Small is beautiful

Having arrived back to our house in Leeds after 7 months away we’ve had a busy week in the garden, trimming, tidying, mowing, cropping and lopping. The harsh Yorkshire winter didn’t stop our herb patch attempting its annual takeover of the garden nor the privet hedge from expanding upwards and outwards.

Alpine Ethos work has been on the back burner a little this week while we wait for our broadband to go live (why does it take over a week to sort out for a house with an existing phone line?) but some really promising enquiries and another deposit cheque cashed make for a very positive week despite that.

We said last week that we wanted to talk about some of the key issues facing us as business owners and as chalet operators in the ski and snowboard industry. We thought that a sensible place to start might be what got us into the business in the first place.

Independent vs. package holidays

We have always been keen independent travellers, with the planning and research a key aspect of any holiday we take. We have been on snowboarding holidays with both package operators and independents for roughly the same price and have always been blessed with good snow and sunny weather.

What we found with the big tour operators was that we were dealing with a one stop shop, with all travel and transfers included. Whilst this saved us time in the booking process we found that we were tied to timetabled travel times (and type of travel) which often involved early morning trips to the airport. In resort we found ourselves in the hands of young and inexperienced chalet and resort staff which led to varying standards of organisation, hit and miss meals and without wanting to sound too negative, poor quality of wine.

Whilst these things didn’t ruin our holidays, it was on the flight home from our last package holiday that we hit upon the idea that we (armed with our knowledge of what we think makes a good ski holiday together with our catering and hosting skills) may be able to provide a better standard of hospitality whilst maintaining excellent value for money. We felt that as an independent chalet operator we would be more invested in making our guests’ holidays a real success than the package companies and decided to stake our reputation on just that.

We now pride ourselves on providing consistently good food and wine, a warm and friendly atmosphere in the chalet and practical advice whenever it is needed. Skiing and snowboarding holidays can be expensive and we aim to ensure that when you leave it will have been money well spent.

With regards to the independent travel aspect we believe that it is easier to organise your trip than ever before. Flexibility is the key meaning you can choose a travel option that suits you, be it train, plane or self-drive. Sites like Snow Carbon for train travel and flight comparison sites allow you more flexibility should you want to squeeze that extra day on the slopes into your holiday or just fly at a more sociable hour than you might otherwise.

If you’ve never tried an independent ski chalet holiday before, try it, you may never look back.

Heather, Andy and Benny.