Esprit Half Term 2013 Ski Holiday Rip off !!!

[Lisaannb]

I have started this again with s slight amendment to the tital as suggested by another member. Thank you. So here goes.....
I just had to post on here to vent some of my anger in respect of school holiday prices. Been looking at ski holidays for next year half term and realised that some areas are at different weeks next year. We start ours on 9th February whereas many other places are a week later. After looking around several sites decided to try for the Esprit route (which we have done many times but prices for half term are huge). Imagine my delight to realise that they had not taken into account the different weeks and the prices for the 10th Feb were over £300 each cheaper than the later week. As we were travelling with another family I told them this morning and we decided to go ahead and book with them as it was such a good deal. Well fast forward 2 hours and this afternoon when I rang they had obviously realised their error and increased the price by over £200 each and withdrawn cashback offer and other offers for this week. After trying to tell me it was because they had a lot of bookings therefore prices change all of the time according to the market they eventually admitted that they had just realised that some areas had a different week so put up the prices today. Now if that is not the biggest money making holiday rip off I really don't know what is. After taking 5 previous holidays with this company I can now safely say I will never use them again.

Nor will I.

Me neither

We won't use them again either, having booked independently for the first time this year and realising how much we have overpaid. Their last minute offers are rubbish too - they say it is £XX amount for a room but then you call them and you are paying supplements because the room they have left is for 5 (even though advertised for 4 - 5 persons...so presumably 4 persons should be acceptable) and then extra because there are no flights available from the airport for which the discounted offer is advertised (and there probably weren't when it was first advertised at a discounted rate either) for this, that and the other. On the whole it is over-priced, tired accommodation with disinterested staff.

We went with Esprit for the first time this year and I WILL be booking with them again last year. Okay, it's not cheap and I won't be going in Half Term but their childcare staff were beyond fantastic. Their benefit comes when you have younger children - when my DD (3.5) is older we'll book privately again, but for now, they're worth the money to me.
(we went to Obergurgl in Feb)

we are Northamptonshire and have the earlier week too. I couldn't afford to book this early anyway but guessed this might happen. I know the special offers have hidden supplements but with a family of five including a 12 yr old the savings last minute will be huge if there is anything left. I had promised the family we could go next yr because of the split half term but we'll have to see if anything is left I guess! Maybe we should all wait until the last minute...

btw we have also been 5 times with Esprit but not previously in half term but with a 12 yr old and primary schools clamping down hard on term time holidays I have resigned myself to Christmas or half term.

We've just come back from a holiday with Esprit, and have been previously. I think we'll try another company next time - to be honest if you've got really little children it works for us better than independent travel but I thought Esprit had gone noticeably downhill this year (no pun intended). Childcare was a bit meh, and to be honest that's the only reason you book with Esprit isn't it?? Their chalets aren't super-luxurious and unless you're in a chalet hotel the food can be a bit hit and miss. The last time we went with them was in 2010, so before they were taken over by the mega hotel group that now owns them.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great time but for the £££ we paid in an off-peak week it wasn't really totally up to the mark. I am going to try ski famille next time I think.

For excellent childcare Family Ski Company come highly recommended.

Just priced up Family Ski Company for a comparable holiday to the one we've just been on, e.g., same dates. Came in at £3000 excluding flights (and lift passes, ski hire etc) . Waaaaaaaaay out of our league :( oh well.

narmada - try Snow Bizz - excellent child care and more reasonably priced than Esprit. Only drawback is that they are only in one resort.

Thanks jojobee, in fact we nearly went with them this year. Good to hear recommendations tho.

Family Friendly Skiing is another company you might want to look at - they are in La Tania - and I think are reasonably priced for what they offer. Also we've had a number of very lovely holidays with Ski famille and found their prices for their simpler chalets in line with Esprit's prices (though that was in mid-January). I'd recommend both - we've had far better experiences with them than our holidays with Esprit.

Sorry to sound anal, but be careful with Family Friendly Skiing as I don't think they are bonded, not sure what would happen to your money if they got into financial diffs???

How dear they sell sell a holiday for a peak week at the going rate! I'm sure if you sell your house you'll sell it at a cheaper price than you could get?

We always went with a travel company, but usually found, especially with esprit, that there was always a bit of a journey from hotel to slope. For the last few years, we have found a hotel online, booked easy jet flights and hired a car. Although it has only worked out slightly cheaper, we have found much nicer hotels in much better locations.

We've also found the reps pretty useless on package holidays, only wanting to make money outing of booking extra trips etc. I speak German, and used to live in Germany, so perhaps this helps as I find it easier to arrange things myself.

To be fair, we went with esprit one year, and due to extreme weather conditions, couldn't fly home on the Saturday, but they took us back to the hotel and arranged accommodation and were very good.