There has been a lot articles and press releases written about when to book next season’s ski holidays. Many of these have reported that there could be a complete lack of accommodation because large tour operators have cut the number of chalets they are running. The industry advice is (rather unsurprisingly) “book early or face disappointment”.
Is there any truth to these statements, or is it just spin/pr from within the ski industry to try and encourage people to book early for what could be a difficult season?
Some of what is written is in fact true. A lot of medium to large tour operators have drastically reduced the number of catered chalet holidays they are offering. So a customer who usually holidays with a particular operator may find that there is less availability with that operator during winter 2009/2010.
However, what most of these articles and press releases have failed to point out is that although chalets may have been dropped by a particular operator, these properties still exist and in most cases, the owners still want to rent them out.
Generally, booking a ski chalet through a large tour operator is not the cheapest way to take a ski holiday (although many like the security which this affords). Because these operators often have large overheads, they are unable to offer chalet holidays as cheap as owner run businesses. So if a chalet owner finds his or herself without anyone renting their chalet, they will offer it for rent direct, often at a fraction of the cost of the tour operator. In these days of the “internet savvy” holidaymaker, it doesn’t take very long to package the rest of your holiday independently, with airport transfers and outside catering. The result? A ski holiday at a fraction of the cost.
A booking agent in Chatel reported:
“Just because large tour operators have reduced the number of chalets that they offer, doesn’t mean that there will be less chalets to rent. On the contrary, there are now a large number of chalets available which were previously tied in to expensive contracts with tour operators.
In our resort, a catered chalet operator decided not to continue for the following season. This meant that there are now less catered chalet holidays available. However, the ski chalets which were rented by this company are now available with a number of different booking agents, in many cases at a lower price.”
Of course, the main New Year and half term weeks will be booked up early. However, if you have flexibility over which date you can holiday, then rather than having reduced supply, this coming winter may well see a number of increasingly desperate property owners slashing rental prices in order to get some bookings. The truth is, no one knows for sure, but there is certainly no need to panic and book an early holiday just because the ski press has told you to!
All Mountain Holidays offer ski holidays and ski chalets direct. Accommodation in most ski resorts worldwide. The site also offers weather and snow reports, as well as ski & snow news.
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