The heavy snow that hit much of France in January provided a lifeline for chalet owners. We ask three of them how the peak winter ski season is looking
Morzine - Haute-Savoie
WHEN the phone stopped ringing at Francesca and Paul Eyre’s independent chalet business last winter, the pair knew they needed to take action fast.
They tightened up their budget, decided not to replace one departing member of staff and invested some of the saved money in a major PR offensive. They also got in touch with previous guests and regulars to drum up trade.
"We thought: we’ve got to fight it rather than sit there like shrinking violets," says Francesca, who has lived in the ski resort of Morzine for the past 15 years and has three children. The family business, Chilly Powder, rents out two chalets sleeping six and 14 and also runs a 17-room three-star hotel.
The marketing and promotions work looks to be paying off, gradually. The company has received media coverage in several UK travel and leisure magazines, and film crews from Sky Travel and TF1 have visited the area.
The phone is ringing again and although bookings are still at the same level as last year, Francesca is confident there will be a flurry of last-minute reservations, as "people are booking a lot later".
"The one thing with guests now is people try and negotiate on price," she says. "We had never had that before. The first thing they ask when they email is: what is the best deal you can do for us?
"People regularly ask: how come we can get a chalet down the road for £350 and you’re charging £800? But we are not going to drop our standards. We haven’t spent 15 years building up a reputation for that."
Unlike many ski resort businesses, Chilly Powder says it has been successful in making money during the summer.
Francesca says last summer was "fantastic" for trade, with hot weather and no rain at all.
There were concerns the winter season would be a write-off as temperatures in December stayed around the 20°C mark - but luckily Christmas brought in a spell of freezing weather and the snow is now plentiful.
Winter clients are mostly British, Dutch and South African, while the summer is popular with French tourists. It is too early to tell how this year’s summer season will pan out - most of the bookings start to arrive after the February half-term.
It is a competitive market. When the couple first started, there were only five other catered chalets in the resort - now there are hundreds. Francesca says her accountant, who works with several other owners in the region, is expecting his workload to shrink in the coming year as up to a third of businesses go bust.
Saint-Lary - Hautes-Pyrénées
CLARE Wilson says the next few months will be make-or-break for her 32-bed chalet-hotel business in Saint-Lary-Soulan in the Haute-Pyrénées.
The former International Red Cross nurse is coming to the end of her third winter season at the Chalet Lou Rider, which she opened by herself in 2007.
When Connexion spoke to her this time last year, she was banking on a successful summer season to see her through but that did not happen.
"We were going to do some work on the place last summer and I refused some reservations," she says. "I lost a lot of business through the summer."
Takings from the first month of the winter season were spent paying off debts and, although Christmas and New Year were busy, bookings since have been slow.
"Last year, February was chock-a-block but now there’s still a lot of space," Clare says. "I don’t know that I even have half as many bookings, but I’m continually getting enquiries."
She is hoping for some last-minute bookings for the peak February half term, which is spread over most of the month in France as different zones have staggered dates.
The accommodation is near the budget end of the market - more of a dormitory style than a high-end hotel - but Clare says she has been very tempted to drop prices further to get people through the door, especially outside of the key holiday periods.
This year will be the first time the hotel will be fully open in the summer season, and Clare hopes to attract walking clubs and cycling groups to make large block bookings.
"I haven’t had a full summer when we’ve been open yet. I need to be this year or I’m not going to survive," she says. "If we get a few group bookings in the summer and some off-season bookings we will be OK."
Clients so far have been mainly French and Spanish, but the number of requests from British people coming in via the website is growing.
"It’s a difficult place to market to the English because we are not close to the airport - it all adds up, getting taxis."
Samoëns - Haute-Savoie
THE NO vacancies sign will be hanging outside almost all of the 35 properties that Tom and Alison Ward-Lee manage this February - a massive relief for the couple after the winter ski season got off to a slow start.
"February half-term week in the UK is one of those weeks that will always fill up," says Tom, co-founder of Alps Accommodation in the Grand Massif region of the Haute-Savoie. About 60% of customers are from the UK.
Add the staggered French half-term holidays to the mix and occupancy rates in February are in the region of 95% to 100% - up from 70% to 80% in January.
Mild, south-westerly winds and rain at the start of winter did not look too promising, but as soon as the New Year came in, cold northerly winds brought a significant drop in temperature and excellent ski conditions, says Tom.
The couple have two chalets of their own in Samoëns and act as agents for about 35 others, from two to eight bedrooms, which are mostly owned by British families. Alison and Tom handle all the bookings, check-in and check-out and daily problems including maintenance.
"This year has been a huge time for us. We are leaps ahead on the previous winter," says Tom. "A number of people have come back to us this year having missed a ski holiday last year because of the economic crisis.
"I would say like-for-like we will be up 25% on last year by the end of the season."
January is the busiest month for phone calls as families start thinking about their holiday plans for the year ahead. Summer is difficult to tell at this early stage, but Tom says they are starting to get bookings through.
"In the last couple of years I think people are booking a bit later traditionally than they have done," he says.
"When we first came into the game five or six years ago, half-term and New Year would be booked up to a year in advance. With the big eight-bedroom properties booked by huge groups that’s still the same, but with the small two-bedroom family properties the bookings are later."
The agency view
ALPINE Answers acts as an agent for about 150 property owners in the Alps, from individual chalet landlords to large rental companies.
Partner Simon Hoskyns says he expects bookings by the end of this season to be level with the previous year - but the pattern has changed in the economic crisis.
The company had a disappointing summer with very few advance winter bookings but the past two months have been exceptionally busy with last-minute reservations.
"Normally we get 25% to 30% of our business booked before the end of August. This year we were nearly 30% down and wondering if we would have to remortgage our homes," he says.
"We had an average September and October, a good November and a record December and January."
Rental prices from the big holiday firms are stable this year, despite the strong euro against the pound.
"I think what operators have done is they’ve put the squeeze on the chalet owners," says Simon. "The price for operators has remained steady - the pressure is on the landlords."
Snow around the busy resorts of Méribel and Courchevel was late to arrive, and patchy over the Christmas week, but since then has been heavy.
The problem came when other parts of France and the UK were also hit by snow around the beginning of January, disrupting some holiday plans.
"They got there, but not necessarily on the day they wanted. There was a weekend near the beginning of January that was a nightmare, but the problems were more with people getting back than getting to the resort," Simon adds.
The coming months look promising, but the firm is not expecting much from the summer season.
"We have availability for half-term but not much, perhaps about 3% to 4%," says Simon. "The last week of March and the start of April are fully booked. We don’t do summer - it’s such a small market and it’s always booked at the last minute."
