Can Every Chalet Really Be Luxury?

I guess in my experience of travelling the answer to this one is not as straight forward as it may seem. After all, the definition I guess depends on your budget. For example; what I would deem to be luxury is likely to be quite different to a Russian Oligarch as our lifestyle and disposable income, and therefore our luxury experiences we are measuring “luxury” against are not one of the same.

This aside, there does seem to be a problem with the "over playing" of this definition with the rise of independent travel business such as our own, and are probably skewing the lines significantly as a consequence. In a competitive market this is probably to be expected as each new and existing operator seeks to gain advantage, and adding the luxury badge four or five years ago was probably such then (and in most cases reflected a luxury offering), where as now it seems to have become the must have definition (earned or otherwise). The sad thing here is that luxury is probably used on 3 star chalets and to be fair to owners why not, as probably by now clients are starting to think that if it doesn't say luxury, it probably isn't even 3 star!

Hopefully by now, and assuming you are still reading, you will of got the point and as such I'll come to mine. With the over use of this term, I kind of get the feeling that more and more we need some form of regulation or marker to steer us in terms of the ratings, as is the case in the hotelier industries. More cost you may scream, but hopefully not an unreasonable one, and if in doing so it would provide a real marker for our clients to assess and make informed decisions in respect of the “luxury” label, is that a bad thing? For the owners, it might also address some of the spurious claims that can damage our industry, as well as incentivizing owners to continuously improve standards. The latter I believe has already happened through competitive forces, we just now need to recognize the fact that we have and move it on again!

Luxury Ski Chalet

Welcome to the first luxury ski blog from Chamonix Exclusive. Whilst the site is supported by the CE team, this site has been developed for people looking for advise on luxury ski chalets, and also for operators in the industry who would like to ask questions and share experiences they have related to operating a luxury ski chalet or luxury ski chalets.

As we are based in Chamonix, there may, without your contributions, be a slight Chamonix biase so hopefully with your assistance we can ensure this doesn't happen.

As a mother of two, you may also find quite a slant towards family ski holiday's and experiences, but hopefuly again my husband will bring it back in line being a keen skier and 'Alpha' male!!

Hope you enjoy.

Frances