How to book a group ski trip on a budget!

sternn

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a thread explaining how I have booked ski trips for a group of mates for the last few year! Hopefully this isn't too late and people can take advantage of some of the things I have learned along the way.
For the last 3 years, I have organised a ski trip for a group of mates (from 16 people in Feb 2015 to 24 people in March next year). The first trip I organised was in February 2015 when we went to Les 2 Alpes. This was only around 700 per person but we stated in self-catering apartments that you could literally ski to the door of the apartments. This price included flights, accommodation, transfers, ski pass and ski rental.

In February of this year, the 21 people in my group paid an average of 850 per person for a week of skiing in Les Gets, France. This included flights, accommodation (excellent catered Chalet with breakfast, afternoon tea, dinner and outdoor Jacuzzi), transfers to/from ski resort, ski pass and ski rental. The only costs over there was drink and lunch.

March 2017 is the third trip. This time there are 24 of us heading to Les Coches in La Plange, France. The average price per person this time around is 915 but there are some differences which I have explained in the cost breakdown below.

One of the key things to consider before booking a trip is the location. Decide on a couple of resorts prior to booking. The main things to look out for are the altitude (the higher the resort, the lower the risk of low snow fall). Choosing resorts will allow you to focus on accommodation. Agents (as discussed in the accommodation section below) will provide a wealth of information if you don t know where you want to go. Message them with a budget per person and state what you want in a resort (not too expensive, good nightlife, decent beginner / advanced slopes, high altitude, etc ), they will then provide a couple of suggestions which allows you to perform your own research. Some of them will offer deals, but I have found these not to be such good value.


Accommodation - 420
This is a catered chalet that serves breakfast, afternoon tea and cakes and 4 course dinner in the evening. All alcohol is also included. Not just a glass of wine at dinner, this is a free bar! The chalet also has a sauna, games room and each bedroom is either a double or 2 singles - no rack-n-stack of people in bunks! You can also ski to the door.
How to get a bargain? This is the most time consuming part of organising the trip. To get the right bargain, flights and accommodation must be assessed at the same time. If you are looking for a catered chalet, it seems a bit complicated when you start searching on Google as there are so many different websites and options. I have worked out that there are many agents that will have the same chalet, but the prices all tend to be the same. It is very difficult to book directly with the owners as most of them only allow booking through agents. Some of the agencies own their own chalets, so will only be sold through themselves. Interactive Resorts and Iglu Ski are two UK companies I have used in the past and are both helpful with information. Although I am all for supporting Irish companies, their prices and range of accommodation were not competitive when put up against UK companies. Key point - the agents will do a deal. If you are booking out a full chalet, you obviously have more bargaining power. I got my price reduced by around 15% by saying that it was just outside our budget etc etc., but we were looking to take the entire place so it worked in our favour. I booked the accommodation in July, also availing of early booking season discounts! As we were booking through a UK site (most of the websites advertising chalets will be priced in sterling), we actually benefitted from a favourable exchange rate which has only been getting better for us as we are paying off part of the accommodation.

Flights (including checked bag) - 128 average
Flights will define when and where you go. SkyScanner is obviously your friend in these cases. Geneva is a great place to fly into for skiing. You can easily get transfers to the French alps. It is also outside the EU so tax free airport shopping! Swiss has been my airline of choice for the past two years. They are much better priced compared with Aer Lingus who are the only other direct flight airline to Geneva. For our first trip, we flew with Ryanair into Grenoble. Depending on the resorts you are looking at, certain airports will suit better as the transfers won t be as significant.
How to get a bargain? Once you have a couple of accommodation options, the next step is to look at flight prices. The chalets will be priced differently based on certain dates. For the UK / French and Swiss school mid-terms, they will be much more expensive than other weeks so avoid them. Another key thing to consider is airline price breaks. If you are booking with an airline group booking, you will be given a price for the entire group based on the cost of the last seat booked. To explain, airlines might have 7 seats at 50, and then the 8^th seat might be 80. If you book for 8 people at the same time, you will be charged 80 per seat. Instead, break up the booking. Book 7 seats at the 50 and then the 8^th seat alone for 80. For my group of 24, I made 4 different bookings to ensure that I fully availed of their seating price breaks. I have done the same with many other group trips. I also contacted Aer Lingus groups for example, or Swiss groups, but their quotes were almost double what we actually paid in the end! One disadvantage of this type of booking is that you incur a fee for changing a name. But the savings for removing that benefit are much greater than the cost of booking a new flight or paying the change fee!

Transfers - 56
Transfers are available from any airport and you should not bother looking at booking this until after the flights and accommodation are booked.
How to get a bargain? You can use Ben's Bus or Alti Bus, for example, if you are a small group. However, the key way to save on transfer costs is to go with a local bus company. For our trip this year, we got a quote from Ben s Bus for 90 return. I found a local bus company who offered us return transfers from Geneva to La Plange for 56 for the 3 hour transfer! For that, we have our own private coach that seats 32, so we have space to move around. A very significant discount from the heavily advertised Ben s Bus. When you book the accommodation, ask for transfer advice from the chalet when the agent puts you in touch with them. They will know some of the local bus companies. Otherwise, Google is your friend.

Ski Pass - 233
The ski pass is one of the more expensive parts of the trip. Depending on the resort, there are different ski areas, usually local and extended ski areas. For us, the local ski pass was 233 with discounts while the extended ski pass was an extra 50.
How to get a bargain? If there are any beginners in the group, investigate ski school packages. Usually, lesson packages offer ski passes as part of a beginner lesson package so keep watch for this. For our group, the beginners have 6x3hour lessons, ski rental and 6 day ski pass all included for 419 with ESF. This is a saving of around 150 for the beginners. By far, ESF in the French alps is the best value. People will have different opinions on the quality of lessons but we have found them fine to deal with. For all the non-beginners in the group, go to the website of the local ski resort and check out the deals they have. Usually there are offers for people purchasing 3 or 4 ski passes at the same time. I contacted the ski pass office directly and they provided me with a quote that was 7% less than the cheapest advertised ticket. The chalet are also going to collect these from the ski pass office and have them waiting there when we arrive.

Ski Rental - 75
[font=Times New Roman","serif]When looking at ski rental, there are a couple companies I have used in the past. [/font][font=Times New Roman","serif]Ski Set[/font][font=Times New Roman","serif], [/font][font=Times New Roman","serif]InterSport[/font][font=Times New Roman","serif], and [/font][font=Times New Roman","serif]Ski Discount[/font][font=Times New Roman","serif]. Whatever shop you are looking at, either make sure it is close to your chalet or that they deliver. The worst thing (and I have had to do it before) is to arrive from a long flight / transfer and have to walk down to the ski shop to collect the skis and walk for 15/20 minutes with them over my shoulder. Not fun![/font]
[font=Times New Roman","serif]How to get a bargain?[/font] [font=Times New Roman","serif]Sign up to their newsletters, search on Google for discount codes (there are always some floating around) and get them to price match! I have often mailed them saying I got a quote of x from this company, can you beat that. Book the skis in September / October. That is when I have found the best deals. Any later, and you risk not getting discounts. Any earlier, well you might still get some discounts. I like to split the cost for the group so I don t pay and book everything at once.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman","serif]There you have it! I hope this helps some of you plan your ski trips. Hopefully it isn t too late for some of you. Obviously it is a significant time investment for the organiser, but I reckon I have saved the group around 5,000 in total by going down this route. [/font]

ted1

We find it best to pick up a car in Geneva and then head to Chamonix. Much better than a coach and you can use it during the week.

sternn

ted1 wrote: »

We find it best to pick up a car in Geneva and then head to Chamonix. Much better than a coach and you can use it during the week.

I guess it depends on the numbers and if you are comfortable driving in the snow conditions for resorts in high altitudes. Obviously renting a coach for 4 or 5 people is going to be a lot more expensive than a car!

the groutch

Are people really this desperate to try win a €50 voucher?

sternn

the groutch wrote: »

Are people really this desperate to try win a €50 voucher?

Not really to be honest, I just thought I'd share some tips on how I have saved money on group booking for ski trips. It appeals to some, but not all. I watch the forum a lot myself but don't contribute too much. Nobody is forcing anybody to read it!

vicwatson

the groutch wrote: »

Are people really this desperate to try win a €50 voucher?

These "here's how to travel on a budget" should be in the travel forum imo

RasTa

That's €480 if you book with directski in March(4 people).

Staying here



Add passes and hire and it's still cheaper with them.

Could probably get hire free if you mention 27 people

sternn

RasTa wrote: »

That's €480 if you book with directski in March(4 people).

Staying here



Add passes and hire and it's still cheaper with them.

Could probably get hire free if you mention 27 people

I saw that alright. It's a hotel and you stay in self catering apartments. The price I quoted above is for a fully catered chalet (breakfast, dinner and all alcohol) it's a much better deal. As I said, this quote is for a group whom probably won't want to cook. Ski villages can be very expensive to eat out, with a limited amount of supermarkets for buying groceries.

RasTa

Depends on what you want, I like cooking and a bottle of decent plop in France is around €3.

4 of us went to Meribel a few years back and spent about €600 all in as we were cooking our own stuff and flights and accommodation was €249 and that area was almost as good as Whistler.