 Poster: A snowHead
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Just been quoted £392 for a week's sole use supplement for a twin room!! Currently trying to negotiate this down otherwise I might be sticking with the Tamworth snowdome next season.
Anyone else had any equally horrifying sole use or under-occupancy supplements?
Single people are financially penalised in many walks of life but it must be the holiday industry that take the crown.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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queen bodecia, is this for your possible Serre Chevalier trip? Which hotels are you looking at? I know the Grand Hotel in Chantemerle has small doubles that are let out as singles for a low supplement. VolklAttivaS5 stayed there so may be able to give more advice on who she booked with etc . There were however rumours that it was closing.
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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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queen bodecia, simply get a husband.
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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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queen bodecia, try booking directly with the hotel - it is often the TO's that slam on the extra charges, not the hoteliers. The fact that you've been quoted in GBPs indicates that at least. I expect to pay more for single occupancy of a double room, but that is truly extracting the urine!
Alternatively come back to our neck of the woods 
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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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queen bodecia,
The rate for solo occupancy is 45% of the headline rate.
So, for the week it's +£170
for PSB11-part1 it's +£95
and for PSB11-Part2 +£110
Shocking!!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Hells Bells, yes it's Hotel Plein Sud. Doesn't look like the Grand is available for next season.
paulio, is not and has never been an option.
Samerberg Sue, you know Austria always gets my vote! In fairness I expect to pay a supplement for the benefit of having a large room to myself but that is way beyond my budget. It is less by booking direct with the hotel but the cost of flights and transfers blows that option out of the water.
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lightningdan, this amount works out at +58% of the headline price (which also includes flight, transfers and half board).
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| lightningdan, this amount works out at +58% of the headline price (which also includes flight, transfers and half board). |
It is a rip off.
I thought you always went with friends, would you not be better in an apartment?
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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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lightningdan, we don't self cater, we stick to hotels. On the whole we have been lucky with finding hotels with single rooms or low sole use supplements in the past. Chalets with single rooms seem to be very rare.
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queen bodecia, I think you need to organise your own trip rather than book a package, and also seek out hotels that have single rooms.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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queen bodecia, might be worth an email to the hotel to see if they have single rooms available. TO may have only reserved doubles and twins.
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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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beanie1, the problem is flights and transfers. It makes the whole thing so much more expensive. For this particular trip it would mean flying to and from different airports with no coach transfers. Plus there are the pitfalls of booking independently, i.e. late/cancelled flights, airlines going bust, volcanic ash cloud type incidents, etc. etc. Just doesn't appeal to me and I'm pretty sure the rest of my group of ski buddies feel the same.
Unless the negotiation is successful I think we'll just have to look for somewhere different for next season. 
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Hells Bells, done all that already. Looks like twin rooms only.
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You know it makes sense.
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queen bodecia, you're taking up two beds, what did you expect? (I'd make sure you sleep in both of them, mind. )
On a more constructive note, won't the TO sell you flight/transfer only? That way you could travel with everyone else but book your accommodation independently.
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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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Put up, or shut up.....
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Poster: A snowHead
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queen bodecia, I would respectfully suggest that the issue is more to do with your lack of flexibility regarding how you book your holidays - i.e. TO/half board/specific resort or country/specific week/book 12 months in advance/ etc etc - rather than the very simple issue of single occupancy supplements
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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rayscoops, Indeed and lets not forget TOs might actively be wanting to discourage singles at that property (through punitive pricing) as they are confident of selling out at full occupancy (with associated incremental revenue).
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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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| paulio wrote: |
| queen bodecia, simply get a husband. |
Or try swinging 
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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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Actually it is twin/double occupancy that subsidises single occupancy rather than the other way round:
In simple terms take a twin room which for dinner bed and breakfast costs a couple £50 per person.
The cost for single occupancy is £75 per night. So cost for single use = £25 (50%) more per person than the couple are paying for the same bed, the same dinner and the same breakfast.
However, fixed costs for breakfast and dinner are £15 per person.
Twin occupancy nets the hotel £70 for the room (£50 x 2 - £15 x 2).
Single occupancy pays the hotel £60 for the room (£75 - £15) ie £10 less than the couple (or £5 pp)
Obviously the numbers change depending on the services provided but the theory is the same.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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In any case it is not cheaper to book direct with the hotel. The price they have quoted is comparable to the TO price and obviously does not include flights and transfers (which the TO price does). I don't have an issue with the TO at all, they have bent over backwards to try and negotiate with the hotel on our behalf. The simple issue is that it's a peak week in France and the hotel wish to charge us handsomely for empty beds. It's nothing to do with inflexibility, solo supplements are a big issue faced by single travellers the world over and not restricted to skiing.
Since people are increasingly staying single or becoming single rather than the often unattainable utopia of married bliss, I wonder if the travel industry will ever move with the times?
Anyway, I'm guessing it will be back to the drawing board for us. The other single lass in our group might be able to afford that supplement but I definitely can't. Boo...
lightningdan, linky no worky...
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queen bodecia, have you used all the hotel booking websites? Hotels4u, alpharooms etc? Have you used comparison sites for flights etc? Want to put where and when up on here and see which of us wonderful SH can find you the cheapest deal?
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Shimmy Alcott, you might well be able to come up with a deal, but as QB has stated many, many times she will only consider TO, and only from her regional airports - it's clearly very important to her so she'll have to keep plugging away from that angle.
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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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Shimmy Alcott, I've only looked at that hotel at the moment. Flights I have worked out using comparison websites as you suggest and although the headline prices look reasonable, in general a return flight including luggage and skis works out at around £200-£300. Certainly never found anything for less than £200. So a half board hotel and transfers combined would have to come in at under £400 to be anywhere near to competing with a TO price. Add all the hassle of arranging it oneself, the potential pitfalls of not having TO security and hauling luggage on and off of public transport, and it doesn't make sense at all. Believe me, I've done all the sums before and come to the same conclusion. I'm pretty confident my group of ski buddies would not be happy with the notion of booking independently either.
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queen bodecia, ah, shame. Quite a hefty surcharge that!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Shimmy Alcott, absolutely. But in fairness does seem to be the norm with hotels without single rooms. The search continues...
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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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queen bodecia, you're going to have to accept that the overwhelming majority of holidaymakers travel in pairs or groups, whether married or not, and accommodation providers know that and cater for it. The most immediately obvious solution would be to share a room with other single bird.
Personally I favour self catering hols, and I could grumble about the fact that most s/c accommodation is designed for minimum four occupants but since that's because families self cater and bigger units are more marketable I don't really see the point. I'm the one out of step there, not the rest of the world.
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You know it makes sense.
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Lizzard, I totally understand your point. I guess I'm living in hope that as singletondom becomes more normal (apparently in the UK one in six households has a single adult) that accommodation providers will gradually recognise this trend and start to offer more single rooms.
Anyway, the point of this thread wasn't a rant as such, I was kinda hoping other people would post their horrendous examples of sole use supplements so I didn't feel so alone in my plight...
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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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tillywhim, thanks for the link. Not looking for a 'solos' holiday as such, only myself and one other are single people in my group of ski buddies, the rest are couples. However, if I was looking for a trip alone, that would be of interest since it's not one of these that lumps 'inconvenient' single people in rooms together.
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Poster: A snowHead
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queen bodecia, Sorry, it was neilson, in Austria no single supplement, try their web site.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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queen bodecia, I will check again in the morning and see what's around, using your original£695? In march?
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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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even when booking in hotels with single rooms often a single supplement is still charged despite them sometimes being converted broom cupboards.
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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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lightningdan, I'm sure we'd find something in Austria or Italy that week with no problems, single rooms seem reasonably common there. It was just that some of our group expressed a wish to go to France and specifically Serre Chevalier next season to make a change from the norm.
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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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Colin B, yes I agree and that does irritate me.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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queen bodecia, then get them to help pay the supplement - why should you sub their choices?
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queen bodecia, I T problem will get back to you.
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| paulio wrote: |
| queen bodecia, simply get a husband. |
Or just someone that's prepared to share a room with you
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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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Remember plenty of people go on ski trips without their partner so there is already a large "singles" demographic yet the demand for single rooms has hardly caused TOs to reconstruct their models en masse.
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fatbob, very true. One of the reasons we book so early is to secure two single rooms.
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