It is clear to me that a sizeable minority of people who come on skiing holidays are unaware of how chalet holidays work, largely because ski company websites are vague about the service being offered.

ets This means many people arrive into resort with the wrong expectations, including recently one Russian family who thought their chalet was a boutique hotel where staff and services were at their beck and call day and night.

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Although such service would have been nice for them, this is not how English-style chalets work. So I write this post in the hope that future ski guests coming to European chalet resorts like Meribel are clear on the set up.

Food Chalets are normally full board so breakfast and dinner is served. Lunch is not, although non-skiing parents and nannies are then stuck for food because restaurants or supermarkets are often some distance away – so forward planning is needed. Also, chalets hosts take one day off a week, usually a Wednesday, so guests have to book into a restaurant that night or find a take away. Most ski operators don’t allow guests to use a chalet’s kitchen so home cooking is a no-no. The fridge is off limits too – if guests snack on its contents hosts are then stuck for ingredients when they cook dinner the next day.

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Drinks Chalet companies vary in their generosity with drinks. Most offer wine with dinner as well as an honesty bar containing beers – which guests then have to pay for on the last day. The grey area is ‘after dinner’ wine – some hosts lock away their wine bottles leaving guests literally high and dry. Others are happy to let guests plunder the chalet’s spare wine stocks.

Hours of work An area where confusion arises! Hosts normally work from 7am to 9am making and serving breakfast and then clean their chalet, which takes them to around 11am, after which most rush off to get on the piste by 11.30am. Hosts then return at around 5pm to prepare dinner, earlier if a ‘children’s tea’ is needed and then work through to 10pm. But some guests are confused about this and, if their hosts live ‘in-chalet’, often expect them to help them solve problems outside these hours. This is not happening!

Pay and tips Most seasonaires are paid a few hundred pounds a month for their work but in return get free accommodation, lift passes and boots and ski/board hire. But at around £5 a pint and notwithstanding the extortionate prices for everything else on the mountain, their pay doesn’t go far. Therefore most hosts survive on tips for the basics, the average being £20 a head per week. Tips are not expected, but if a host has been working hard to please (including in my case getting up at 5am to make breakfast for guests leaving on an early flight) then anything less looks a bit mean.

Source: https://t-tees.com
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