Ski Beat - the worst ski trip experience ever?

A snowHead

I've been with Ski Beat years ago and always been satisfied, but a friend went last month and said the food was awful because the host couldn't cook properly.

A snowHead

I've been away with Ski Beat a few times in the past. The chalet staff were all young, largely under trained and under supervised. Therefore the quality of the experience was somewhat mixed and a bit of a lottery. If the chalet staff were remotely conscientious (most were to be fair), then you'd have a pleasant holiday. SB accommodation was usually OK and well located. The horror reports I'd guess, are coming from losing the 'staff lottery'. The 'party' is coming before the job. Our trips with SB were always 'lads' not family. We never had high expectations and if the staff were hitting the beer a bit large, we tended to join them. wink

Ski Beat the company, could well be struggling in the current climate?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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i can’t imagine having to get on annoying airplanes to go skiing. uggg. F that. happy i’m in driving distance of tons of massive resorts.

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@eaglesandsnowboarding, jolly good for you

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@Avabrunch, that catalogue of errors from Companies House is revealing. So much is now lined up against those "cheap and cheerful" chalet companies (with which we had good holidays in the past). Covid and Brexit were hammer blows. And somewhere recently on Snowheads there was a post from someone who'd been to a French chain of hotels known to be in the "good value for families" category who complained against rooms which were "verging on tired", or words to that effect. And there are often complaints that bathrooms which were warm and clean with plenty of hot water were "due for refurbishment". Some customers who pay very ordinary prices seem to have extraordinary expectations. Those of us (and we are many) who enjoyed the "Mountainsun" place in Tignes knew to look beyond these things. wink

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@eaglesandsnowboarding, you must have a strange definition of a massive resort if you think there are any in easy driving distance of Prague. You won't be doing any day trips, that's for sure! Laughing

After all it is free

@Origen, you can look beyond a bathroom which is cold, dirty and has no hot water? I can't! I don't need cakes for tea, or free wine, or fancy food or decor, but there are limits and being clean and warm is one of them!

@Je suis un Skieur, driving 6-9 hours is wayyyyy better than the horrendous world of air travel

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@Hurtle, We use the same hymn book - clean bed, shower + loo, hot water, clean room in that order. If breakfast includes real coffee (not "instant") then better still!
The ultimate indulgence is twin quilts - one for She Who Expects to be Obeyed and one for me - that way we avoid squabbles during the night

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@Hurtle, I read what @Origen wrote as being surprised that people in a "value" hotel that has adequate hot water and cleanliness complain that the decor is tired.

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Quite right, @sugarmoma666, have re-read what I wrote, which I think was quite clear. wink

@Origen, sorry. Must curb tendency to skip-read.

You know it makes sense.

@Avabrunch, Oh dear. Crying or Very sad

As you've said, the days of the cheap and cheerful chalet companies may be coming to an end and sadly the seasonaire opportunities for young Brits will disappear with them. All four of my kids either worked in the ski industry in one way or another. Two as seasonaires. They all cherish the memories.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Hurtle,

A snowHead

Except that they're not cheap at all.

A snowHead

Just checked back and we paid £750 per person for a shared chalet in Meribel the week before February half term in 2017. That included flights and transfers. I wouldn't say "cheap and cheerful", the chalet was decent enough. Staff were good and the food was nice. The promised in resort transfer kept driving past us full up, but that was the only annoyance. By the time Covid hit in 2020 we had "upgraded" and were paying 1350 euros each for a very nice chalet with great food, but accommodation only. That same type of chalet now is about £1800 each...

We have only ever been on shared chalet holidays and it is always about the staff. We had a great young couple cooking in St Anton one year. The week we were there they got engaged and decided to leave straight after our week. I went past the kitchen and they were training a young guy how to boil eggs... As above though, shared chalets are few and far between now, certainly in the 3V, and nothing much at all at that lower price point. Don't think you'll get much below 4 figures these days.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We've pretty much given up trying to find chalets now. Snowretreat remain amazing value. However, I note they've dropped down from three chalets last year to two this year and seem to be struggling to get up to full occupancy even then. Chalet Leman is still available at £650 a person catered from in week beg 17th Feb and availability at similar prices in future weeks. We stayed there last year and it was a great chalet in a good location. I'm amazed they don't have full occupancy at the prices they're offering.

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I'm not quite following your comment/question. But for context, there's 8 of us going on holiday, 5 adults, 3 children. We've paid about £1,000pp before extras. This is a special holiday for us, a treat. Not something we can afford to do often. So, not cheap in my eyes anyways Smile

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I don't get it, I thought Ski Beat were doomed due to this thread?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

26 pages over 14 years!

There’s something to be said about locking old threads. If that’s technically possible, admin?

(There’s also a thread in the apres someone resurrected from 10 years back!)

Hello, still here! Ironically, I was thinking of Ski Beat just the other day. I’ve skied several times a year, across 12 countries in 3 continents, more resorts than I can remember, and until this week, my worst experience was 2 days in various airports then backing up an Italian motorway in fog on a bus driven by an knackered driver with a coach load of wailing toddlers exhausted by a 48 hour journey to cover what should have been a much shorter journey, followed by the Garry and Terry mansplaining double act.

But it wasn’t the resurrection of this thread that made me think of that week. Btw, whoever resurrected it, wtf were you thinking? Laughing

It always kicks off an argument of some kind! It was the fact that I have just had (after 14 years of very happy skiing experiences between the original post on this thread and now) an experience that made me think ‘this is even worse than that Ski Beat trip!’ DIY trip, we’ve ended up leaving a hotel which was substantially misadvertised, and after complaining about rampant mould in the bedroom the cleaner rather clumsily went through our possessions in the room, found my Go Pro in my handbag, and accused us of using it to film him. After that we had threats from the hotel manager so have left and gone somewhere nicer. Not going to leave it at a flounceo, there will certainly be repercussions for the hotel, however it’s my last day skiing with my boy so we are going to enjoy that first before Pandora’s Box is opened and we get serious with our follow up.

The majority of resort staff are lovely people, and even when conditions and facilities are less than desirable it is possible with a bit of decent people-power to make an average situation an enjoyable one. People who work in holiday resorts are generally there for the love of it, as on the whole it will never make them rich, and for the most part their enthusiasm rubs off on people around them. But get a bad one, and it affects everyone around them. Get one with disdain for the holidaymaker, and frankly those people should not be in that job, for their sake and everyone else’s. Get as far as criminal activity though, and I’m after their head on a stick. Fortunately situations like this are few and far between. I am lucky these days that I have the funds and positive mental attitude to just go somewhere else when I don’t like the atmosphere. I think back to the holidays of years ago though when I had spent our entire holiday budget on a package I’d hoped would be my young family’s one week of the year of enjoyment and having that excitement quashed from the off, and know there are lots of other people in that boat still who can’t just move if they don’t like it. And that is why I will be kicking off about the latest pile of incompetence, rudeness and wrongdoing.

Help!!

Ski Beat - the worst ski trip experience ever?

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