Best time to book accomodation for next year?

A snowHead

Hi All,

I am looking to book accomodation for Feb half term next year. I am looking at family resorts eg avoriaz, flaine, les gets etc. There doesn't seem to be that much available - on another thread someone mentioned that usually the accomodation gets released after the summer season - is this still the case even with the pandemic?

Also stranglely pierree vacances will only allow saturday to saturday bookings after late January is this normal?

Thanks

A snowHead

Feb Half-Term for the season 21/22 is already booking out fast so I'd get your skates on. Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun usually standard for "High" season and most customers want 7 Day packages.

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

Oh really

I was looking in January and had a few bookings cancelled as it was too far ahead!

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I have booked an Air BNB - fingers crossed its not rejected / cancelled. I have made a bit of an error as our flights are Thursday to Thursday. I haven't been skiing for almost 10 years and I didn't realise everything was so focused for Sat - Sat.

When should I be looking to book ski lessons? I need village des enfants for a 3 year old and morning ski school for my other two kids (7 & Cool

. I understand these will probably run Sun - Fri, so we will miss the Friday lesson which i am ok about. Looking on ESF website its saying "No offer corresponding" when i search for lessons.

Thanks

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We have ours booked for a good while and even when we booked it many came back saying that they were already booked for our half term week. However some people were saying that with all the uncertainties they weren’t committing to bookings yet so hopefully you will find stuff. Also Sunweb didn’t have all their places showing for Feb Halfterm when we booked it.

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@jimmytwoburgers, I am currently looking for Monday to Monday for New year (or flying out on 27th) so far every person I have tried on AirBnB has said we only take sat or sun change over.

Try Sunweb as that offers lots of different start dates and also the prices include lift pass

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

Like @NickyJ, I've had my half term holiday booked in for a few months now. I wouldn't normally look until about September time (e.g. Les Gets Reservations don't normally release most of their properties until then), but things seemed to be moving fast so I wanted to make sure I had something sorted.

Fingers crossed your Airbnb doesn't get cancelled. If I was a landlord, I wouldn't be letting out Thur-Thur during half term!

After all it is free

I think you are correct @jimmytwoburgers, about the accommodation not being released until after the summer season.

Normally the rental agency we use to rent out our apartment in Les Arcs doesn't even begin asking if we want to use them until September and I suspect that they don't get a full list of availablity ready until November. when the first bookings start drifting in. I think most of our bookings for the 4 weeks of midwinter holidays arrive in December.

So, like many others our apartment is not on the market yet.

Having said I should point out that we are in a predominately French resort and the vast majority of our bookings are to French people. I don't think we have had a single English booking. The renting out to the English may be a completely different marget with different behaviour.

It is normal to rent out the whole season on a Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday basis but you may be able to negotiate somthing different at a different price. Expect to pay twice as much for a Thursday to Thursday booking as Saturday to Saturday

@jimmytwoburgers, you might struggle for ski school because they are unlikely to take you at the "end" of the previous week. To be honest, your best bet could be to change your flights. Maybe look at Christmas or Easter in a high resort.

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Oh no - really worried now! When i used to go we always avoided peak times and just went when the filights were cheapest so never considered the sat to sat point. Do the french tend to book Sat to Sat too? They wouldn't book Thur - Sun for example?

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@jimmytwoburgers, French are very tied to Sat-Sat stays, they rarely book short breaks in high season. You will probably have to either get a private lesson for the beginning of your stay for the little ones, as lessons will usually start on a Sunday. Ski test day is usually Friday, so they will miss getting their badges. Organising a creche for the little one might be OK though.

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I am ok with lessons with starting on a Sunday. It gives us 3 days to chill out, get used to the place, play in the snow and sort out kit etc. I think now the accomodation will be a problem. I wondered why I wasn't seeing much. Just looking on sunweb now...

One option is to book into a hotel in the valley and drive up to resort but car parks will be very busy during the French holidays.

You know it makes sense.

@jimmytwoburgers, I've booked through Ernalow for February HT for third time now. I booked Le Panoramic Flaine as it's right on the slopes (next to Grand Vans, ski to door and has an underground car park). It does seem you have to wait longer for self catering to come out around May which I find frustrating as I'm a loser who likes to be booked up at least a year in advance!

Usually sort out ski School and lift passes myself as there's usually a lift pass offer.

I'll go it totally solo soon but with uncertainty makes sense to have the ABTA/ATOL for now.

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

@james77 I always book a year in advance too! I had the perfect Courchevel package booked for this Easter, I booked it 1.5 year in advance. Unfortuntly as Easter is later next year they arent doing it. Which made me book flight only for Feb and got me in this situation. I tried booking accomodation back in Jan and a few got cancelled because it was too far in advance and a lot of booking sites wouldn't even let me get as far as Feb on the web page. I was informed most accomodation doesn't get added until after summer so I stopped looking. Now i am panicing a bit! I do much prefer a package, espcially as its the first time as a family. I may have to ditch the flights and look at easter again - higher up for better snow. Everything is just coming up really expensive. My easter package to Courchevel was 2.8k I can't get anything as good for anywhere near as that

A snowHead

@jimmytwoburgers, I'm relatively new to self catering I've used many family friendly chalet co's, however, when kids went to school I decided that c£8k was too much for a week in HT the same holiday being c£2k the week before or after and I actually find self catering to be more relaxing and family orientated. I'm not their biggest fan (or on the payroll) but ErnaLow have availability so might be worth a call.

A snowHead

@jimmytwoburgers, Feb half term is by far the most expensive week. Christmas or Easter are much cheaper.

I have managed to get them to circa £1k per head with a lot of work for half term and booking about a year in advance

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

@jimmytwoburgers, I normally book our Easter trip accommodation over the summer through Airbnb or the like - as it's hard to get the balance of missing out on something good, and waiting till all the apartments are available to book.

I'd been monitoring it over late spring and had my eye on a few options - but looked the other day, and realised that most had been booked up. Thankfully I managed to still get a good apartment but it was the last that fitted my criteria and was in my price range (in fact I paid a little more than normal). All that is left now are much more expensive options.

Maybe I've gone too early and more will become available - but my hunch is that I haven't and the good value apartments will go early, and it could be expensive for those that have strict criteria and wait too long.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@jimmytwoburgers, Is driving or getting the train an option? It's a LOT cheaper than Feb half term flights.

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100% separate. I can pm you though some of my methods don’t work now - eg BA has stopped the flight pass

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

After all it is free

As its the first family trip (and we live in North Yorkshire) I would rather not drive. I just think we will all be exhausted. I kind of want the first holiday to be as easy and stress free as possible!

@jimmytwoburgers, As you are planning on going on Thursday anyway, take it easy. We travel from Durham regularly, and if you are going to those resorts, it isn't too far. Plan to get to Eurotunnel around lunchtime, and then stop overnight. Share the driving. The further you can get the better but we usually head for Reims/Epernay/ then have a nice meal, a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed, and drive on next morning. Either find night 2 in a valley town close to your resort, or find something from Fri up the mountain. It's really not tiring and so much more relaxed.
Our most stressful trips involved airports when our kids were small.

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@Hells Bells, I have already got the flights booked to Geneva for Thursday to Thursday. I could hire a car at the airport and drive up to the slopes each day but its not the stress free holiday i was hoping for Laughing

you
@Mjit, I know what you mean and I can see the reason why. I just wasn't aware that it was that rigid! You make a good a good point though. Even if i can't move the flights I could stay in Geneva Thur - Sat, then book accomodation Sat - Sat with a view of checking out on Thursday! Two nights down the drain but might be an option

@jimmytwoburgers, last time I looked there were reasonably priced flights to Basel and Lyon to half term (that is from Gatwick)

You know it makes sense.

How are you going ti get back to the airport on a Thursday? Most transfer services run weekends so that's pribably another day off your skiing dealing with logistics.

Hatevto say it but sucking up the change fees might be your best option for an easy life and choice of accomodation. I might stick it out with a rental car and drive from an inconvenient place but then I din't have kids to wrangle.

There may be some wildcards like Chamonix where transfers are much easier and accomodation more flexible. UANN can give you the take on the accomodatiin market there.

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

A snowHead

A snowHead

Driving from Yorkshire with kids not used to long-distance driving wouldn't be my choice, for a week's holiday (and I've driven solo to and from the Alps lots of times, with no problem; "solo" being the key word wink

). When my kids were younger they'd have hated the long drive, especially fighting over who wasn't going to sit in the middle in the back. On the other hand they generally enjoyed airports - flying was quite a novelty, there's plenty to see and for the little ones, only strapped into a seat for a short time. We did coach once - it was half the price of flying and I offered them the option of flying if they wanted to pay the difference from their pocket money. They didn't. Coach was overnight, they slept a lot and watched a somewhat inappropriate film with lots of swearing. And we had two extra days skiing. I'd always go for Easter over half term. Far shorter lift queues, longer days, and in somewhere like Tignes, plenty of snow to go at. Cold beers on a sunny terrace..... snowHead

Even when I had an apartment in a French ski resort for fifteen years I only skied at half term once, because family visitors could do no other time. For a successful first ski holiday with kids the quality of the ski school experience is very important - I'd prioritise somewhere they could ski in small groups (more expensive, but.......) and get the satisfaction of the progress they can make in a week, and getting those all-important badges at the end.

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

My youngest is only 3 - I am just thinking doing multiple hotels might be too much hassle. Plus if I hire a car will then I will need to worry about snow chains etc.

I think Easter is looking a better idea. I would be looking at 9th April. There is no issue with ski schools / kindergaten ski shools still running that late in the season is there?

Then maybe I can do something else with my existing flights - a city break!

Thanks

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As I've mentioned in the past, the solution to Feb half term 2022 flights is to book some BA flights for July or August this year, that are highly likely to get cancelled. Then move them (as you're entitled to do, without any fare difference) to any flight within 365 days.

A bit of diligence with the timetable will enable you to see what flights are running this month (which is a good indication of the flights that you should AVOID), and which are scheduled in 2 months time. For example, LCY/GVA has generally been cancelled, and the late evening and very early morning flights LHR/GVA are also typically cancelled.

Cancellations happen about 4-8weeks out. If your flight isn't cancelled, you can always cancel it yourself and get a voucher valid for 2+years, but you can't take the "move to any alternative date for free" option unless BA cancels.

You don't need to pay list price for a half term flight. The Easyjet flexi fare loophole worked for 3 yrs, then BA Flight Pass, now this. There's always something.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@snowdave, I was wondering about suggesting that. Does take a bit of bravery though.

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

After all it is free

@jimmytwoburgers, if you hire a car on the Swiss side of Geneva airport you'll have snow tyres, which makes it less likely you'll need chains. But you should have chains too - if it never snowed in April Easter skiing would be crap.

@jimmytwoburgers, apologies, I hadn't noticed your children's ages. It needs a relatively painless solution.

Apart from "give up and choose new dates" you could possibly look at a hotel in resort for two nights since hotels are usually more flexible. Still a hassle but at least location and ski hire are the same.

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Best time to book accomodation for next year?

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