I think i may have been a total mug!!! (Re ski apartment booking)

[SatsumaSatsuma]

we found some cheap flights and a not so cheap Austrian apartment, through booking.com (used them loads before).

the apartments were new on the system, so had no reviews but plenty of ok photos. basic, but good value.

the apt was to be allocated on arrival, but guaranteed to be central location in resort.

all fine....until reviews started appearing on the website that were very , very mixed. some truly awful. there are clearly dozens of apts of very varying quality.

dh and I were getting v twitchy about ending up with a skanky apt so I emailed the company.

I said that I didn't mind paying a bit more for a named accommodation. they have agreed and I now know where we are staying, cos I 'chose' it from 3 possibles. its v central, right by the ski school.

however....from what I can tell reading between the lines from the vague description of what we booked...I think its the same apt we would've ended up with had I done nothing!!! but knowing/ choosing in advance has cost us another 500 euros or so. (paying 1300 instead of 800 @half term!!)

am I a mug? I am no longer worried about our holiday, but feel like i've been had :( am trying to decide if 500 euros for peace of mind is worth it. still feel like a mug.

WWYD?

Oh gosh skiing is a minefield.

I booked our flights as soon as they came out last March, but didn't realise that accommodation would be so expensive over there - we are going to France, because it is the English & French half term as well. I'm beginning to feel as if we made a mistake on the apartment as well - it cost over 1000 euros and we have to bring our own sheets and pay for final cleaning, wish we had just booked into the apart hotel as although more expensive and less space, we would have had a pool on site and at least the beds would have been made up.

I'm thinking that skiing might be one of those rare trips that is best done through a travel agents if you don't know what you are doing - which I clearly don't.

Anyway I think I would have done the same in your shoes. Yes 500 euros is a lot of money, but location is so important when you are away on a ski holiday.

I presume it's too late to change your mind anyway? So just move on and enjoy your nice apartment when you are there.

rookie, I agree! we have previously put together a fantastic ski package ourselves to Bulgaria. but IME this only works as there is a short, inexpensive transfer.

we booked flights to munich as Austria too expensive, but the site we looked at for transfer info underestimated the distance so we now have a v long transfer with late arrival in resort, and have been worried about picking up keys at almost midnight!

you don't get that hassle with a package, but I'd be paying more overall. tbh, though, this situation with the apartment has wiped out the saving of putting it together independently.

ps if you want to see what others have said, I also posted this in 'chat'. x

We have a long transfer as well.

We could have stayed in a nice little village with cheaper accommodation, lift passes and within an hour of the airport, but DH's friend works at the place we are going to and really wanted us to be close to them.

Too late I now realize it is going to be the busiest week of his season so we won't see much of him oh and DH is using the opportunity to be away for a day snowshoeing and will probably go out for beers several evenings leaving me on my own with DS, who hates going outside and has already broken his wrist before Christmas on the dry ski slopes.

Oh and we have seriously overspent on lots of things, but every time I keep looking at the ski holiday a new cost pops up - lessons, ski hire, car hire !

Arrgh, why didn't I just stick to my nice girlie long ski weekend instead of making it a family thing.

rookie, I never spend more than I want to on a trip to fit in with others! it'd make me resentful.

we went skiing last year with my db, who wanted to go to a particular resort in Switzerland. he ended up contributing to our costs as we wanted to go back to Bulgaria, but he wanted the other option due to his complex childcare needs (my dds are older). he is v well off and after a lot of persuading, I let him contribute to our costs as it seemed justified.

I think we will both have to learn from our experiences!

Hey I did dodge a major holiday bullet for this year though. SIL wanted us to share a canal boat with them.

She is lovely and her family would be lovely if her adult and almost adult DCs and her DH would actually clean up after themselves and do any of the house work. I looked at the size of the canal boats and said no way hose are we all fitting into that, so we have a huge shropshire pile to share instead that has it's own golf course!

So I can look forward to that if skiing turns out the way I expect - I so hope it's good when we get there.

rookie, sounds like you need to set a few ground rules with dh before you go! your other hol sounds fab :)

Och I'm sure it will be fine satsuma. It's not like spending time with DS is a hardship, I guess its all just a wee bit more pricey than I had anticipated and not much cheaper than the tour operator trips I was originally looking at.