 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Alastair Pink, that is a great shame, i worked for them for a few seasons in the mid 90's in meribel, and loved the experience.
Len Silver, who started the business was a larger than life character, when he carried out my interview, that seemed to go on for a couple of hours it was mainly about his experience during WW2 as a schoolkid, with about another 10 mins informing me about my maintenance/driving duties!!!
I must admit, I had been trying to find out how they were doing, but their website has been down since last summer.
I was tempted to have a last minute bargain to La Tania last march, but it turned out to be the week that everything closed down, so would have been returning the same day flying out.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I must say I have never checked out the ATOL license. If the website, and it is mostly for me, has the ABTA, ATOL logo I have just booked. Time for me to do more research before parting with my hard earned.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Isn't the purpose of ATOL to get you home if things go pear shaped whilst you're away? I don't think it covers refunds.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We had some superb holidays with silver Ski. Len honoured us with his presences one day, shadowing a ski host. I found them a very honest and honorable company to deal with. What a shame.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Frosty the Snowman, 
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If the website has been down since last summer, it suggests the writing was on the wall. Does anybody know if they took bookings since then? or if they refunded/issued credit notes for last year cancellations?
I don't suppose membership is cheap. Maybe they just let the ATOL license lapse until they knew how the ground lay for this season and into next year's. Might have just made the decision that it's not worth trying to carry on.
Far better and honest than taking bookings and letting people down later in the year.
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I worked for them in 05/06 when they had 3 chalets in Reberty. I had noticed the website was down. They weren't flash by any means (the website was barely fit for the 2000s!), and the staff worked their socks off. Their brand of enthusiastic more mature staff paid dividends I'm sure. I think they offered real value for money. The luckiest guests got great grub prepared on a shoestring budget, plus fantastic ski hosting (That would be me!  ). In my row of 3 chalets in 05/06-I was working in the middle one. Next door downhill the guests had the privilege of meals prepared by an Aussie-previous personal chef to the Prime Minister of Australia, and whose restaurant had also won Restaurant of the Year in NSW. Pete (chef) and Terri his girlfriend could rustle up fantastic grub even if all he had was a lettuce and a lump of cheese.
The budget for food, daily bread, cleaning materials and bog roll was 34 euros per week for adults and 17 euros for kids, (at a time when there were about 1.4 euros to £1) and we staff ate out of that as well!
I do wonder whether that days of that sort of chalet holiday were numbered, even before Brexit and Covid.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Perty, I also worked with Peter and Terri when they moved to Sainte Foy a couple of years later!
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We had an email from them back in the summer saying they wouldn't be operating this season, but planned to be back for 21/22.
Real shame, enjoyed some great holidays with them.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@stevomcd, I heard that that Pete and Terri ventured a bit more upmarket after their Silverski experience. I think that was their first european season after which they realised that they could do a lot better. Scary to think that this was 15 years ago!
My uniform (which we were allowed to wear when hosting back then) consisted of unisex bright blue trousers and a garish (even for 2006) hand-me-down largish Silverski jacket, somewhat faded. I was rather jealous of the guys and gals who worked for Ski Olympic down the road who had much sleeker outfits. In my case this was topped off with "the pink bobble hat" (pre helmet days) which I still own.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Perty, we stayed in the Reberty chalets twice. Great food, staff, laughs and position, spoiled only by piste bashers start-up at 4am. I remember a ski host, older fella, skied in a cowboy hat.
On the first trip we had to call an ambulance for our son who was suffering a trachea spasm. Scary stuff.
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@Perty, that could have been my jacket from my last season in 98/99, it had seen better days even then 
I think I still have my blue silver ski sweater somewhere, though i could probably just get one arm in to it now!!!!!
our budget was a meagre 220 francs per adult, must admit cannot remember kids budget, in general the chalet staff did a fantastic job. But apart from the odd guest who thought they were going to get a Rolls Royce service after paying for a mini metro, I cannot remember any complaints about what the guests received.
i once had to do an early saturday morning transfer from la clusaz to geneva, i was told to travel over and stay on the friday night. after dinner one of the chalet staff showed me a copy of a letter from Len Silver to a previous guest who had complained about the lack of cooked breakfast, cheese board at dinner and lack of on demand transport to and from the slopes/bars to the chalet (even though the brochure was perfectly clear on what was provided).
the language would have made dockworker blush, as the youngun's would say to today "he tore them a new one"
when i first started in 95/96 they had several chalets in the following resorts Meribel (including village and les allues) La Tania, courcheval le praz, 1850 and 1650 and La plagne. A few in val d'isere and one each in verbier and la clusaz.
year on year after that they were reducing the number of resorts (verbier and la clusaz finished while i was stilll working with them).
val d'isere went not long after that, they seemed to be streamlining all the time, and from what i could see just ended up concentrating on La Tania and La plagne.
it has looked like the writing has been on the wall for them for several years now, with the relative ease of organizing DIY and France banning "ski hosting" hasn't helped them.
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You know it makes sense.
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'Silver Ski' isn't a great name really...
Sounds like 2nd best for the over 50's who couldn't afford 'Gold Ski'
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Only went to one of their places once (Plagne 1800). The chalet and the staff were great and we had fab holiday. Sad news
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Poster: A snowHead
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According to their Companies House filing up to March 2020 (approved by the "board" on 1st October), they had under £22K in their P&L account (2019: £1.4m), and a revaluation reserve of £803K (2019: £1.28m) which is almost certainly the properties they own, for total shareholder funds of £875K (2019: £2.7m) including £50K of share capital. In March 2019 they declared a loss of £127K.
In 2019, they employed 55 people.
With a total of two directors aged 89 and 66, they may simply have decided that now was a good time to call it a day.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@red 27, Len Silver, being the founder of the company may have been a clue to the name
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Such a pity, they were a great company, we had several holidays with them and it was made clear that the staff should be treated with respect and a helping hand would not go amiss, which stood us in good stead when doing other chalet holidays, the office team were super helpful. Loved the chocolate if you made your bed
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I had several good holidays with Silver Ski in La Plagne and Val d'Isere. They were good value.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I think I've been with Silverski four or five times, perfect for me, no frills but friendly service.
Between Brexit & covid, it was a perfect storm for them & other chalet companies.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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What a shame had some good holidays with them in courcheval 1350.
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| Perty wrote: |
The budget for food, daily bread, cleaning materials and bog roll was 34 euros per week for adults and 17 euros for kids, (at a time when there were about 1.4 euros to £1) and we staff ate out of that as well!
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That explains why this is a product designed, produced and consumed exclusively by the British.
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The food we had on all of our Silver Ski holidays was delicious. Certainly of good restaurant standard. Honestly couldn't fault it....and I like food
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Frosty the Snowman, it was, they had some very good cooks, simple but good and always more than enough.
When was the pound last at 1.4? 2005?
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Oh that makes me sad. I worked for them same season as Perty but i was in La Plagne. They were great to work for and you would be surprised how far the budget went in France. Bread and wine were outside of budget. Think the wine was described in the brochure as ‘perfectly drinkable plonk’. Bread was delivered daily to the door. We weren’t allowed to cook anything you could eat on the mountain (so no cheap pasta or tartiflette options) and we had to do a full Roast on Sunday! We also had to clean to a standard i haven't seen since in chalets at 3am on changeover day, back to bed for a shower and a nap and then get up and stand and wave at all the buses coming up the hill with new guests! Great times.
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Tue 16-03-21 10:24; edited 1 time in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| radar wrote: |
@Frosty the Snowman, it was, they had some very good cooks, simple but good and always more than enough.
When was the pound last at 1.4? 2005? |
April 27, 2015 (I have to track these things for work!)
Heading that way again - 1.293 to the pound this morning.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Me too 
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You know it makes sense.
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@LOTA, is that the wholesale rate? Best market rate I can see is 1.15814
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Would be hell of a margin to get a difference between retail and wholesale rates like that.
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Poster: A snowHead
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We called the wine “Chateau Cardboard”. Back then there were two owners of the business. Len Silver was one half, and another middle aged couple whose names escape me, but who took responsibility of the 3V chalets and possibly the Val D’Isere chalets- they might have actually owned the Val d’Isere places. I think they then got out of the business and sold their chalets.
We cleaned like demons. The word was that Helen- Len’s ex wife, who was based in La Plagne, was vile to staff and could be equally curt with guests. Our gang in Les Men consisted of 3 staff per chalet (each slept 19), one “floater” who rotated between each chalet, a resort “manager” and her husband -Carol and Terry. I think we were the first season where there dropped the staff down to 3 rather than 4 per chalet. I ended up as ski host by default, though I had applied for and been offered a cook’s job. I worked with 2 Aussie brothers who, for reasons I think to do with lack of EU acceptable NI numbers, were required to be a little less visible. I still cooked a couple of days, just because I wanted to, and because I’d blown 4K on a 10 cordon bleu course in preparation! I had hoped to have had some daytime headspace that way, which the hosting job, coupled with assisting with meals etc just didn’t offer.
However, I did get to ski every day, and learned my way round the 3V. One day off I walked along the river to St Martin and saw another side to the area which most 1 week per year skiers never see. We’ve been lucky enough to ski in all sorts of resorts and countries since, but thanks to that season, (only) 13 years later we ended up buying a place out there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@ster, point well made
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Swiss franc?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I remember working briefly for Silverski.
Len was furious when we were all knackered and missed waving at the new guest's arriving once.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@LOTA, I'd scrap your bulletin - it's not been anywhere near that for a considerable time...
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| Perty wrote: |
| I worked with 2 Aussie brothers who, for reasons I think to do with lack of EU acceptable NI numbers, were required to be a little less visible. |
I was once told that there was a gentlemen's agreement that Australians could work in the 3V but not anywhere else.
Had several good holidays with Silver Ski.
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@ousekjarr, Correction made after re-reading this morning's update! Missed out a .1!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Perty wrote: |
I worked for them in 05/06 when they had 3 chalets in Reberty. I had noticed the website was down. They weren't flash by any means (the website was barely fit for the 2000s!), and the staff worked their socks off. Their brand of enthusiastic more mature staff paid dividends I'm sure. I think they offered real value for money. The luckiest guests got great grub prepared on a shoestring budget, plus fantastic ski hosting (That would be me! ). In my row of 3 chalets in 05/06-I was working in the middle one. Next door downhill the guests had the privilege of meals prepared by an Aussie-previous personal chef to the Prime Minister of Australia, and whose restaurant had also won Restaurant of the Year in NSW. Pete (chef) and Terri his girlfriend could rustle up fantastic grub even if all he had was a lettuce and a lump of cheese.
The budget for food, daily bread, cleaning materials and bog roll was 34 euros per week for adults and 17 euros for kids, (at a time when there were about 1.4 euros to £1) and we staff ate out of that as well!
I do wonder whether that days of that sort of chalet holiday were numbered, even before Brexit and Covid. |
Just looked and it was Jan 06 when we stayed in Romeo, that was the ambulance call incident. Easter 07 we stayed in the Chalet Next door.
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| radar wrote: |
| @LOTA, is that the wholesale rate? Best market rate I can see is 1.15814 |
Pfft. I can get 1.1631. It's the mid price, no offer/bid spread
The only downside to the account is I can only withdraw £200 in cash per month, otherwise there is a 1% charge, but the account has a visa debit card linked to it, and unlimited currencies.
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