Tremblant Lifestyle

Independently owned and run ski chalets are not new. They have been around for many years. Over the last 5 years, however, there has been an increase in relatively inexperienced people selling up in the UK , and moving to the mountains to run catered ski chalet businesses.

When independent catered ski chalet operators first appeared on the scene, the owners and hosts tended to be passionate skiers who, after living for many years in a resort, had finally found a way to upgrade their situations from “ski bums” to “legitimate business owners”. They worked hard to develop their businesses built around their love of the mountains, their knowledge of the local area and of course their skiing ability.

Given that many of these original “ski chalet pioneers” had cut their teeth working in restaurants and hotels in ski resorts, cuisine was also high on the agenda. Before long, the independent catered chalet holiday became synonymous as a way of staying with hosts who knew the mountains like the back of their hands, could show you the best places to ski, and would serve up top class cuisine after a day on the slopes.

Over recent years a dirge of reality TV programs in the UK have focused on alpine businesses and made them look like attractive business propositions. Under closer inspection, it isn’t difficult to see why such a business could look so attractive to an outsider.

Anyone can buy a large house and run a B&B somewhere in France. The trouble is it may be hard to quantify how many people visit the area, what the future trends for visiting the area might be, and even how long a season might last. In a ski resort, to some extent you can take away a lot of this uncertainty. The ski seasons are quite well defined, and the ski industry is still a rapidly growing market.

Couple this with many equity-rich property owners in the UK and it becomes obvious why there has been such a rush to jump on the bandwagon and move to the mountains.

All of this means that there are now a number of ski chalet owners that hide behind professional looking websites with no experience of running such a business. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many, if not most of these new businesses thrive on hard work and enthusiasm and attract repeat customers year on year. But be warned. Just because a couple of accountants were good at their professions in the UK, and just because they spent a million euros on a chalet, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the sort of people who know how to make a holiday work, or indeed the sort of people whose home you would want to stay in for a week.

A week’s catered chalet skiing holiday is not cheap, especially for a large family, and with so many apparently good, professional chalet businesses around, it can be difficult to know if you are choosing the right one. Two very important things to look for are recommendations/word of mouth and independent chalet reviews.

Firstly, recommendations and word of mouth are both invaluable! If a friend who you trust recommends somewhere to you, then book it. Try and find out where other people have been on holiday, and whether or not they enjoyed it.

Secondly, try a website such as All Mountain Ski Holidays which has a ski chalet review section and see what others think of a place. Sites like All Mountain Holidays have made it relatively easy for new chalet businesses to get up and running. However, the same medium should also be used to build the reputation of good quality chalets which deserve it.

If you stay somewhere, and you love it, let others know about it and encourage others to do the same for you!

Skiing holidays are something that everyone should experience at least once in their life. They are an excellent way to enjoy an activity laden adventure holiday and to see some of the most magnanimous scenery the world has to offer. One of the best ways to enjoy a relaxing break with friends is to pool together money and choose from one of the many private ski chalets, or at least I thought.
I would like to definitively state before proceeding with my tale of doom and trepidation that this is not a reflection of everyones experience with ski chalets and since this fateful sejour I have been back to the same resort with a different provider for one of the best vacations I have ever had. As with everything these days, it started with the internet.
I was looking for something different and through a work colleague I heard about private ski chalets. After minimal research, I discovered that the price was higher than a usual holiday however if I bent arms and crossed palms I might be able to convince some of my friends to pool resources. I located a provider who could arrange everything for me and then secured the interest of my friends.
After seeing many ski chalets online profiles I clicked the mouse and fell in love. It was in a resort called Val d’isere and I knew nothing about skiing, but I liked what I saw of the chalet. It was sumptuous, spacious and just within our price range. A week after forwarding the link to friends they were on board and we were ready to book.
The company was offering to arrange everything from flights to ski lessons, all we had to do was sit back and pay a large sum of money. This we did and in one month we had all the documentation so we played the waiting game. Six months dragged by as I snatched glimpses of the chalet, dreaming of sipping brandy by the open fireplace, watching the snow subtly settling through the French doors.
When we reached this mother of ski chalets, we opened the door and it was better than any of us had dreamed. It boasted three floors, the bottom a massive open plan living room with bar and kitchen facilities and the open fireplace I had been dreaming of. The rest of the house boasted four double bedrooms, a sauna and a luxury bathroom.
We skied, ate, laughed and planned our lives around annual trips to this and other ski chalets. We tried to think of a time when we survived without ski chalets, saunas and the snowplough ski technique. On the third night we heard a rattling at the door as we lounged in front of the fire. Suddenly the door opened to reveal the Petersons and the Chipowskis.
I was in fact asking the same question as you are right now, who the hell are the Petersons and the Chipowskis?
After a mass debate, we got an answer to the question. They were apparently the rightful residents of the chalet and to our horror; they had the paperwork to prove it. I produced our paperwork and then called our provider only to find that the number was no longer in use.
We used the excellent internet connection now available in most ski chalets to discover that the company had gone into administration six weeks ago and although the flights had been valid, the agreement had been re-sold to another company who had in turn let this king of ski chalets to Petersons and the Chipowskis.
We did not have a metaphoric leg to stand on and had to vacate. With a lump in our throats and tears rapidly freezing on our cheeks we went to the resort manager who was really good and put us in a budget chalet with three single bedrooms. It was better than going home but after tasting the exquisite elixir of luxury ski chalets, it tasted bitter. The resort manager offered us a deal for the next year and we have been going back ever since.
The moral of the story is to check and double-check your providers background and history. It is safe to use online resources to book ski chalets and in fact many of the best deals can be found on the web. We have now found a provider who we love and book through every year. It is more cost effective than many other holidays with hidden costs and is an affordable taste of luxury.