Ski Total?

A snowHead

Anyone travelled with Ski Total before? Friend of mine was asking and I remember seeing the logo in France but dont know much about them except that they sit in the budget/mid-range category.

Any feedback?

A snowHead

Aren;t they the "grown-up" side of esprit, the childcare specialists? Not travelled with either but Esprit have a great rep from the childcare side and an "ok" rep from the tour op side

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

Been with them twice - last two years in fact. Pretty good really - The Chalet accommodation itself has been very good, generally exceeding expectations, clean. Good reps, plenty of solid piste/bar/restaurant advice.... food can be a little safe, but certainly not bad, and fair for the price.

No problems with payments/lift passes or general advice. Flights and transfers have all been fine, as sold, no surprises. The only activity we do are the bar crawls, and they have been good.

They do some good group deals - especially if you book early.

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Yes they are, kindof, nbt but both are now owned by Inghams.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

admin, Indeed they are, but Esprit/Ski Total are operated seperately from Inghams

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I've been with Ski Total twice and they were great both times. I'd happily use them again provided the deal was right. The chalet hosts were a good laugh and the food was good for the money. They were also "flexible" over the free wine during meals. Laughing

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Been to Budget hotel Champs Avalon, Val d`Isere 2 times with them; good local flights from Southampton. Rooms were big by French standards, bath, plenty of hot water, plenty of food and young enthusiastic staff. Cons; small bar area, tiny boot room, but you get what you pay for. I`d rather go there again than have high expectations of an expensive chalet disappoint me. Big breakfasts I like !!

After all it is free

I did a last minute trip with them as an adult solo skier in one of their Verbier chalets.
The main group were 2 families.
The youngsters were expected to eat seperately from the adults which resulted in the Rep being asked to come to the chalet for a 'meeting' to discuss the objection of the families that they eat seperately.

I fully supported the families and the motion was carried that we all ate together.

I found it unusual that this rule was ever imposed on Total ski chalet guests.

I hope this is a thing of the past.

Hi
Moira from Ski Total here. Just to clarify our ownership - Ski Total and Esprit Ski are NOT owned by Inghams! We are all owned separately by the same parent company called Hotelplan, so we are in effect a Group but none of us own the other.

to answer cc_7up about the Ski Total's adult/children dinner policy: After research and feedback it was clear that most adults find that children under 13 inhibit the dinner party atmosphere that we try to create with our chalet and chalet hotel dinners. Therefore we offer children under 13 an earlier meal, which is generally appreciated by all as children themselves don't always want to sit and eat with a table full of strangers and would rather be doing their own thing and it means that adults can relax and enjoy a few glasses of wine without worrying about little ears at the dinner table.
If a group books the whole chalet for their sole occupancy then of course the decision is up to them when their children eat but a fee is applicable if the children's meals are upgraded to adult dinners.
This policy is clearly spelt out in our brochure and website so guests should be fully aware when they book - it isn't a "hidden" feature - we are quite open about it.

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I have holidayed with Ski TOtal a few times and didn't really have any complaints. However the last time we went we found the chalet didn't really live up to expectations for the money, and the food quality had gone down hill. The last straw was being told that our return transfer was silly o'clock in the morning just to fill up the bus for an earlier flight. We would be arriving at the airport 2 hrs before the gate opened. We refused, asked to see the transfer schedules, then placed ourselves on 3 later coaches. It was after this that we decided to go DIY.
Other than this though they have been pretty good.
With regards to the kids eating with the family, Total are adult only outside the school holidays, and it clearly stated that kids ate sperately during the school holidays unless the group booked the whole chalet. Have to say I fully agree with this. Don't know if this is still the case.

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I'd be quite annoyed if I booked a ski chalet (in term time) which stated the kids ate separatly, only to find when I got there that familes had booked and were complaing and the kids were now eating at the aduts dinner! Not everyone wants to go on holiday and eat with other people's kids.
Most chalets have this as their policy so its not unusual.

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I have travelled with them twice before and would recommend them went to Zermatt when the ash could grounded the flights and they kept us up to date with everything and bussed us back to the uk. Stayed in Val d'Isere with them last week and although it's early in the season and the staff are still learning the chalet host Leanna was ace!

This thread is good news as we're travelling with ST to Verbier at the end of Jan. So it's good to see the positive comments and that there shouldn't be any little people sharing our wine at dinner...

Was slightly worried as there are a couple of poor reviews on tripadviser, but then isn't there always? On past experience, TA isn't close to what we've experinced but then maybe some folk's expectations might be different to mine.

We'll report back after the trip and let you know which reviews are closest...

I'll ask about what not to miss in Verbier in another thread...

You know it makes sense.

Been with them twice and I think they are excellent and have an eye out for another booking with them later this season. Staff are enthusiastic and charming. You're flying Monarch, so delays are not impossible. (I have had a 100% rate for delayed flights, but have watched the flight scheduled 1 hour before mine leave on time every time.) Food is definitely quite "safe" but there's plenty of it, and there's more wine than you can drink and it's perfectly drinkable. Early in the season is not as slick as late in the season.

We were in a chalet with an 11 year old who dined with us every night - without any discussions with reps etc. She was the most grown up person present... and charming.

Expect the usual from reps - a book of vouchers for free drinks that costs €10.

DIY booking private chalets is all very well, but the three I've been to have all had their Fawlty Towers aspects - largely around stinginess/being forced to eat with cranky owners. ST is generally apparently more consistent.

People only post on TA WayneC, when they have a complaint. ST must send 2,000 (?) or more people away every week, so maybe 20,000-40,000 people a year and this gives rise to a handful of bad reviews on TA annually?

Oh yes, and each time we have been, we have met others who are ST regulars. Must say something for them!

Oh yes, my only complaint about ST is the sickly-sweet pre-dinner cocktails. No, I don't want mulled wine, or white wine with added peach Archers before dinner, and probably 25% or more of the chalet don't either. If you leave a bottle of unadulterated wine in the room, expect at least 25% of the cocktails to land in a pot plant/off the balcony, glasses refilled from the bottle. (And my other complaint is being shepherded straight into the sitting room for the welcome talk when the flight was 2 hours late and what you really want to do first is to find your bedroom/indoor shoes/loo/change of clothes etc., not be subjected to a lecture you won't listen to because you've got other things you'd rather do first.)

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

I have been with ST 5 times and I would happily recommend them for a cost effective chalet holiday. Chalets hotels on Courcheval and Val d'Isere are well placed but require some TLC, that said the young english staff are very polite and tremendous fun and really make up for the odd mis hanging curtain.
Great value and take their responsibilities seriously. I personally think they wipe the floor with the "big boys" such as Thomsons/Crystal who I have travelled with more times than I can remember due to my husband working for them.
Go and enjoy yourself just don't expect luxury.....but you will have a great time.

A snowHead

I've been 3 times with Ski Total on late deals, no reasonable room for complaints if you're looking for a mid-range chalet, standards are pretty consistent with a varied well-chosen menu and named wines. Inevitably the quality of experience depends on the individual staff looking after you, but the ones I've met have always taken their responsibilites seriously.

Nik, we had Leanne (late 20s, Mancunian lass) as host last year in Italy, I echo that she was first class in her welcome & culinary skills, I heard from some of the other staff that she was in Val D'Isere this season, so good to hear she's keeping everyone happy there.

A snowHead

Had a horrible experience with Total last weekend.
Thought the staff were udner-prepared and under skilled. Didn't expect too much from a budget ski trip but they really disappointed me

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

Any more details fastandicy? You don't need to start a Pandora thread but could you let us have a bit more info, maybe resort or what the biggest disappointment was?

As we're off with them this w/e it would be interesting to see if they have fixed the issues you had...

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First it's fair to say the chalet, the resort and all the basics were great.

The disappointment was with the staff and particularly the food. We were told to expect dinner at half past 7 every evening and despite all being back and ready at that time twice it wasn't actually served til half 8. We also had to wait over 45 minutes between courses on two occasions and as a result dinner regularly didn't finish til around 10pm. This may not sound like a massive problem but it did mean we didn't have the opportunity to go out afterwards and most of the time we finished dinner and went to bed soon after.
The food was pretty poor and there wasn't a great amount of it. From prior catered chalet trips I'm used to them piling up the plates a bit and offering extra veg and potatoes etc. This didn't happen.
Having done a season in a resort where ski total were quite heavily represented I knew to expect the staff to be barely 18 and not to be getting paid much. What I wasn't prepared for was quite how personality-free they could be, with our chalet host regularly leaving without so much as a goodbye at the end of the evening.
There was no DVD in the apartment despite the brochure saying there would be.
The wi-Fi in the apartment didn't work 90% of the time.

The main bug-bear was the quality and lateness of food and once you get irritated by something like that Then everything else which you wouldn't normally notice starts to irritate as well.

I do think that the individual host probably makes all the difference but the company must take some of the blame for the training/preparation/support of that person.

As a group we've worked our way through most of the big chalet operators and actually had 3 ex-total staff with us and none of us could think of another time we'd been so let down.

Hope you're trip works out better, as I say, I'm sure it's the individual host and as such you're trip will likely be fine.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Have travelled with Total several times,always been fine.We love listening to parents explaining why their under 13 is a "special" exception to the adult eating rule.

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

Stayed at Champs Avalon in Val D'Isere during the first week of Easter - a Chalet Hotel run by Ski Total. The hotel was prettty basic - like the type of hotel you'd stay in on a school trip if you know what I mean - but very clean. The staff were fantastic, very friendly, polite, easy to get on with and nothing was to much trouble. Food was great, loads at breakfast, massive selection of cakes in the afternoon with really nice soup. The evening meal was three courses with canapes and cheese board as well. Food was very tasty and wel cooked with a good choice, though most nights I was still full from my cake!

Would recomend this chalet hotel to anyone. Not stayed in any other Ski Total chalet so couldn't comment on those.

After all it is free

johnseymour, I'm very much aware that Ski Total can run a ski chalet well. I'm just wondering why Ski Total allow a very weak Chalet Host to operate what could be a very good chalet.

Sadly he was given credence by his local manager who had no interest in quizing the clients as regards the quality of Chalet Hosting. Pleasant though he was there was absolutely no opinions sought from clients as regards the performance of the Chalet Host, a clear indication that he was aware of the issues but chose not to address these.

THAT shows a very weak management structure!

Could have written fastandicy's report myself - but regarding the Abendrot in Ischgl.

I had a great holiday, just why do they try and oversell it? 'Platinum multi star' creates expectations they don't live up to.

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theskibob, I wasn't trying to disagree with you at all - just putting up my experience with Ski Total in a chalet hotel - which is quite different from a chalet in terms of staff. In a chalet hotel the chef is just that - a chef and only has to focus on the food, other staff then serve and work in the bar etc. Also, the hotel has it's own manager and assitant manger on site all the time so they see the staff working at first hand as well. Obviously you've had a bad experience with them and I agree that not listening to the clients and acting on the information provided shows poor management and is something the company needs to address.
However, despite your experience, I would be happy to reccomend a Ski Total Chalet Hotel to people.

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Fact is that virtually everyone's holiday is based on price. I see it all the time and only when it goes wrong to people claim that they would pay more in the first instance had they known. People look at the websites. see a nice chalet and think they are going to get chef prepared food and service to match.

If you work it out it's simple:

Flight and transfer to somewhere like Val d'Isere will be around £300.00 pp at the weekend. A £700.00 holiday means £400.00 left for accommodation - that's 57.00 pppn in Val! No hotel will do that on HB including wine, not even b&b's. So lets think about the quality of accommodation and it's location - doesn't leave much left for food/service.

I have holidayed with most uk chalet companies and lot's of individual chalet owners and I can vouch that Total are very good for the money you pay and excellent in what they do. Ok food isnt going to be top end but then as someone on here said; vote with your feet.............pay £100.00-£150.00 pp more for a Leski chalet (an excellent company). Fact is that most won't do that. The UK market is price driven.

^
Agreed, and reading the 'Pandora's toys out of the pram' thread from St Anton reminds me of the only thing that occasionally detracts from my enjoyment of tour operator catered chalets i.e. having to listen to the whinges of some of the people you share it with.

FWIW, I've stayed with Total 3 times in St Anton, Ischgl & Lech, always paid in the £500-£600 range, booked within a couple of weeks of travelling and always had a good experience.

As it goes, my first ever catered chalet (Crystal in Les Deux Alpes at Easter), the rooms didn't have locks, the guests didn't have keys to the front door which was always open except when you wanted to get in at around 4.00 pm (in which case we found the easiest access was to climb up and in through a balcony) and most mornings, someone had to wake up a random chalet host who was crashed on the sofa so as we could get breakfast. The ever-pished girls from 'the Valleys' who invaded rooms in the early hours can't have got any skiing done as they were entirely nocturnal. I don't think there were any important and highly respected members of society ( wink

) staying there that week though but if they were, they didn't need to tell everyone else about it ( wink

) and probably were the types who had both a sense of perspective and didn't own their own servants at home to protect them from the harsh realities of the cushy life we skiers are lucky to complacently enjoy as middle-classed white folk living in the First World.

The Crystal experience didn't put us off and we have since stayed again with them and also with Neilson, Total and SkiWorld. That's because tour operator packages work well for us (last minute commitments from a mixed sized group) and so always seem good value in that context.

You know it makes sense.

Where's the Pandora one? Sounds entertaining. Either I missed it or it's before my time on here.

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

bobmcstuff, it does go on a few more pages than the recent St Anton one but enjoy Laughing

... http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=60313

A snowHead

Have stayed with Total twice (and Esprit 3 or 4 times) and Inghams twice.

2007 Total Chalet Midland in St Anton. Comfortable, decent food, pleasant Chalet Hosts. No complaints. Kids ate separately.

2010/11 New Year Total Chalet Neiges Val D'Isere. Really nice chalet with incredibly nice hosts who could cook and were planning to open an ice cream shop in Bristol when they returned to the UK ("Lick me I'm Delicious" I wonder if it happened?). We were asked if kids were to eat separately, no-one in Chalet wanted this (well I don't remember any child free people objecting). Kids ate the same as us, nobody tried to charge us extra for this.

2012 Inghams Chalet St Lukas Mayrhofen. Bit run down, breakfasts poor, dinners good. Kids ate with us, I think Chalet Host asked us as we arrived, there were three families with kids (not travelling together) we all just sat up one end of dining room, I don't think anyone cared whether there were children about. I doubt i would go back to this Chalet, I was quite under impressed with the building itself, and as someone else has complained about elsewhere on the forum, I expect there to be sufficient hot water for all the guests. It is not unreasonable to expect a shower or bath after a day on the piste. Every chalet and hotel I have stayed at in the last 10 years has managed that apart from this one.

A snowHead

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

I have stayed with them twice in their club hotels at Lech and Courchevel 1650. My rooms were basic but clean & adequate which is all I require. The communal areas in Lech were characterful ; in 1650 plain but didn't stop the fun. I & fellow guest were suprised how good the food was and they were liberal with the free wine. The personal care from the reps/hosts was a cut above the TUI ones. Foodwise there may be a difference between the chalet hotels and the small chalets as we had professional chefs whereas my friend was dissapointed when staying in one of their small chalets but he is used to paying twice as much. Fortunately no kids at dinner - I wouldn't want to have to moderate my conversation and drinking.

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Never had cause to complain about a chalet company before but suggest you avoid this lot especially if you are expecting them to live up to the promise in the brochure.My friend and I had awful experience with them in St Anton Chalet Elfie followed by spectacularly dismissive experience with their guest relations department. We had appalling evening meals, poor cleaning minute towels and a dictatorial confrontational chef who criticised her employers her colleagues and the food and wine. Local chalet staff offered no solution other than "would you like to sit down with her?" why on earth would I? I was on holiday. Guest relations had no discussion with me and just presented a long list of excuses, half truths and worse and smugly suggested everyone else was happy there. My friend who had been with them before and the other eight people we shared a table with definitely weren't nor were others there. Happy to share their response so you can see how bad they are with anyone who is interested.

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Sorry to hear that, our trip to Verbier with them last year was good... the food and wine were fine. We only got two days guiding rather than the advertised three but it didn't really matter on that trip. The only comment we had was that our room was a lot smaller then we expected but we were given a small refund as soon as we mentioned it.

Very Happy

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Been with them twice, after being with Thomson/Crystal the previous two years. My experience was generally good-to-excellent. The rep in the first year was pretty average (Verbier) but was much better this year (Courchevel), and tbh we were probably spoilt by having an excellent Crystal rep on the two previous visits.

For my money, the big plus with Ski Total is the food. We've found it to be exceptionally good both times we've been, with free-flowing wine with the meals (drinkable quality), good breakfasts, and excellent restaurant-quality dinners (albeit occasionally with slow-ish service). They seem to employ genuinely good, young trained kitchen staff, rather than school leavers who can't really cook, and make the food a pretty big selling point. You get the usual afternoon tea options as well, and the cake/soup has been good both years.

The sit-down dinners with menu options are more to my liking than the buffets you get with a lot of chalet-hotels, but I guess if you're a picky-ish eater it might not be so good. They seem to run a pretty tight ship with the staff as well, although the hotel we had in Courch (the Coq du Bruyene (sp?) near the Verdons lift station) this year didn't seem to see a lot of room cleaning and only changed towels once in the week, the staff are generally friendly and good.

My biggest complaint, this year in particular, was the late service time for dinner (maybe the staff were out skiing too late?!) - 8pm most nights, meant a 10pm finish at the earliest and straight to bed (rather than out for a drink) for our group. If we'd not been in Courchevel (with its crazy prices) we'd have probably felt we'd missed out on a night or two down the bar in town.

The price we paid both years was on the high side, but I'd guess that's partly because we went to more expensive resorts than we're used to.

However, all in all, I would recommend them pretty highly. We're going back this year with them if the price & resort is right.

The "no children at the mealtimes" rule is great if (like us) you're an all-adults group. Frankly, if you're not, I can't really see why you'd go with Ski Total, and anyone who books with them (despite the fact the meals policy is clearly stated on the website & all their brochures) with children and then complains that they can't eat with adults is just being a pain in the back bottom for the chalet staff and the other guests in all honesty.

Obviously one or two bad experiences on here but our experience of ST in the last two years has been overwhelmingly positive, and better IMO than the package/hotel deals we've had with Thomson/Crystal in the past.

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I should point out that both times we've been to higher-rated chalet hotels - 4+ star (by their ratings); maybe the 3 star ones will be shabbier/have worse food.

After all it is free

Yep I think my friend had had very good experiences previously too and that was what persuaded me to go - what has stunned us is the misrepresentation and denial of issues by Guest Relations to the extent that they won't engage in coversation - leave their responses to literally the last hour of the last day of the ABTA guidelines and are seemingly oblivious to facts and totally in denial but perhaps most surprisingly willing to do their utmost to leave customers totally unhappy. Unlike WayneC we weren't offered a pennythey even wouldn't honour the price the local staff quoted to return an ice pack by post wanting £25 + postage!

I am sure some of the in resort experiences remain good and this was perhaps an isolated instance - the real concern is the ethos and values behind the shopfront if an issue does arise

Hi Felonius a fair point but this is what their borchure says

Our food, wine, and service are just as much a feature of our simpler chalets as of our superb chalets (see below) and other top of the range properties, which you will find in many resorts.
Your ski chalet hosts are selected not just for their cooking skills – important as these undoubtedly are – but also for their friendly personality and ability to help you get the very most from your holiday with us, so if there is anything at all our resort team can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask

We had tough chicken, unreconisable sea bream, uncooked crumble bland, bizarrely combined vegatables and food slammed down on the table - the complete opposite of their promise!

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Went to Ischgl in 2011 with SKi Total and found them excellent, it was a brand new chalet and very well ran

Holiday was excellent value although we did have to fly from Gatwick so had an 8 hour drive

Help!!

Ski Total?

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