 Poster: A snowHead
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| rederic wrote: |
I know some people at Ski Famille. They say they are very surprised at the demise of Ski Esprit. In fact, many of the top people at Ski Famille have been part of Ski Esprit, so they are saddened by it, too. Anyway, they say there has been no decline in bookings and are close to being at full capacity for the season, and this includes launching a new Club Hotel with 94 beds.
https://www.skifamille.co.uk/chalets/chalet-hotel-cocon-des-neiges/
So, I think the argument that the market is declining could be false. |
'they are saddened by it' - I'd have thought Ski Famille are over the moon at the news they are going to have one less competitor.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes and a good free plug for their new Club Hotel.
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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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Not surprising given the inceasing operational challenges but Family Ski Company are also still offering chalet holiday with full flexible childcare in Portes du Soleill and 3 valleys. If you want to ski and have young children you really childcare but we can only expect availability for holidays with childcare to become much tighter.
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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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| rederic wrote: |
I know some people at Ski Famille. They say they are very surprised at the demise of Ski Esprit. In fact, many of the top people at Ski Famille have been part of Ski Esprit, so they are saddened by it, too. Anyway, they say there has been no decline in bookings and are close to being at full capacity for the season, and this includes launching a new Club Hotel with 94 beds.
https://www.skifamille.co.uk/chalets/chalet-hotel-cocon-des-neiges/
So, I think the argument that the market is declining could be false. |
Free advertising on Snowheads without permission?
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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 also am saddened by this. No, I was not a holidaymaker with Ski Esprit, I was headhunted to work for them and it was "work your nuts off, even on your rest day" but I enjoyed it and worked there for ten years or so, stopping only for medical reasons.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Snow&skifan wrote: |
| rederic wrote: |
I know some people at Ski Famille. They say they are very surprised at the demise of Ski Esprit. In fact, many of the top people at Ski Famille have been part of Ski Esprit, so they are saddened by it, too. Anyway, they say there has been no decline in bookings and are close to being at full capacity for the season, and this includes launching a new Club Hotel with 94 beds.
https://www.skifamille.co.uk/chalets/chalet-hotel-cocon-des-neiges/
So, I think the argument that the market is declining could be false. |
Free advertising on Snowheads without permission? |
Family Ski Company is a different company. Here is the website.
https://familyski.co.uk/
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| NickyJ wrote: |
| Je suis un Skieur wrote: |
I think it's a sad loss. Long story but I once ended up as a solo middle-aged male in an Esprit hotel for a week. I thought the set-up was great, everyone (kids and parents) seemed very happy and I absolutely put it on my shortlist for how I would approach skiing with kids should any female of child-bearing age still be interested.  |
I am rather disappointed to read that as was assured when we booked with them you couldnt book unless with kids (or extended family eg grandparents) |
We went once as a couple - you couldn't book on your own without kids but you could book with a group with kids, and the one we went with was about 10 sets of parents and kids. It was when they had the place opposite the Rond Point in Meribel, which was a location somewhat wasted on those not of drinking age!
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@Rhoobarb, Hotel Alba?
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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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| Jonny Jones wrote: |
| I think their business model was doomed when the government decided that the best way of improving school attendance was to hand out fines to middle-class families with high-achieving kids rather than tackle chronic non-attendance from kids with more troubled backgrounds. You can't run an profitable operation when most of your customers can only legitimately use your services for 4-5 weeks a year. |
Genuinely interested, has that been really a thing in the UK, taking your kids out of school for whole weeks on a regular basis just to go on holidays?
| Legend. wrote: |
Also brexit...the workers pool of the staff is much smaller. Half the people who helped out were Irish and so many more loopholes to jump through to employ the british staff they had which increases costs. |
That's interesting to me as well. How did they operate after Brexit? And back in the day, did they really bring on trained nannies, in the sense of people with a degree which would allow them to work in a kindergarden? How upmarket was this?
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| Nemisis wrote: |
| @Rhoobarb, Hotel Alba? |
Yes. Only went because my best mate was going. Great location but we prefer a smaller chalet and no kids. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Tristero wrote: |
| Jonny Jones wrote: |
| I think their business model was doomed when the government decided that the best way of improving school attendance was to hand out fines to middle-class families with high-achieving kids rather than tackle chronic non-attendance from kids with more troubled backgrounds. You can't run an profitable operation when most of your customers can only legitimately use your services for 4-5 weeks a year. |
Genuinely interested, has that been really a thing in the UK, taking your kids out of school for whole weeks on a regular basis just to go on holidays?
| Legend. wrote: |
Also brexit...the workers pool of the staff is much smaller. Half the people who helped out were Irish and so many more loopholes to jump through to employ the british staff they had which increases costs. |
That's interesting to me as well. How did they operate after Brexit? And back in the day, did they really bring on trained nannies, in the sense of people with a degree which would allow them to work in a kindergarden? How upmarket was this? |
Taking kids out of school - I've never seen or heard of it from eg from our French, Swedish and German friends. School is taken seriously by all. But interestingly in Schladming this last mid-December there were lots of Hungarian, Czech and Slovak families. Chatting, they had pulled their kids out of school, I assume bacause it's far cheaper before Xmas.
The nannies/chlidminders used by UK TO's in France, in our experience they had passed all levels of childcare courses at tertiary colleges. But one was a graduate in an unrelated field.
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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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Took ours out of school for 2 weeks each year, for 10 consecutive years. Late January and early March usually. Always formally requested and approved by the headteacher. Fortunate, in that there was negligible other absence.
It’s quite easy for responsible parents to make holiday trips educational. Learning is achieved through a whole variety of experiences and inputs, of which school is one.
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The timing of this is a bit odd, given that the whole of Hotelplan, including Inghams, is up for sale. One might have thought any changes would wait for the new owners to decide on future strategy.
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You know it makes sense.
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@ecureuil, it may well depend on their renewal dates for their leases to use their various chalets and on staff accommodation -- a big chalet dropped off their La Ros programme this winter (despite being sold ahead, leaving customers to be re-accomodated), their Val staff are all living in Tignes this season instead of Val as previously, and they weren't taking 24/25 bookings so it does seem this is has at least been thought about for a while.
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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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@mtsuit, And that staff accom in Tignes has got development placards on it - permis de this that and the other. Whether that happens this summer or next or next remains to be seen.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@ecureuil, A possible scenario is that the management in the UK were making their long term plans completely unaware of the disposal(s) being planned by Migros.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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OP here and have used Esprit for last 4 yrs ( were the grandparents) And with the recent news as a family we are looking at alternatives for a family ski holiday. I just found this article which I am not sure what to make of it… is there a possibility esprit may be purchased as an ongoing business or is it totally dependant on what happens with Inghams.
At the location we stayed in during jan we were told we may see a man in the building and nothing to be alarmed about, he was a senior manager in recruitment. I did have a 15minute chat with him and he was very interested in feedback which was 99% positive from me. I’m sure my 1% is not the reason Inghams/ esprit is up for sale.
https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/swiss-parent-company-puts-hotelplan-group-up-for-sale
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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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We've used Esprit since 2018 they lost some of their big hotels in covid which never came back last year we stayed in Val but it also had Inghams guests so it wasn't the same , this year we did a chalet with them but we got moved to an Inghams chalet which was ok. The loss of the brit nannies is really apparent and our kids this year skied with evolution for the whole day so the only thing Esprit dis was take the kids in the morning which got us thinking what's the point.
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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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@jimdonut, interesting, I am still expecting British Nannie’s in Italy later this month but glad to have the heads up they might not be.
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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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| mtsuit wrote: |
| @ecureuil, it may well depend on their renewal dates for their leases to use their various chalets and on staff accommodation -- a big chalet dropped off their La Ros programme this winter (despite being sold ahead, leaving customers to be re-accomodated), their Val staff are all living in Tignes this season instead of Val as previously, and they weren't taking 24/25 bookings so it does seem this is has at least been thought about for a while. |
That must bring challenges on really bad weather days, it's a long commute!
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