Group ski holidays are one of the most exciting but also frustrating types of holiday to arrange.
What is better than all your friends and family in one place to celebrate a special occasion such as a birthday or New Year? Or maybe your ski holiday is just an excuse to get away and have fun!
Whatever the reason, getting everyone to agree can be quite a daunting task – which very few people are willing to take on. Certainly not on a regular basis.
There is hope though! In the form of the specialists – France Skiing who can arrange your group ski holidays.
On your behalf, Ski France have been booking ski holidays for many years. They understand how to be sure everyone in the group is happy.
Whilst they can’t give you a free holiday, they can certainly help with the process of searching and reserving one.
Let’s look through some of the advice France Skiing to make the process of booking a group skiing holiday as easy as pie:
A Group Ski Holiday Decision Maker
This is perhaps one of the most difficult agreement to come to when you decide to go away as a group.
Is there just one person who can decide everything for the group? Or do you have several people looking, going backwards and forth with endless choices?
France Skiing’s advice is to have 1 person as the ultimate decision maker who searches the internet, trawling through the websites. Allow this one person to make suggestions to the group.
This way there won’t be repeats of people getting prices for the same properties, of course wasting time for both you and the travel agencies.
One person can gather information for all the group ski chalets and send them around. Either by email, WhatsApp or what we’ve noticed happening more frequently is that people communicate via a Facebook group page specifically set up for the group ski holiday.
Once this is done, you can move onto the next section.
Define Your Ski Groups Needs
This is a very important step in the process as it can potentially save a lot of time, effort and heartache thus avoiding disappointment.
Decide as a group what are the most important criteria for your ski holiday. Is that a ski in/out chalet? Having a hot tub? Perhaps you would like an open fireplace or plenty of onsite parking if everyone is driving.
Whatever your needs may be, decide from the very beginning and stick to them. This will make the search process quick and efficient and avoids the group leader having to find a new list of potential accommodations that could work for the group.
Once the group leader truly understands the needs of the group (or has possibly made the choice for everyone) he or she can forge a list of ski chalets that would work. Thus dramatically reducing the list from thousands of possibilities to a handful.
Ski Group Size – Is This Likely to Change?
Is your group size defined? This will determine the type of accommodation you decide to book.
If you have a designated group size, of say 10 people, which you know will not change, then you can book a group ski chalet that was built specifically for 10 people.
However, if you think that the group size may increase, then you are better off going for a chalet that has a few extra beds, unoccupied at the time of booking, or perhaps book your group into a hotel.
This way, it is more likely that there will be rooms available for the extra people to join you if they are not ready to book with the rest of the group.
Large Group Ski Holidays – book far in advance!
Now if your group is particularly large, which in the experience of France Skiing is anything from 20 people, then book your accommodation well in advance, such as 10 – 12 months before going away.
This may seem unnecessary as there are always deals and accommodations available.
However large ski chalets sleeping this many people are hard to come by, especially if you are looking for sole occupancy of a chalet.
And it can be even harder to book if you would like a peak week such as Christmas, New Year or half term.
If you have found that accommodations that ticks the boxes for most of your ski group, or you are lucky enough that they have all been ticked, then don’t hang around!
Decide extremely quickly. Even after 5 minutes the chalet could be booked from under you. Then you have to start all over again!
France Skiing has seen this many times before. A group takes a few hours to discuss via phone calls, email exchanges and group discussions. By the time they come back, it is too late and the chalet has been booked up.
If it feels right or is almost right, go for it! Put down your deposit.
Group Ski Holiday Deals – Great Savings to Be Had
A big advantage to group skiing holidays is the savings you can make.
Some bookings can be combined, depending on the size of the group and the type of accommodation you choose.
For example there are often sole occupancy discounts if you book out an entire chalet. So a chalet that sleeps 17 would have two extra beds – meaning two extra people.
Groups often receive “buy one get one free” on ski equipment rental as well as ski tickets in resort.
So group ski holiday savings really start to mount up!
Remember – the bigger the group, the bigger the potential of the group ski savings.
Check out the France Skiing website for more information, deals and suggestions. If you want to request some quotes, fill out the contact us form and someone will contact you very quickly.