Now, let’s not beat about the bush. We all know the main reason we send you the Chalet Organ every month is to remind you we’re here, burnishing up the chalets ready for next season, so that hopefully you’ll say “Ah the Chalet Organ! That reminds me: SKIING! Better get that sorted while there’s still space. Ski Frist Tracks seem to be great value. Just look at their prices and TripAdvisor reviews!”
Are we good value? The truth is, it’s not really for us to say. ‘Good value’ is not the same as ‘low cost’, although our prices are as keen as we can possibly make them. When you perceive you’ve had good value, or value for money, your perception is that the service (or product) has met (or exceeded) your expectations.
The reviews we have received on TripAdvisor (all genuine, by the way!), the comments in our guest books and the emails we get from guests when they get home are all indications that we have met or exceeded our guests’ expectations and are, indeed, giving great value. And really, it’s not so very difficult.
The primary reason (actually, probably the only reason!) we set the business up was to make sure we could spend the winter in the mountains, skiing. We’re not looking to make pots of money. We’re happy as long as we can keep our promises and come back next season.
To make life easier, we assume our guests are not unlike us!
They come to ski, not spend their time in a hot tub. They want quick and easy access to the piste. They want a spotlessly clean chalet, where they can relax after a day’s skiing and not feel awkward that they’re going to use the wrong glass or have to change for dinner. They want plenty of well-prepared food which is full of flavour, more or less what they would have at home, but maybe something a little different. They want a friendly, lively and enjoyable atmosphere in the chalet, spending time with like-minded people.
So that’s what we propose and do our very best to provide, which is a bit easier as we actually host the chalets, as well as do all the back-office stuff.
We also try and strike up partnerships with other local providers, so that you get the best value (and prices!) on things like ski hire, ski school and lift passes. Any discounts they give us we pass on to you (we do retain a very small percentage of the lift pass discount as they are quite time-consuming to process). You can see these on our ‘Passes, ski hire, transfers, lessons’ page
We decided early on not to discount our prices, even though that means that sometimes we miss out on selling a holiday. There are two reasons for this: the first, and main, reason is that we think it’s unfair to guest who have paid the advertised price if someone else in the chalet has paid less for the same holiday; the second is that it distorts the booking pattern and therefore our cash-flow.
We do, though, give the occasional ‘incentive’ or run competitions, so watch out for those – we post about them on our Facebook group and page.
With this in mind, we are very aware that the school holiday weeks are expensive. In effect, the holiday weeks are subsidising the non-holiday weeks. We don’t like this (we’ve had children!) and, for next year, are trying to think of ways of making things more equitable without scaring off guests who come out of school holidays! In the meantime, we’re running a promotion which might help a little bit.
All chalet hosts have a night off from cooking when their guests head off to a local restaurant to eat. For guests with children in a school holiday week, this can add quite a bit to the cost of what is already an expensive holiday. For families who book to come and see us in one of the school holiday weeks (see below and on the ‘Offers’ page on our website for dates), we will subsidise this meal, up to 20€ per head.
So there we are. A shameless ramble aimed at getting those of you who haven’t already booked with us to do so! (you can find our booking form here 😉).
Holiday week dates:
Sunday 18th December 2022 – Monday 26th December 2022
Monday 26th December 2022 – Monday 2nd January 2023
Sunday 12th February 2023 – Sunday 19th February 2023
Sunday 19th February 2023 – Sunday 26th February 2023
