 Poster: A snowHead
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Everyone loves a bargain/ Skiing is expensive. Even if you get a great deal there is the cost of lift passes, lessons and equipment hire. Other types of holidays don’t require this. Winter holidays have a captive audience of the snow nut. Who can only go certain times of year and need their snow fix
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Adrian wrote: |
| KillerQueen wrote: |
| I am hoping that the tour operaters are not doing too well this year. |
I hope for the opposite. There are enough companies and people doing poorly because of the world wide financial problems. The tour operators employ many people and it would be sad and bad if lots of them joined the unemployed. Many people use the tour operators to get a nice break away from the toil of their normal life and it would be sad if lots of them could not have their holiday. |
I think I may owe you a drink for that post!!
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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| luigi wrote: |
| I thought it would be be pretty much sold out by now! Can anyone enlighten??? |
We have 2 (yep Two) rooms left for HT (that’s from 7 complete large hotels) - flights out of Gatwick; due to a cancellation.
I imagine "most" TO's will be doing OK this year as they always are.
To the people on here who are looking for the TO's that are not doing well so they can try and bully them into giving a large discount - see my previous comments.
Oh, and let not have too much whinging when it goes pear shaped  . We've all seen it on the TV news, family not happy at the airport, camera pans from a sad little child to an irate parent, "well I think it's disgusting, I paid over £500 for my family of 10 to go on an all inclusive ski trip in a 5* hotel, and now they've gone bust, grrrrrrrrrrrrr, my children were really looking forward to this and it’s just not right, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, ".
Some TO’s plan to have flexible prices and this is worked into their business plan. This works fine for them. They tend to be the larger TO’s (the ones with the brochures in Thomas Cooks) and are nomrally part of a group of trading names; generally offering the same product at different times of year, ie. Mallorca in the Summer, Austria in the winter, etc.
Other don’t – please don’t get the two mixed up.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Wayne wrote: |
To the people on here who are looking for the TO's that are not doing well so they can try and bully them into giving a large discount - see my previous comments.
Oh, and let not have too much whinging when it goes pear shaped |
As I said previously Wayne, no bullying involved. I've always paid the price offered without having to haggle or cajole, the discount having willingly been offered by the TO, either on their website or through a clearing agent.
I can only think that you must have had a bad experience with a chancer who wanted to have the security of booking early AND get a big discount.
I know it's distasteful to you, but late-bookers are essential to the big tour ops business, we offer them a way of recouping the costs of something whose date is about to expire. I don't share the sentiments of those ill-wishing the TOs, no-one wants to see a good business fail, but I am interested to know that there is spare capacity that will need to be discounted to cost price to sell. Then, everyone's a winner! 
But I won't be whinging if it doesn't work out, my requirements are flexible.......something else will come along later.
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| luigi wrote: |
| KillerQueen wrote: |
Well, yesterday and today, I have been phoning both travel agents and tour operators direct, and there is lots of availablilty for half term.
Both TOs and TAs have said it has been slow this year.  |
Oh, that's interesting! Were you offered sizeable discounts too?
I don't have any experience of booking half-term, I avoid it like the plague! So. not sure what it's normally like, I thought it would be be pretty much sold out by now! Can anyone enlighten??? |
Unfortunately, I do not have any alternative to going at half term. It is the only thing I cannot be flexible about.
But no, they did not offer any discounts yet. However, I did not ask. They did say that they were going to offload over the next few weeks.
The prices were high as it seemed to be the more expensive hotels that were still available.
Like someone else said, it is probably because they were too expensive in the first place.
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Wayne, Cuts both ways - its a market economy and consumers are entitled to look for the best deal they can. To introduce some sort of morality into the business transaction is bizarre. Yep for a small guy who had always treated me well I wouldn't want to haggle too hard if I knew it was going to have consequences for his ongoing viability but for the big guys why not - its a consumer product which is time sensitive and yet consumers shouldn't look to take advantage of this if they are sufficiently flexible?
I'm old enough to remember the rampant profiteering that all TOs engaged in at Millenium New Year so my sympathy is limited. We held our nerve and booked late and paid half the brochure price for a generally pretty good holiday of which the least important element was the "Gala Feast" that was used a big distractor.
Strikes me your business model is pretty straightforward and as a specialist operator in your market I'd guess you represent pretty good value everyday and its to your credit that you don't want to undermine your model by late discounting. The other guys have however made it a feature of the market. I know they are trying to scale back and "retrain" consumers but in the internet era I think its anachronistic to expect people to plan and commit 6+ months out for their holidays.
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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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Simon Cross, i'd be interested too
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| Quote: |
in the internet era I think its anachronistic to expect people to plan and commit 6+ months out for their holidays.
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yes, I'd agree with that, and maybe that's one of the big changes in recent years. We do expect things instantly "on tap", whether it be the weather forecast, the news, or a holiday. I don't think I've ever, in my (rather long) life made any decisions about a holiday 6 months in advance.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Just got a newsletter from www.SkiBeat.co.uk , seems they have alot of very good offers for Christmas week 
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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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Boredsurfing, wonder where Pandora and crew booked this year? Guess we'll hear about it in due course (whether we want to or not)
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You know it makes sense.
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luigi, your quote that "... big tour ops rarely discount below cost unless they have got the supply/demand equation really wrong." is, to my mind well out when put up against reality.
There have been plenty of seasons over the past 10 years where they have on average sold holidays at a loss and the only thing that has put money in the bank has been in-resort sales of ski packs, pub crawls etc.
The whole travel industry got done over by a long period of willy waggling where CEOs were obsessed by passangers carried and market share and forgot that it's also quite handy for business to have a half decent net margin.
Now that a lot of committed capacity has come out of the market we'll hopefully see that trend reverse. With dodgy dates over Christmas and a late Easter this if going to be a slightly odd winter in terms of sales patterns though.
Final note - if you want to haggle with me I am prepared to be very flexible with 26th March departures 
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FAQ
