Things you dread in a shared chalet

A snowHead

michaelminhatkinson, They are called Staff, dear boy, Staff. Not 'hands, or indeed 'helpers'.....did you by any chance find that your fine, hand rolled oprganic porridge was a little bit salty one morning?

A snowHead

Hahahaha, best exchange of deleted posts ever Smile

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

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paulio, I deleted it by mistake - not spending half my life on forums I haven't a clue what I'm doing ... sorry! Glad it made you happy though.

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What would you consider a 'fair share' of complaining about holidays, expressed as words per month? I'll limit myself to that in future.

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I'm just making an assumption based on the amount of time you spend on here ... I don't care how much you complain - I just don't think you need to be offensive that's all.

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Hahahaha.

After all it is free

Back in the past I've generally had quite good experience of chalets (usually a cheaper alternative to half-board hotels because the staff are so happy to be in a ski area they are paid peanuts - except it is more communal and the staff don't make your bed).
However a holiday cooped up with a group who were all very vocally racist was a bit of a trial. I was considered to have no sense of humour because I didn't laugh at jokes such as "why do Pakis smell" - answer "So even the blind can hate them" (I heard that one twice).

I really enjoy chalet holidays but have never had a bad one. One idiot (solo - always a give away) got a bit grating in January but he quickly became the butt of everyone's jokes and actually left early. His tales became more and more outrageous as the time went on and when he realised everyone was laughing at him, he checked out. There are some strange people out there but we could have found him Le Jardin at Courcheval, it doesn't need to be in a chalet.

Jo please can you refer Roger and Lindsey to this thread. I will be at your place on Saturday and don't want any of the above mentioned people/items there during my stay.

Laughing

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It's just the privacy aspect of chalets that I'm not keen on. Feels more like sharing a house with a load of strangers and I wasn't keen on that in my student days. Hotel rooms just feel a bit more private, my own space and bathroom and the ability to lock all the rabble out, lol!

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People who "double dip".

People who eat more than their fair share of the afternoon cake.

People who do diddly squat to help at breakfast on the chalet-hosts' day off.

Fundamentalist Mumsnetters.

You know it makes sense.

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

There are some upsides though..

Last year on the Warren Smith I rucked up on my own to find I had been billeted with 3 single birds in their 30's.
Great fun, liked a bevvy or ten and the host was a boarder who looked about 18 but cooked like a Michelin chef.

Only downside was as we were leaving and saying goodbye and telling each other how great we all were one of the girls piped up with - 'I wish MY dad was more like you' Ouch!

A snowHead

Its clear the chalets I have been to are nothing like you guys. They have felt like small hotels rather than big houses, I have always had an ensuite and have never had to sort my own food out. If the cake ever ran out, more was provided.

Strange.

A snowHead

Don't want to spoil the thread with undue positivity but have never, yet, had a bad time in a chalet and have met a whole bunch of interesting/funny/unusual people which distinctly enhanced the holiday ... surgeons, teachers, currency traders, students, professional rugby players ... met them all and enjoyed it.

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

Blackblade, that list would put the fear of god through me Shocked

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The Flying Snowplough, I must admit to being suspicious of people who prefer tea and cake instead of beer and/or wine for their apres. I don't hate them, you understand, just slightly suspicious. And not sure what you mean by "double dip", I can't help thinking it's something filthy involving lube and a loofer, but perhaps you'd like correct me?

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Me and the husband in a chalet in Meribel for 10 and the others are all guys (old enough to know better) from Jersey, loaded, loud, pissed and complete with their own porn mags (which they kindly left lying around) and indoor fireworks. Even worse, chalet staff lived out. Aagghh Shocked

Alas, our room was the only one just off the lounge area so we went to bed each night and rammed a suitcase against the door.

One or two days they just stayed in and drank. Oh joy. On the days they did ski I will never forget being drunkenly hollered at from a chairlift rolling eyes

We're outgoing people who are not shy with wine, but this lot took the biscuit and we ended up eating our suppers out as the chalet meals with them were so unbearable (flicking g-strings across the table kind of put me off my starter for some unknown reason). The chalet staff apologised but what clout are 2 young girls going to have? The company said they would make them take a whole chalet if they booked with them again, otherwise held no responsibility for them.

It put us off sharing for a few seasons, I can tell you. But happily that is our worst experience and every shared chalet since has been great. Particularly the last 2 Christmases which can always be a hit and miss week.

Motto: If at first you get a bad lot, persevere! Cool

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Whitegold, many thanks for you insightful and erudite response. Just think, in the time you took to write the post you could have learned a new word, something long and complicated like "corrugated", or perhaps gazed up at the sky matching cloud shapes to common farmyard animals, such as you might have seen at the local petting zoo.

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I have been on a few chalet holidays and touch wood (off on one on Sunday) have never had a bad one. Some have been better than others, the best with small operators and paying a bit more.

Maybe I am the nutter!

Can't say I have ever seen anyone with a guitar, can you take them as hand luggage?

After all it is free

Dr John, there's a time and place for everything, and with a little planning, one can integrate tea, cakes and beer into ones "apres" routine. It's not a case of preferring, it's more to do with not getting lashed in front of the kids straight after a hard day on the slopes. Smile

"Double-dipping" is an offence I committed in my first family skiing holiday in a chalet. I'd dunked my carrot into some pre-dinner flavoursome goo and munched contentedly. I then returned the bitten end of my carrot into the goo for a top-up. You'd have thought I'd suggested we all cavort naked whilst the kids ate their tea whilst worshipping pictured of Tony Blair for the strength of the reaction I got. Apparently, my saliva could contain lethal bacteria, and by "double dipping", I'd exposed my chalet-mates to almost certain death.

So that's double-dipping, and why you shouldn't do it. The correct ettiquette is to reverse the carrot before re-dipping.

Can't say I'm too bothered myself. On a skiing holiday, there would appear to be much bigger risks than a bit of stray saliva, IMHO. Smile

Ah, thanks for those words of wisdom. I, too, was wondering what on earth "double dipping" entailed since it sounded extraordinarily risque !

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The Flying Snowplough, I assumed you had banged someone elses wife/husband wink

You know it makes sense.

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

A snowHead

A snowHead

Genuine question from a non chalet user (apart from Chalethotel Morris in Val D but that's really a hotel):

Are mixed groups in Chalets a Brit thing, or do other nationalities go in for it too? And are chalets normally single nationality or all mixed up?

My feeling so far is that most of the comments on here may be at least partly in jest, but they do point to the underlying risks of staying in close proximity to a bunch of folk you've never met. The anonymity of a larger hotel seems much less prone to disaster to me.

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

Axsman, don't know if it's a Brit-thing, but from my experience, the "random" gatherings in chalets with Ski Esprit and Ski Famille have been great. (The double-dipping saga is somewhat overembelished for dramatic effect, it must be said!)

As these have all been family hols, they have been eye-wateringly expensive, and I guess that means that the families concerned will be at the very least middle-class professionals with all that entails. (The seriously rich folk own their own chalets or resorts, I understand.) We've stayed with 10 other families in total, and there has been the odd individual I've not really got on with, but that's just because you can't get on with everyone. There was certainly no animosity or inappropriate habits involved, beyond a bit of excessive cake-eating, which is pretty trivial really.

Many years ago, we went as a couple on a cheapo chalet holiday to La Plagne with Thompsons and it was horrible. There were indeed jesters-hat wearing fools billeted with us and on the first night they had a genuine p*ssing competition off the balancy at 3am. They were nice enough individually, but put them together and add alcohol and you had a bad experience. The food was great, though, as we got lucky with a proper chef who was doing a "season".

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Over my many chalet holidays the majority of other guests have been UK based. Have had a few guests from Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa; all seemed to be ex-pat UK or their descendants. Chalet staff have been much the same profile.

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

stoatsbrother,

Barney makes me want to vomit. Barney at breakfast is even worse. I would have punched the parents , and I've never done that before.

After all it is free

WE've stayed in lots of chalets, many last minute deals chasing thye prices and the snow (well before we had kids, after that we tended to book)

Mainly been great. SUre there have been some annoying people but that has always given us someone to moan about!

The worst was a SKi world chalet. Everyone in it was last minute, including a gang of early twenties uni students. They were fun in themselves. But after supper, every chalet girl within a 4 miles radius dropped into our chalet and took up all the sofas etc while they batted their eyelashes at these guys. One of them then scored with our chalet girl, which would have been fine, except she was supposedly a long term item with her co-chalet host and it made things fairly frosty .................

The Voice of Reason, well taking your points at face value, yes you get your own table, and you chose which one and when to sit at it. You don't have to eat breakfast when the early risers want it (point mentioned in this thread), or endure Barney on the TV. If there is an obnoxiously loud group in the hotel you can go some way to avoiding them either geographically or chronologically. Of course this cannot be guaranteed anywhere, but it's easier to achieve in larger groups.

On the other hand if you strike up a friendship while chatting in the bar (something else that Hotels tend to have that I believe Chalets lack), you can chose to eat dinner with your new friends and share a table if you chose. The point is you get to chose.

In a hotel, anonymity is on offer, how anonymous you wish to be is your call.

IMHO all the stuff about noisy boiled eggs etc isn't a function of hotel size, it relates to hotel quality, and I would hazard a guess that chalet cooks aren't completely silent.

Finally the reason I asked about other nationalities and in particular mixed nationalities in Chalets is that meeting and chatting to them in the hotel bar is for me one of the plus points that hotel bars offer which single nationality chalets may lack?

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Being the only English speaker.... I stayed in a chalet in Courchevel traveling by myself once during the russian new years and when i got collected by the rep at the train station in Moutier he was astonished that i spoke perfect English and hurridly rang the chalet to say "dont worry one of em speaks english" turns out the whole party of 20 odd russians didnt have a single word of English between them and the staff assumed i was one of them... once i arrived and they worked out i had less of a clue than they did much Googling of russian phrases ensued over the week and it worked out a bit awkward but ok..

as it happens quite a nice group and they shared in some pleasant traditions like candle lighting and vodka drinking Toofy Grin

Help!!

Things you dread in a shared chalet

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