 Poster: A snowHead
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We are going skiing after new year, and are looking at ski hire. We have found a really low price ski hire website called 'slopefox.co.uk' and was wondering if anybody had used it before and also what their thoughts were on the service provided. Or if not could anyone reccomend another one in Samoens?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I haven't used them but thought I'd have a look. Looking at Morzine, they come up with the same shops and prices as snowbrainer.com and spookily also the same phone number and even accepts the snowbrainer discount code. What's that all about?
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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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Alpinresorts, Snowbrainer, Slopefox, Skimarie, (and various other language variations such as pistenfuchs.de) are all the same company, namely 2beGROUP which it seems to me started out with the Alpinresorts brand and was then duplicated it into other ski hire booking websites. I find it a bit disingenuous of them creating a false impression of a busy competitive market place when in reality there are only a handful of actual business offering online ski hire but they do seem to have competitive prices (whichever brand you pick).
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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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@Wendywilliams, not sure of using an online supplier for rental as I've always just been into the shops.
"Planet glisse samoens" is a shop in the main town, it's the place a friend running a chalet out there sends his customers to.
Also in the town centre are "Roland Gay samoens" right in the main square. Just search with those titles for their sites.
There are more in Samoens of which I can't remember their name, but all well equipped places.
If you are not directly in Samoens, I've a few more that we've used over in Morillon.
Hope that helps.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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It might be worth clarifying the difference between brokers, chains and shops (although other terms could be used interchangeably).
Shop - the physical shop in resort
Chain - a chain or network of shops adhering to a common brand
Broker - A website (usually) offering to create a booking with a shop in resort
All three can offer online booking in the same shop and all three can offer different discounts for the same end product ie the skis you walk out the door with.
Alpinresorts, BestPriceSkiHire, Ski Discount, Ski Planet are all examples of brokers. They do not own any shops or wax any of the skis, they negotiate a price for ski hire and market their service to create a booking for ski hire for you in a shop you choose. They often have the best prices as they have fewer constraints (see below) and overheads.
SkiSet, Sport2000, Ski Republic, Intersport, Twinner, Skimium are examples of chains of shops. Again, they don't actually wax the skis or sharpen any edges, but they represent a group of shops and get better purchasing power when buying equipment, have a common standard and logo. They provide for instance, visibility and recognition of a brand, along with marketing and a booking website. Each chain tends to have its own relationship with the member shops varying from outright ownership of a shop to a simple affiliation, and each type of relationship has its dis/advantages it would seem. They also offer online booking but often have constraints on the discount they can offer as large discount can be perceived poorly by the member shops although they do have strategies to get around this (see below).
Planet Glisse (skimium), Roland Gay (Skiset) are examples of shops. These are physical places you will pick up the skis, who employ the staff, set your bindings and wax the skis you will be using all week. They will also often have a booking website but without the resources of a broker or chain, these websites can be clunky to use and often more expensive (apologies to the shops for the over-generalisation)
Some extra info :
Alpinresorts runs all these websites : Snowbrainer, Slopefox, Skimarie, Pistenfuchs. As far as I can tell, each website run by Alpinresorts offers the same price for the same shop, but not each website will offer the same choice of shops. As someone else discovered, a promo code from one website seems to work on any other run by Alpinresorts. Apart from Snowbrainer, I am not so sure they were existing brands they bought up, the internet archive shows them all having the same physical addresses as far back as 2011 at least.
Skiset runs Snowrental : Snowrental used to be a broker but now seems to be owned by Skiset, as such Snowrental now only offers a subset of Skiset shops, but Skiset uses this brand to offer bigger discounts than on their main website. It also appears that not all Skiset shops will feature on Snowrental.
Promocodes : This seems to be the preferred way of offering bigger discounts. I have seen a much bigger use of these recently. They have always been used but I think the chains are using these to significantly increase the discount without publicising this by plastering it all over their website (see above for why not).
Public prices : Beware of misleading discounts, some brokers have the wrong public price and apply a big discount to that making for an seemingly attractive price but compared to what you pay elsewhere more or less the same.
Chain only : If you are after the cheapest equipment no matter what, then the chains all seem to offer a category of equipment that no broker has access to that is often less than the cheapest a broker can offer, for instance Bronze equipment with a hefty discount. Also at the other end of the equipment/price spectrum, if you want the best equipment but with a discount then again the chains also often offer a higher category than they make available to the brokers.
Just got back from skiing - it snowed on the bare slopes the day we left !
PS - @admin what are you referring to by 'Skiset turning the screws'?
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Alpinresorts, BestPriceSkiHire, Ski Discount, Ski Planet are all examples of brokers.
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SkiSet, Sport2000, Ski Republic, Intersport, Twinner, Skimium are examples of chains of shops.
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You incorrectly assume that skiset is a chain because some shops are branded skiset.
The vast majority of shops on the Skiset booking system are not in any part owned or managed by Skiset and are not part of any chain other than perhaps a small local chain, for example, all owned by the same family. They operate entirely independently of Skiset other than to pay them a commission when a booking comes from them.
I have spoken to many shop owners who hate to deal with Skiset because of the way they do business but fear to pull out of the network because Skiset would immediately take up with one of their direct competitors.
Even the ones in France that carry the Skiset frontage are independently owned and they have to pay commission to the central booking company when the hire comes via that route which they wouldn't have to otherwise.
Since you yourself have outlined the distinction above, it would be more appropriate to call them a Broker.
IMO it is important to maintain the distinction between the Skiset shops which vary hugely (some great, some not so) as they are independently owned and the Skiset broker that is evil 
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I am not so sure they were existing brands they bought up
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I am. I know the person who started Snowbrainer. He was an active snowHead at the time he sold it to Alpinresorts.
I believe they bought Slopefox at about the same time.
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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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Fair enough - I guess there will be a number of nuances between definition of Shop and Chain and the exact relationship will vary by chain and shop. However the fact that all shops offered on skiset.com will have a skiset logo on the shopfront in resort points more at a chain than broker. Also I think the shops have a closer relationship (albeit tense in the case of the ones you have spoken to!) with the central Skiset than that, for instance buying equipment collectively for better prices etc.
But I am not looking to make any points specifically about SkiSet be they broker chain or shop, but more generally about booking online:
- Generally its a great way of saving time and money 
- There is a confusing impression of a busy market place created by one broker maintaining many brands in the same market
- Not all prices and discounts online reflect the reality of the products available in the shop
- Some booking sites such as those from the chains offer products not available elsewhere (upper and lower end equipment)
- Brokers tend to have the best prices apart from those products
- Signing up by email can lead to significant discount codes being offered
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Yep I'd mostly agree with your list except you forgot one...
- Skiset is evil
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| However the fact that all shops offered on skiset.com will have a skiset logo on the shopfront in resort points more at a chain than broker. |
Except that it's not a fact because most don't - unless you count a Skiset sticker on their widow but then lots of them end up with snowHeads stickers on their windows too, funnily enough, so does that make snowHeads a chain of ski shops?
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| Also I think the shops have a closer relationship (albeit tense in the case of the ones you have spoken to!) with the central Skiset than that, for instance buying equipment collectively for better prices etc. |
On what basis do you think that? As I say, I know lots of shops on the Skiset booking network that have absolutely nothing to do with skiset other than receiving bookings from the broker.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Could it be we are thinking about the experience in different countries? I mostly have seen them in France where they all seem to have massive signs. Perhaps this is not the case in Austria or elsewhere?
Any way I am not an expert on the relationship of all shops with Skiset so will defer to your analysis 
This comes up a lot in your posts! Care to expand?
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