Rental skis - is the shop insurance worth it?

A snowHead

Trying to decide whether to buy a ski lock/ pay the shop insurance or just take our chances. As we are going twice this year I'm thinking maybe a lock would be better use of the cash, but that wouldn't stop them getting damaged.

I've never worried about it before, but on New Years day 2020 hubbies rental skis were taken from a restaurant up the mountain in Flaine, he waited an hour or so but nobody brought them back and he couldn't see any similar. Luckily one of the guys working in the restaurant had an old pair which he adjusted and loaned to hubby to get home (it would have been a long walk back to Les Carroz!).

It was very worrying, because the shop said that if we didn't get them back we'd be charged £500 - even though we had only taken red skis they said he'd been given a black pair (he had no idea), but they did give him a spare pair to see if the situation would resolve before we paid up.

So the person who had taken them by mistake went to their shop in Samoens complaining they kept falling off, that shop called our shop in Les Carroz and then the restauranteur called the shop in Samoens to say skis had been left behind at the end of the day. So we know they were taken by mistake. Hubby was asked to go back with the restaurants skis and pick up the skis from restaurant and bring them back to Les Carroz. The shops agreed to "swap".

Then this year in LDA I changed my skis midweek, and then later I picked up the wrong pair of skis outside a restaurant (because I took ones like my first pair) - I walked to the bus and was crowing about how easy they were to carry, until I realised they were 10cm shorter! I ran back and found the owner who was so lovely, although she had been worrying. I was mortified.

So, I know that someone taking skis by mistake is easily done - but can't help think that if hubby and I just swap skis and lock them all will be well.

Then there is the issue of damage - how often do people get charged by the hire shop for damaging their skis?

Any opinions? Do you take the shop insurance?

A snowHead

I mostly bring my own...but when I have occasionally hired, I would take out the shop insurance if available (which puts a cap on what you have to pay) - as unfortunate things can happen....and when in L2A did happen, when a brand new pair of hired skis were stolen. Between the shop insurance and my own insurance, I wasn't out of pocket.

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

Ultimately only you can answer that question.

Think of it this way. All the times you have hired skis before you have not paid for insurance. So how much money have you already saved? Does it cover the £500 you might be charged by the shop?

It is tricky though. We were going to self insure our cat - i.e., save the money on insurance premiums and just pay ourselves for treatment. Then we discovered he had an interest in eating stuff that could get stuck and after a £700 operation started paying insurance. I think by the time he dies it won't have made any odds - he's only been ill once since and less expensive than the op.

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Does your travel insurance cover them?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Don't know how this a question.
Simple combination cable lock ( go for a lightweight bike type one rather than the plastic ones with a very weak wire) costs a few quid and will stop idiots who take the wrong skis as well as opportunist thieves.

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Our travel insurance does cover them:

We will pay up to £500 per insured person to repair or replace winter sports equipment that you own or have hired, which is lost, stolen or
accidentally damaged during your trip.
We will pay up to £300 per insured person for the hire of winter sports equipment if the equipment that you own or originally hired is:
• Lost, stolen or accidentally damaged.
• Delayed for more than 12 hours following your arrival at your destination.
We will pay up to £200 per insured person towards replacement fees if your lift pass is lost, stolen or accidentally damaged.

We won’t pay for:

2. Any claim for winter sports equipment:
• That is lost, stolen or damaged as a result of your deliberate, wilful or malicious act, carelessness or neglect.
• That is confiscated, detained or delayed by Customs or other officials.
• That is caused by consumable items.
• That is caused by wear and tear or loss of value, moths or vermin or any cleaning, repairing or restoring process.
• That is left unattended, unless it is locked in a ski locker that only you have access to or secured to a ski rack with a lock.
• That is more than five years old.
3. Any claim for Piste Closure or Avalanche

we only hire "red" skis so hopefully £500 would be enough and we can buy locks to satisfy that requirement

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After all it is free

I had my rental skis stolen on the PIPAU bash. I had taken out the shops own insurance - which was 2 euros a day, so cost me 12 Euros.

When I went to the shop to report the theft, they were good and explained what happened next. They 'gave' me another set of identical skis to complete the rental period. They then explained that the insurance basically limits your liability to 300 Euros. So I was on the hook for 300Euros - in addition to the (about) 140 Euros weekly rental. So the total credit card bill at the end of the week was 440Euros.

If I hadn't taken out the insurance then I would have been charged the replacement value of the skis and bindings. These are the skis, and I knew they were brand new this season -
https://www.salomon.com/en-gb/shop-emea/product/s-race-sl-pro-and-x12-li3602.html

So looks like that 12Euros shop insurance may have saved me something like £700. I had no idea the skis were that expensive.

My own personal insurance may cover me for the 300euro excess - but it wouldn't have covered the full £1000 loss if I hadn't had the shop's insurance.

And by the way - if you report the theft to the police to get the police report - take your passport. Not a copy of it - your genuine passport. They won't do the report without it.

Thanks - I've just booked the skis without the insurance but will ask them how much the replacement value is - more that £500 I'll be taking their insurance out - but we hire red skis through discounter, which generally means we get their dregs (though I guess in January they might be newer than we are used to).

Just checked the "example" ski I've hired (Dynastar E-Lite 2) seems they are less than £400 brand new with bindings and the mens (Head Shape V2 R) are about the same, so all good!

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I have a simple carrying strap, love them or hate them. I wind it round my skis at lunchtime. Visual deterrent to stop mistaken identity.
When skiing with a partner, we swap skis and put them at least 10m apart.
So far so good.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Yes swapping a ski over with a mate stops the mistaken identity hire ski issue, unless someone else happens to be skiing on mismatched rental skis!
A couple of places I've hired from in the past have put a piece of masking tape on the ski top with your name on it. This really helps if there is group of you with similar skis.

On the mountain, in the vast majority of resorts outright theft is very rare. There are places where leaving your ski outside an "in town" apres bar is asking for trouble.

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I have always taken the insurance available with Bestpriceskirental. Having had teenage boys leave ski's outside pubs overnight or trashed the edges on rocks it has been worth it. I think the restaurant at the top of Flaine is a favourite for ski's being taken, my wife had the same issue. You pay the shop and claim it back, they have always been excellent

@skimummk, "Then this year in LDA I changed my skis midweek, and then later I picked up the wrong pair of skis outside a restaurant (because I took ones like my first pair) - I walked to the bus and was crowing about how easy they were to carry, until I realised they were 10cm shorter! I ran back and found the owner who was so lovely, although she had been worrying. I was mortified."

Very Happy

It's more common than realised. Hired family skis often from a couple of shop in Morillon, chatting to owners about stories of things like this, and almost every day there's something happening. All the shops in the valley know each others equipment and arrange to swap it back when wrong. Some had even come back from a "good lunch" restaurant experience and ridden down on the chair (wisely it seems) without any skis at all Very Happy

With hire ski its not always memorable which skis you've got when faced with a whole bunch of them layed out on the floor. Usually the shop identify stickers help, but less so if you're near the shop with many the same in all but size from their hire fleet.

As you've done, Worthwhile clarification of the risk in what you'd have to pay will let you understand if you want to take insurance.

Met someone that always put a luminous spot sticker on hire skis to easily identify them when parked, or to see if someone else was picking them up to leave with wrong ski.
Also someone outside restaurant in Ste Foy completely blanked about skis arrived on, more or less trying likely suspects to find them by default, most of the customers joined in by identifying theirs to leave only a very limited possibility pool Very Happy

You know it makes sense.

@Judwin, That is exactly what happened to me. My Insurance would not have covered the full cost of the then brand new Salomon Crossmax 10 Pilot which I hired that year, but it did cover the excess.

Apparently there was a gang stealing skis on a daily basis from the restaurant at the mid station (where all the ski schools met), which I wish the shop had warned me about - rather than after they'd been stolen.

Apparently the shop itself didn't have insurance for skis that were lost, which surprised me.

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

Always took out insurance when hired for kids - so many similar pairs that an accidental taking was not uncommon

A cheap retractable lock helps, won't stop a thief but will stop accidents

A snowHead

What is incredible is the care put into choosing ski length and setting binding correctly, yet people can put a totally different boot in and happily ski off!

A snowHead

@skimummk, yes take insurance, I had my hire Rossi’s taken, in error I think at the end of my first day in 2022 in Canazei, there was another pair of same colour but not as good ones with hire sticker on for another resort on the Sella Ronda. I took them to my hire shop, who gave me a new pair without any question as I’d taken their insurance. When I finished my week, the original ones still hadn’t turned up, still no charge, at €2 a day it’s seems good value for money in my opinion.
I now use a Velcro strap to bind my skis together as a deterrent, I may start using a lock as I ski solo mainly now.

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

Both
Swap one ski each & lock together (2x locks).
Insurance is if someone is desperate for crappy rental skis that they take them anyway! Which will leave you stranded.
Locks are a deterrent at best, but at least stops someone picking them up by mistake.

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@Gored, Dunno where you've hired from, but the hire skis @Alleghe and Arabba are very good.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

My feelings about insurance in general are that you shouldn't buy it except for things you wouldn't be able to afford. Because when you pay for something, someone will be making a profit out of it somewhere, and it won't be you.

If the customer was making the profit in the long run on ski hire insurance, wouldn't the hire shops just increase the price of the insurance to prevent that?

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@Orange200,

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

After all it is free

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[quote="phil_w"]

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

You could take a photograph of the skis locked up each time you stop. It’s probably only at lunchtime so not too much faff.

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A little bit of talk on here about locks. Here's my thoughts and a suggestion.

A lock won't stop a thief who really wants your skis. But hopefully it will stop them being taken by accident or deter a thief to look elsewhere.

You can buy proper locks and I'm sure you've seen them. The plastic case ones with the wire that pulls out with a bullet nipple.

My suggestion which I think is better and may be helpful. A simple bit of wire cable as per the picture and a padlock. Pop the padlock around your ski brake on the closed loop bit between the brake to binding hinge and under boot plate, then run the cable from the padlock around what ever and back. You might need two locks depending on how you want to do the other ski/brake. Ideally, swap a ski with someone else also.

Benefit of doing it this way is that even if someone cuts the cable (which is quite easy to do with cutters) the lock itself is still on the ski brake making it hard if not impossible for someone to simply put their boot in. It's unlikely they will cut the lock. Next best option for the thief is to remove the brake but that normally requires tools.

Help!!

Rental skis - is the shop insurance worth it?

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