 Poster: A snowHead
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Thinking about it, my house (200 yr old cottage) had a separate loo with no sink until I had some work done to the bathroom. Two properties were merged into one - possibly in the in the 80's - so the loo was likely done about that time.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| abc wrote: |
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a separate toilet with no wash basin seems to have been very much the norm, something that shocked us coming from the UK.
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I guess no washing of hands after using the toilet? |
Tbh have the loo outside the bathroom meant loo could be used while another person was having bath or shower, ok you had to run downstairs or go into bathroom to wash hands but better than having somebody use loo while you were having shower imho
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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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| NickyJ wrote: |
| better than having somebody use loo while you were having shower imho |
Did that happen much?
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Oh it certainly happens, and even more often to anybody having a nice long soak in the bath. If there's only one loo in a house it's FAR better to have it separate from the bathroom, preferably with its own basin. My son's flat in Woking only has one loo, in the shower room (no bathroom) and there's absolutely no room for another one, but it causes a lot of problems, thanks to his morning habits. 
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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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| pam w wrote: |
| Oh it certainly happens, and even more often to anybody having a nice long soak in the bath. If there's only one loo in a house it's FAR better to have it separate from the bathroom, preferably with its own basin. My son's flat in Woking only has one loo, in the shower room (no bathroom) and there's absolutely no room for another one, but it causes a lot of problems, thanks to his morning habits. |
Get a lock!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| ster wrote: |
| NickyJ wrote: |
| better than having somebody use loo while you were having shower imho |
Did that happen much? |
It couldn't no toilet in the bathroom. However toilet needing to be used while shower in use.... a lot
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I like my own space - not at all keen on hotels and don't want to share a bedroom - but it doesn't have to be big. Certainly feel no need for 60 sq metres for two of us - we spent weeks on end in our 40 sq metre place, very happily. And I spend a couple of weeks at a time on a boat (recently pictured in The Bar!). I have quite a big house but two lodgers - and I live on the middle floor, with big kitchen/dining/sitting room, huge windows onto the water, a tiny bedroom (just room enough for my super king sized bed, which I love) and a shower room. Something this size would do me perfectly for ever - the location, and what it looks out on, is much the most important aspect of the place for me.
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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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@Charliegolf Have lost track of French prices? I ask because our 68m² 2-bedroom (each 2x beds) apartment, with bath, a 3-seater sofa/bed, 2 armchairs and a matching pouffe in Quatre Vallées, Switzerland is CHF 1450 peak weeks. Which would be CHF 1900 for your two weeks, or £1,610 And includes a basement parking place, saunas, and laundry facilities. I keep getting told that "Switzerland is so expensive ...", but it seems to me that accommodation prices in France aren't any lower, all other things being equal. Or is it the thing that I mentioned earlier, that the French tend to get an extra room/rooms into the same floor area, albeit at the expense of living space? So that as a generalisation, the cost per person (for a bed in a bedroom) will usually be lower, even if the accommodation is more cramped? Add to that a French predilection to put beds into corridors and the cost/person goes down even more ....
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Wed 22-06-22 22:28; edited 1 time in total
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I agree that £3k sounds v expensive for accommodation in France, except in peak school hols. And why would people without kids ever choose those weeks?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| pam w wrote: |
| I agree that £3k sounds v expensive for accommodation in France, except in peak school hols. And why would people without kids ever choose those weeks? |
Teachers
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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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| pam w wrote: |
| I agree that £3k sounds v expensive for accommodation in France, except in peak school hols. And why would people without kids ever choose those weeks? |
Just re-read and it says £3k for 2 weeks.... so 1500 per week?
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Yes. I realised that, but £1500 seems a lot outside school hols. But perhaps I'm out of date?
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You know it makes sense.
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| pam w wrote: |
| Yes. I realised that, but £1500 seems a lot outside school hols. But perhaps I'm out of date? |
I agree.... ok I go chasing cheapest weeks, just booked place in Flaine for almost school holidays (the girls will miss last morning) for £2036 inc lift passes for the 4 of us. That gives us a 2 bed apartment, and not using the lounge - you can book for 6. It is also ski in ski out. We had booked place in Morillon for under 1k again ski in ski out 2 beds not using lounge (no lift passes) but got panicky over how snow sure going out 16th Dec with Morillon being 1100 vs Flaine 1600
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Thu 23-06-22 6:32; edited 1 time in total
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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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Since when did no kettle become ok? I’ve been heating water for coffee in a bowl using the microwave!
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Poster: A snowHead
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@JamesHJ, I ALWAYS take travel kettle even self catering unless explicitly listed (got caught out by that in Sweden - coffee machine but not kettle)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@JamesHJ, French people don't consider a kettle to be essential kitchen equipment. Coffee is something you make in a coffee maker, water boils in a pan.
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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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The lack of a kettle is a weird thing about French and many other countries kitchen appliances. We rented an apartment in La Rossiere in January and though the kitchen had a huge collection of devices for slicing, grating, mashing and liquidising food there was no kettle. I assume it is because energy conservation is not as important in France as in the UK due to the number of nuclear power stations. I boil water in the kettle prior to adding it to the pan with vegtables in it. It is so much quicker.
However, when we bought our apartment fully furnished it came with a small electric kettle. We immediately thought to replace it with a standard sized UK one, but changed our minds due to the fact that we never full more than one tea pot or a couple of mugs at a time. The kettle must now be approaching 40 years old and still works fine. The question is now "why are UK kettles always so big?" And "why does our son insist on filling it up when he only wants one mug?"
Incidently, the apartment also came with a tea pot. 
Because we rent out apartment out when we are not using it the rental agency insists we have an elaborate coffee machine and a toaster. Both these are kept in a cupboard out of the way. There is no evidence the toaster has ever been used. I wonder if the egg cups have ever been used. Judging by its general migration the salad spinner sees some spinning.
Isn't it interesting seeing just what other people think are important kitchen appliances. It is one of the fascinating things about renting an apartment.
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@johnE, all I care about in an apartment is decent knives! Whilst I was upset this year that KLM lost my skis for 2 days, I was more upset about the fact that 2 of my good knives were in there too and we were self catering!
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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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My neice was shocked that I brought a kitchen knife out with me on holiday
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I thought it was a given that you always took a sharp knife with you when you go self catering.
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I take a kettle with me, mainly to heat water for a flask of hot squash to take on the hill, can use it in a hotel room when away from an apartment with a kitchen. It is a French kettle, bought in Albertville.
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| johnE wrote: |
| I thought it was a given that you always took a sharp knife with you when you go self catering. |
Yes...
My neice is only 13
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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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@johnE In our Swiss apartment, the client expectation definitely seems to be to have a kettle. When ours failed, the rental agency emailed immediately for us to authorise a replacement before the clients got back from their day's skiing. Similarly, we were asked by the agency to provide a toaster, as a number of clients had complained one wasn't provided (with all that lovely boulangerie bread people eat sliced white toast?) - which we've done. Ditto a coffee machine. And egg cups - we provided two but some clients complained that wasn't enough, so we now have six (with no evidence they're ever been used en masse).
We now leave a hair dryer out for client use as well, and it's not disappeared. Unlike the numerous tea spoons and corkscrews. And we stopped packing-away the tea pot and it's now in the cupboard, and surprisingly, that seems to get used as well. Feedback seems to be that people appreciate these sort of odds-and-ends being prvided, to a disproportionate degree, compared to much more expensive wired broadband, sofa-beds and sound bars.
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@kettonskimum, Not speaking French too well is it possible to use Abritel.fr?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Chaletbeauroc, When you say search directly you mean book via the local area tourist office?
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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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The reason the French don't favour kettles is that "bouilloire" is so difficult to pronounce. 
We used a toaster all the time in our French apartment. Baguettes are inedible fresh after a few hours, but still OK toasted. But lots of French breads, including pain au levain, pain au noix, pain complet, pain de seigle, are great toasted, especially once they are past their best. And who can be bothered to whip up an authentic "pain perdu" before going out skiing.
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Does abritel.fr carry different properties are all the group websites carrying the same ones? Abritel owns VRBO and home away and tries to redirect me to the VRBO app on my tablet.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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| Quote: |
I'm required to have a TV in the living room and in each bedroom.
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and in any accommodation I rent, I'm happy to have no TVs. But I do get cross if there aren't plenty of hooks to hang things on.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@tarrantd, (VRBO owns Abritel) and unless it’s changed, you elect which flavours you want to pay to be listed on. I.e. a UK landlord who only wants anglophones would probably not list on Abritel (which is still quite francophone, originally being French).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@pam w, generally us too but hooks and storage essential.
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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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And apparently, the clip-on cap for fizzy bottles is considered a modern essential. All that holiday Prosecco and Crémant .....
And the full-length mirror in the bedroom has so often been left leaning against the wall at the bottom of the bed that we've conceded to apparent demand and fixed it there permanently.
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Thu 23-06-22 17:23; edited 1 time in total
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@James77, lots of us holiday home owners have our own websites, Facebook pages and Instagram accounts. There are smaller sites too that list properties that can be booked direct with the owner.
@tarrantd, don't forget that Abritel/VRBO etc charge both you and the property owner a hefty amount for the privilege of using the site. I just checked out a property I know for a week at the beginning of Feb for 6 people, booking fee is over 400€ increasing the cost of that to over 3000€ for the week. The owner is then charged a commission of I think about 17% of the rental charge reducing what they receive to around 2300€.
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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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| James77 wrote: |
| @Chaletbeauroc, When you say search directly you mean book via the local area tourist office? |
No, I mean on our own website.
Where we are in CH the TO doesn't really have a lot to do with apartment rentals - there's a local agent that's used by most of the single-apartment owners who use it for a few weeks a year and rent it out the rest of the time, completely hands-off and managed and cleaned by them, but no tourist office booking system.
With four rental units at the moment, and living in another apartment in the same building, that clearly wasn't the model we wanted to use, so we have a basic website that's integrated with our channel management software, which also links with airbnb and booking.com listings to sync availability and rates. As they charge us commission, we add on a percentage to cover that which is automatically added to the rates we set and use on our own website.
Whenever I'm booking a hotel or other accommodation, I'd first search the main channels, but then once I'd found one I liked I would always look to see if they have their own website, as that will normally be cheaper, for the same reason as our is, or indeed if it's listed for a lower price on other channels. I'm just surprised how many of our guests just take the price shown without looking to see if they could get it cheaper.
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@Hells Bells, I was aware of the charging regime but was curious about how the model works between the various sites. I note that they are all now under Expedia ownership. I only use such sites to try and find something suitable for my group and then look for a way to book direct with the owner.
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@tarrantd, I have removed my apartment from the site. In the past you listed on your 'home' site (homeaway for Uk, Abritel for France) and then you could choose to list on the rest, I am not sure how it works now.
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@Hells Bells, ah yes I get it. Shame there's not a dedicated owner page here as I'd much prefer booking direct with an owner. Or perhaps there is I'm just not aware of it.
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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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All of the portals (booking.com, Airbnb, Aribitel…) charge 15% to the owner and a further fee to the guest so much better to go direct if possible. A listing of Snowhead’s accommodation websites would be useful but may be against the rules?
On the equipment front, French guests now want a Nespresso machine, a small kettle, salad spinner and egg cups as others have said. My latest requests were for champagne flutes and ‘pot holders’ as opposed to an oven glove, I had to look up what pot holders were!
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FAQ
) all day long. We struggle to get 60sq m, 2 bedrooms, a bath and enough decent sofas/chairs to seat the stated number of guests, under £3k, accom only for 2 weeks. In France. I agree with lots of the views above, namely, lots of the ski accom is rubbish. But we struggle on. 
