2011/12 Ski season - are you giving it a miss? cutting back?

[mulranno]

Just wondered as this is the first year that we have let our chalet and we have very few bookings

I think you may find some are cutting back. We however cannot get children, me and DH in the same place at the same time for some reason this year we are all too busy so we are missing out :(

Where is it? I know friends who go to Switzerland a lot have been saying exchange rate is making it crazy expensive .

Still thinking about it. Exchange rate everwhere makes it crazily expensive. Wasn't that long ago you could have lunch for £10 a head and now its nearer £30 and thats looking for cheaper lunch stops. Its not just Switzerland, we usually go to France.

I think we probably will go as its DD's last year of primary school so will probably be our last family ski holiday. But will probably leave it a bit yet before booking. Feel free to PM me details of your chalet Mulranno. Might be interested.

Gigondas - it is in Vaujany France (back door resort to Grand Rousse/Alpe D'huez) - bizarrely we have almost sold out most of the summer weeks next year!

We are probably giving it a miss this year for the first year in a long long time. The exchange rate just makes ski passes etc hideously expensive. It's very sad.

I'm due middle of Feb which for obvious reasons rules out this season.

I'm an early booker though, if I'm going I tend to have booked by Aug/Sept.

Austria this year was 10 quid for lunch on the mountain and they don't mess around with portions!

I went to the ski show in Earls Court this week and it was really quiet, never seen it like that before. I'm guessing a lot of people are cutting back. Me, I never book very far in advance, I'm still looking for my bargain Christmas break, not sure I can afford half term and with a school aged DS, that's pretty much the only time for us.

We're not going away as a family. The littlest one is just too young so we're giving it a miss :(

looking at the availability status of the other properties in our village - it seems that the apartments have sold well - whilst the the larger 8-10 people self catering chalets have lots of availability -- maybe people no one is doing the big party group thing - and maybe just doing either small cheaper family getaways..?

It would be logical that if people are cutting back it'll be harder to pull together your "usual" group of 8-10, e.g., perhaps only 4-6 can commit this year.

We have a ski apartment for 10 in north America and it has almost no bookings either.

We have Xmas and Easter for ourselves but seems very little has rented this year. Don't know if it will pick up later as the snow starts falling.

jicky ... last year we booked out xmas and easter for ourselves first this year we have just let it get booked and we will then take what is left. We have slashed our original prices this week to compete realistically with apartments even though we are detached 3 storey chalet - better to have some money coming in to cover costs than none - and it seems to have worked as we have 3 weeks confirmed now xmas, new year and 2nd week january...another trend maybe people not committing too early and just waiting til the last minute...?

Maybe everyone is leaving it last minute to see what the deals will be? Groups don't leave it late though so it must be they are downsizing or downscaling (So not Wengen this year then )

Oh and Alpine I'm sure I had a brainfart and asked you if you were skiing this season- please kindly delete that question so as not to think I'm a spanner. Ta.

...we've had a little run on bookings this week with a further two weeks in feb booked....maybe Oct half term is a bit of a watershed for decision making?

mulranno jus spotted this, we've gone for a contract with a tour op this year, to guarantee some income, as I was on mat leave for 6 months Feb-Sept so didn't proper attention to my website/bookings etc. and the season already feels scarily close, so when a tour op offered us money for the whole season, it seemed like the easy and less stressful option!

Getting settled with work and DD now so will make a better effort to sort out proper rentals next year!

i book my holiday very early, and i suspect as you get repeat customers, they will book early. a lot of people leave it till after the summer i think, partly because they know what holidays they have and partly because it is colder and easier to think about (but i think about skiing all year round so that's a mystery to me too!)
good luck with the bookings!

mulranno. I have just booked our first independent ski trip (usually go with Esprit) and was surprised at the amount of availability - not just for March when we plan to go but all the way through from december.

We are usually last-minute bargain grabbers but found a lovely chalet for a fraction of what we usually pay together with cheap flights from local airport (can't tell you how good it will be to start a ski trip at a normal hour as opposed to some ungodly hour of the morni g from Gatwick :o )