better place (Exhibit A). At Bullfrog, they were required to add slips, houseboats, rental boats, construct parking, expand the restaurant facility and construct a fast food restaurant, etc. They had similar requirements at Halls and Hite as well. This was a smart move on the part of NPS in my opinion. During the period of the initial contract there was a couple amendments but nothing to crazy. Most of this was before my time so lets fast forward to the end of 2007 when the contract expired. It appears that at that time there was no RFX sent out to bring in another concessionaire. Starting in 2008 the contract was then extended for Aramark for another 2 years to 2010 'pending the replacement of the current contract to provide time for selection of a new concessioner'. It has since been extended every year on a single year term all the way up to 2023.

The current contract is now over 35 years old and brings much light to why the lake has trended downhill so much over the last decade. I believe this may be the root of the problem (yes we blame Aramark, but the NPS should be putting this out to bid and should have found a new Concessionaire since the initial contract expired in 2007). There are no requirements to improve the on lake facilities only to maintain them which in my mind isn't happening. NPS has stated they will be bringing in a new concessionaire since 2007 but continue to renew the contract because they have not selected a new concessionaire. This completely goes against the NPS Concessions Act stating that a maximum concession contract should only last 20 years.

The next question is if NPS has ever put out an RFX for a new concessionaire since 2007 and or how long it's been since anything has been presented...

PS- I'm trying to attach the contract documentation and where it's 156 pages, even after compressing the file down to 3 MB it's still to big to upload. Feel free to message me or send me an email and I can send it over to you [email protected]
 

Attachments

  • NPS Concessions Act _ U.S. Department of the Interior.pdf
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Competition is a good thing, a little pressure on NPS to get this back out to bid would be a hug win. Thank you for all the research.

That being said, what concessionaires would bid? Delaware North (they run Grand Canyon), Forever resorts (Mead, Shasta?), I welcome some competiton.
 
ashtonc77 said:
Sorry for all the posts today. I've gone down a little bit of a rabbit hole with many of the NPS documents being public. Here's a few things I have found (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

Aramark is currently operating under 2 contracts on the lake: Uplake- Bullfrog, Halls and Hite (GLCA002-88-CC with amendments where Hite was removed several years ago) and Downlake (GLCA003-69-CC). I've mainly been researching the Uplake Contract so that's where most of my findings will be shared.

See the Attached NPS Concessions Act Documentation: In 1998, the NPS passed a concessions act (reform) to create more competition with concessionaires. The intent was to improve facilities as there was a recognition that concessionaires were becoming a monopoly which attributed many problems with their facilities. At that time, they shortened the maximum concession contract to 20 years. I'll discuss this more below, but the GLCA002-88-CC contract was put into effect on January 1, 1988 (over 35 years ago).

See attached GLCA002-88-CC document (all Contractual documents from 1988-2018 that NPS has provided)
Now let's talk the history of the contract- Del Webb Recreational Properties, Inc. initially secured the contract starting January 1, 1988 extending through December 31, 2007. It appears that on December 20, 1988, Aramark bought out the contract from Del Webb and has been running it ever since. Within the initial contract there were requirements for making the lake and facilities a better place (Exhibit A). At Bullfrog, they were required to add slips, houseboats, rental boats, construct parking, expand the restaurant facility and construct a fast food restaurant, etc. They had similar requirements at Halls and Hite as well. This was a smart move on the part of NPS in my opinion. During the period of the initial contract there was a couple amendments but nothing to crazy. Most of this was before my time so lets fast forward to the end of 2007 when the contract expired. It appears that at that time there was no RFX sent out to bring in another concessionaire. Starting in 2008 the contract was then extended for Aramark for another 2 years to 2010 'pending the replacement of the current contract to provide time for selection of a new concessioner'. It has since been extended every year on a single year term all the way up to 2023.

The current contract is now over 35 years old and brings much light to why the lake has trended downhill so much over the last decade. I believe this may be the root of the problem (yes we blame Aramark, but the NPS should be putting this out to bid and should have found a new Concessionaire since the initial contract expired in 2007). There are no requirements to improve the on lake facilities only to maintain them which in my mind isn't happening. NPS has stated they will be bringing in a new concessionaire since 2007 but continue to renew the contract because they have not selected a new concessionaire. This completely goes against the NPS Concessions Act stating that a maximum concession contract should only last 20 years.

The next question is if NPS has ever put out an RFX for a new concessionaire since 2007 and or how long it's been since anything has been presented...

PS- I'm trying to attach the contract documentation and where it's 156 pages, even after compressing the file down to 3 MB it's still to big to upload. Feel free to message me or send me an email and I can send it over to you [email protected]
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Great investigative research, much appreciated! I hope this gets the ball rolling...
 
I never realized there are two different contracts in play. Thank you @ashtonc77 for your efforts to bring this to light.

As has been mentioned on several other strings on WW, part of the problem is that a new concessionaire will need to buy out all of the assets and improvements (ahem) Aramark has acquired/accomplished over the years. There would need to be a significant long term payout to make the initial investment worthwhile.

On the south end, the competition with AP is forcing Aramark to do a better job than they are at BF and HC, but that competition will only increase the up-front cost for a potential newcomer.

IMO, Aramark has a vested interest in keeping the BF and HC facilities in a condition most of us consider sub-standard, at best, and making a buy-out of the Uplake concession cost prohibitive. They can continue to overcharge for under performing without consequence - unless.

Unless NPS starts to write and enforce contracts that demand a minimum level of products and services the situation is unlikely to change. Let's not kid ourselves. We can complain about Aramark all we want, and I don't know many people who've had to deal with Aramark at LP who don't have complaints, but they (corporately) simply do not care what we think. At the end of the day, Aramark is not in business to have top-notch facilities which appeal to their customers. They are in business to make money. And the best way to make money when you have a monopoly on services at LP is to incur the least amount of overhead while charging the most you can.

But this rabbit hole seems to have no bottom. NPS is a government bureau. And that is another conversation altogether.

So, what if instead of bureaucrats who only care about holding on to their titles and positions running this show, we look at the Antelope Point model? What if NPS invited local tribes to bid on Ownership (not a concession contract) of the land at Wahweap, BF and HC? A separate owner for each facility. They would own the land, buildings, slips, buoys, and all infrastructure.
Of course, contracts would have to be ironed out regarding the cooperation required between the resorts and NPS, but I would think that could be a reasonable possibility. The competition between the resorts would keep equipment and services at a much higher standard, and the employment opportunities and profits would benefit the tribes.

Just spit-balling a possible solution...
 
@B.stanton there actually is a third contract for Antelope Point Marina. I don't know the terms of that one but I believe they have an excellent model. There is actually a guy in my office space who does the financials for Antelope Point so he's been a fun one to talk to but sounds like they still have endless issues working with both the park as well as the reservation.

I made one more call today to Kurt Rausch who is the Chief of Commercial Services for NPS (202-513-7156). I spoke with him for about 15 minutes before he had to jump on another call but he was super helpful in answering my questions. I think it would be great if others could call to get the ball rolling a little more.

I asked him about the current concessions agreement and why it has not been updated. He said that there are a few contracts left within the country that are legislated by old laws- these being some of them. Because of this, they are able to renew the contracts indefinitely with no repercussions. He did mention mention the Concessions Act of 1998 which only allows a concessionaire to hold a contract for 20 years. The current contracts however do not apply because it was signed before this act was passed.

In discussing why a new prospectus has yet to be introduced, he stated 3 reasons.
1- Aramark has a very high Possessory Interest (PI) for all of the assets they have developed since their contract started. At Bullfrog and Halls, it sounds like it's in the neighborhood of $30 million and I'm sure Wahwheap would be even more. I'll discuss this more below, but the new bidder would have to buy out all of these assets which NPS does not feel is practical and he mentioned they had several attempts to still push through but it still hasn't happened.
2- COVID hit and this threw off the hospitality industry. They were trying to keep contracts in place in essence to prevent these companies from going under.
3- Declining lake levels left much insecurity for the future of the lake and they haven't felt like they could send it out to bid until there is more surety.

I told him I understood points 2 and 3 but was confused why nothing had been done between 2007 when the contract expired and 2020 when COVID hit and the lake started dropping. This is where he gave me a little more insight on point 1.

He mentioned that there are 2 ways to acquire the assets from Aramark. The first is to have the new concessionaire buy them out as part of the bid process. The second option is for the NPS to buy down the assets over time. He said that was the option that NPS had chosen to do and where they were headed. He said he could talk about this process for 2 hours but that it's a pretty complex process that involves fees, taking into account funds generated along with interest, etc. He said they had a plan and I tried to get a little more information on that as far as the buy down goes but he told me it wasn't public information yet but it's on their radar to switch out the contract.

I then told him 'I know it's not public information, but if you had to give your best bet on what it looks like.... when would you see another contract come out'. This is where it gets really disappointing and where I think we can put more of a push on NPS to expedite the process. He said that he thinks that it will probably take at least 5 years to materialize and for a new contract to be put into place (this means Aramark will have run the contract for 40 years). He said even if they got started today, it's a very lengthy process with such large contracts which would take a minimum of 2 years. It takes them a long time to prepare it, of course it has to sit on congress's desk for several months and there are many approval processes it must go through along with locating bidders and providing time for them to respond then with the review process and award of the contract.

I know there are lots of different ways to go about it, but that's where things are at right now. He encouraged us to let the NPS know what current conditions are with Aramark which I explained was why I got to where I'm at lol Feel free to give that number a call above and let them know you would like to see a contract put in place sooner.
 
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