How to book a group trip?

A snowHead

OK so I've found some ski buddies snowHead

- there will be 4 of us (mature ladies) and we're ready to book a trip. Please could anyone advise us on the best way to proceed?

1). We would ideally like to all book and pay separately for ourselves rather than one person booking everything and collecting payment from the others. This seems the least troublesome way just in case someone ends up having to cancel or whatever other issues that could arise when money between friends (who met on the Internet and don't really know each other that well yet) comes up.

2). One of us would prefer a single room. The 3 others would prefer to share to save money. This is a little awkward because ideally we'd have 2 pairs sharing. Because there doesn't seem to be much additional savings for 3 people together rather than 2? But if the person who wants a single room sticks to that we'll just have to get a triple. Only thing is, a lot of triples seem to involve 2 beds and a less comfortable sleeper sofa - is that correct?

3). We'd like to go to Italy and preferably somewhere great for intermediates - lots of cruisy slopes rather than blacks. We're budget conscious also. Any suggestions please?

Thank you for any advice ypu can give us!

A snowHead

@tanyastories, is it worth looking at 2/3 bed apartment options?

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

Thanks TheMikeSki - only thing is, one of the group members is not into self-catering.

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@tanyastories, and there's the rub...tough. apartment and eat out?

How about a snowheads bash?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

The Crystal website search allows you to specify rooming arrangements. A quick look shows some Italy options returned based on one 1 single room, and a triple.

Aggregate operators e.g. igluski, ski solutions would do a search for you too.

Lots of operators will also give you a price breakdown, and everyone can pay themselves against a single booking reference.

And yes, several showheads bashes would have the mix of rooms you want too - and you each pay your own!

You'll need to Register first of course.

How are you going to book a triple room or an apartment and pay all individually unless you find an owner operator as hotels/management cos/booking sites dont really go for that. Cuts down your choices.

Then one wants a single, another (same one?) doesn’t like self catering (thats where saving are to be made).

Why do you want to go with them, especially if you hardly know them? Sounds too much like hard work.

Ditch those one/two, keep one that will share, book somewhere between the two of you. Tell the other two where you are going and say hopefully see you there.

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

@tanyastories, agree that you're right to have each person pay for their part individually.

Having organised many group ski trips, that was the easiest way to proceed, makes for less complicated outcome if there's insurance claim needed. Variously, and prior to ski trip, a broken arm, lost passport (delayed travel) illness are some that came up, requiring the person to claim on their insurance to resolve. Infinitely more difficult for their insurance to get involved if they've just got to pay a friend back.

Logically separate the commitments such that it won't matter, makes it easier for everyone.

I'd sell the self catering compromise on the basis that you can eat out anywhere of your choice (no moaning about the food supplied) as there's often a good atmosphere too to dining out. Free to eat more or less throughout the day (nice lunch if that's your style) without feeling you have to eat significantly on arrival back at accommodation. The flexibility is a bonus in places with decent local choice. Walk out to boulangerie before lifts open for bread, pastry etc is a nice fresh start to the day.

Everyone won't be happy all the time with choices made, you're going to need a gentle persistence in seeking out adventure to get all going in the right direction. It's not the end of the world if sometimes wrong, try and bring humour to it.

Its a good fun trip to make though, always brings good memories and experiences to recall. Nice to get all out in different atmosphere to daily life too.

After all it is free

Thanks for all the replies. I do think this is going to shape up to be a good group and I'd like to stick with them. For example, one of the members is a very patient and chilled former ski instructor and as I'm just an early intermediate skier it will be brilliant for me to ski with her. We've all met in person now and got on really well so I think it will be a good time.

Having considered everything, I think the best compromise is probably going to be me booking a single room also. That way I can book and pay separately as can the other solo woman and the two who want to share can share. There are obviously advantages to having my own room and as we're looking for a reasonably priced trip overall it should still come out as affordable.

The others have already compromised massively for me (dates and preferred country) so this seems fair enough. I dont think I'll be able to negotiate on the self-catering unfortunately. And very sadly, the bashes don't work with our dates (maybe next year, though).

@tanyastories, do you know which week, or options for different weeks, you intend to go?

How are you planning to travel there?

Would you consider others joining you to make a larger group, or prefer to stick with the 4?

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Hi @PeakyB would you be interested in potentially joining? One of the group members wants everyone to meet in person first before we go...we're in the Northwest flying from Manchester week of the 8th Feb.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

We do a work trip, around 10 people for 3-4 days skiing. Varying abilities from beginner to expert.

What seems to work is one person takes the lead and picks a resort and hotel that has plenty of space. Get a core of 3-4 to book and the rest follow.

Agree destination airport and let everyone book their own flights. Again, if a small core group agree on a flight, the rest can follow with similar flight times. Transfers can be sorted nearer the time.

Have a WhatsApp group for the endless faff but really it's up to individuals to book, shared rooms or not share etc

Not for everyone but for this particular group it works best with half board hotels. Plenty on offer in Austria.

Good luck!

snow reports

Apologies, I only skimmed the opening post.

4 mature ladies... You can probably afford to be more organised and accommodating than my example above, which is suitable for 10 or so dithering 30-50 yr old men!

@tanyastories,

You know it makes sense.

I can only see you find somewhere with 3 bedrooms or a building where you can book a studio + a 1 bedroom apartment.
Does studio person expect to chill out every evening in groups apartment? Seems unfair.

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

Off the top of my head, the Aosta Valley bases, such as Pila, La Thuile..... Milky Way resorts like Sestriere or better value villages in the Dolomites, such as in Val di Fassa, would be good places to search.

Other more specific suggestions will follow I'm sure.

A snowHead

@tanyastories, I think if your group definitely wants to go catered and one definitely wants a single room, then it would be beneficial to get a 5th person on board. One who is willing to share a twin room.

4 people sharing 2 twin rooms + 1 other in a single room is a more attractive proposition to a package/chalet operator.

Needing 2 single rooms would greatly reduce your choices, as well as costing more.

Same principle applies if you had 7 total, 9 total, etc. Once you get to 7+ the possibilities of having a catered chalet to yourselves increase a bit. That said, catered chalets are relatively scarce in Italy, they’re much more a French thing and even then, far less choice than a few years ago.
Otherwise, having 7+can give you a bit more leverage with hotels.

Second week in Feb is a very popular time, so the quicker you get looking the more choice you should have. Good luck.

If you’re group gels and you wanted another go next year, I’d recommend the snowHeads Pre Birthday Warm up Week, which is in Alleghe, last week of January.

Lovely hotel, very good food, mellow ski area, opportunities for great day trips, stunning scenery
and excellent value. Oh and a chance to add on a day or two in Venice, if you like that sort of thing.

A snowHead

@tanyastories, Jet 2 flies Manchester to Salzburg on those dates and at pretty reasonable prices. Your very specific requirements would be served by many of the Austrian pensions. Lots of them offer HB options or just B&B. I'd have a look at Ski Welt or Ski Amade for areas with lots of cruising. The local tourist office have loads of accommodation options. Here is a link to the Flachau page after I put your requirements into the search engine. Worth a look.
https://www.flachau.com/winter/unterkuenfte/?date_start=2025-02-08&date_end=2025-02-15&units=3&occupancy_1_adults=2&occupancy_1_children=&occupancy_2_adults=1&occupancy_2_children=&occupancy_3_adults=1&occupancy_3_children=#search-target-acco

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

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Those sound really good value @luigi, thank you. I do agree the solo should pay more...probably quite a bit more, but agreeing the amount might be difficult.

I really wish we could go the week before, as the birthday bash would be absolutely ideal.

I'm now really thinking about a solo room for myself, actually. In case someone pulls out, or gets a bad cold, or just to have a bit of alone time. I'm finding some places where two sharers would pay £1000 each and then solo in the same hotel is £1500. I think I'm OK with that. Val de Fassa has some of these and looks like I could get to Sella Ronda from there which I'd really like to try.

I also agree a package would be best. Thanks for all the responses.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Just checking DIY to see if it can be done cheaper:

Jet2 MAN-VRN 8-15 Feb £163pp return plus baggage, seats, etc, say £200pp

Villa Clara, Alba di Canazei 3* B&B 300m from lifts to Ciampac and Sella Ronda.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mzJj8c7qShaRCkyn6

£1681 for 3 sharing a Quad room (1DBL, 2SGL), so £560pp if 3 were to share. Prices are from Booking.com.

£1024 for a Double room for the singletons/sharers, so £512 for sharers. There may be a cheaper price for single use if you contacted hotel directly.

You would have to eat out in the evening...£40pp x7= £280pp

Transfers not sure, but car hire compact SUV for 7days is around £140-150, plus fuel tolls = £200, so £50pp

200+512+280+50= £1042 for sharers and £1554 for singletons, so no real saving from what you found.

Val di Fassa is the name of the valley with a number of individual villages. It can be a good spot, but some hotels are a bus ride away from the lifts and the lifts can be busy first thing at Campitello & Canazei, so bear that in mind.

The hotel at Alba that I found was walkable to two large capacity lifts that rarely have queues. You can see one of the lifts in the pics.

You'll need to Register first of course.

This is link to Crystal: https://www.crystalski.co.uk/

You could try Inghams: https://www.inghams.co.uk/

I haven't booked a package in ages, but there might be mileage in calling the sales lines up to see if there are any special discounts they can offer over the website pricing.

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

This one on Inghams is in a good location very near the lifts in Alba/Penia, which are the villages at the top end of Val di Fassa. This would be a good spot to access the Sella Ronda using the state of the art Col dei Rossi cablecar:

Hotel Villa Rosella

Not sure how to get it to allow 3 rooms for a party of 4 though.

Lift location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VPGrdtxtAC1MpF4JA

Hotel location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/haA9J6QkEosVp7BbA

There are 2 lifts next to each other at Alba, but going in different directions. One goes up to the Belvedere area which is part of the Sella Ronda. The other one goes up to the quiet Ciampac bowl with its beginners area and you can ski across to Pozza.

https://www.visittrentino.info/en/trentino/ski-areas/alpine-skiing/canazei-belvedere_md_2218

https://www.visittrentino.info/en/trentino/ski-areas/alpine-skiing/alba-ciampac_md_2217

After all it is free

@tanyastories, where else could you get a free independent personalised travel guide service like this?

Great advice and options from @luigi. Val di Fassa is a good shout I think. As suggested,‘worth checking on here specific accommodation options for convenience of access etc.
snowHead

I’d just agree a week, put it in all your diaries then start looking 6 days before departure.

Personally regarding payment, I would suggest that everybody pays in advance into one bank account and that person uses a credit card to book the holiday if that’s a feasible option. That way you will get section 75 protection and there is no possibility that one person fails to pay and screws at the Holliday

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Great advice from @rickboden, about using a credit card to get section 75 protection, just in case.

Sound advice from @luigi, again about the difficulty of getting a late deal with a group like yours in February. I've been a last minute booker on many trips over a 35 year period but it's much harder than it used to be. Capacity of catered accommodation has reduced and not so many provincial flights either. On this trip I'd be booking asap rather than leave it late.

The only variation I'd add to that is if your group was prepared to be in the same resort but not necessarily the same accommodation. Quite often you can get deals for 2 or 3 people in one hotel and another 1 or 2 in a different hotel/chalet less than 5 minutes walk away. So meeting up for skiing is easy enough but you wouldn't necessarily be eating together every day at breakfast and dinner.

snow reports

Just wanted to say thank you once again for all the advice and suggestions. We're still waiting for everyone to be ready to book but I'm hopeful we'll find a good trip now. What an absolutely brilliant group this is.

You know it makes sense.

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

I like self catering but difficult with a group of people you don't know. But having your own apartment for breakfast, and to stock the fridge with everybody's choice of drinks and snacks, and have coffee and tea making stuff could save you a fortune, even if you eat main meals out. When every single thing you eat and drink all day is at hotel/slope prices, it can mount up rapidly. All resorts are going to have somewhere to go out and have coffee and croissants and other nice breakfast options so if your "anti self catering" person has a rooted objection even to taking a box of muesli for breakfast and making her own coffee, or having a beer or a glass of wine before going out to dinner, they have that option. Unless you are very abstemious a week of buying drinks in a hotel bar is pretty ruinous! And a cup of tea will be some long-gone-off-the-boil water water and a dodgy tea bag.....costing several euros.

A snowHead

A snowHead

@tanyastories, yes, you get years of accumulated knowledge and honest, frequently diverse opinions on here, so it is brilliant.

Very rarely, you get someone with a vested interest pushing a particular area/resort, or brand/product, but not often and you can usually spot them.

Imagine how good a Bash would be?

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

@tanyastories, Lots of great suggestions on here, the good news is you have done the hard part in getting the group to agree on dates for the week and a rough setup for the holiday.

I would have thought you'd want to go through the following steps:
Step 1 - Narrow it down to a small list of resorts or ski areas (3 options or so I guess). You could do this by creating a new thread on the forum. You'll get lots of good suggestions and a few that won't work which you can filter out. Italy is rightly very popular so you'll get a lot of responses.
Step 2 - When you have a small list of resorts you can work out the specific accommodation you want to book. This is where you'll want to be specific about what you need (i.e. catered, how many single rooms, distance from slopes, rough budget). I would start a new thread for this and make sure that you are very clear in the original post (and title) of what you are looking for. For example if you are set on catered hotel accommodation with single rooms then be clear so you don't have to filter out loads of suggestions for B&Bs or apartments. If you are set on a package holiday be clear at this point too. You should end up with a small list of accommodation options at this point.
Step 3 - Search for packages and direct booking options for your chosen accommodation (depending on preference). Find the deal that works best for you and consider contacting the hotels directly to arrange the payments in the way that works best for you.

In some cases you can find hotels that have apartments as well as hotel rooms. So in theory you could book one of these which would give you private shared space with a small kitchenette for drinks, snacks, breakfast and lunches plus catered meals in the hotel restaurant. You'd get suggestions on this point in stage 2.

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Hi folks, as so many people were so kind to give lots of great advice on this thread I thought I'd update. We were all still waiting to book as of yesterday noon and new demands from group members kept coming in - the one that broke the camels back for me was "maximum 1.5 hours transfer time" which basically ruled out most of our remaining options.

So one group member and I broke off from the pack and just went ahead and booked ourselves in to share a twin room at Campitello with half board, flights and transfer for about £600 each, getting the £100 off deal from Crystal with minutes to spare. Result! But that was stressful Laughing

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@tanyastories, I think that is a good move.

You'll need to Register first of course.

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

What a great picture that is.

After all it is free

If you decide to do a group holiday like this next year, I'd recommend having a look at heidi.com - amongst other things I know that in our backlog is finding a way to do split payments for groups (it's the legals that are complicated more than the tech) and it might have bubbled to the top by then Wink

Help!!

How to book a group trip?

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