Ski Season Bookings Once Again A Great Success

Whilst it is certainly too early to talk about the ski season being a success, after a slow start, this season looks set for record sales! This may or may not reflect our continued success and growing reputation as one of the best luxury catered ski chalets in the Chamonix Valley and certainly the premier ski in ski out holiday chalet. Certainly our reputation as one of the best luxury chalets means that we certainly can't stand still as others quite rightly seek to copy our success.

The ski in ski out location will be hard to surpass, but that's only part of our success and we are already thinking about next year in respect of how we take the luxury ski chalet service up a level or two. On this note, we have already added a sixth bedroom and your favourite ski in ski out chalet now accommodates 12 people in six luxuriously appointed bedrooms. At the end of the ski season we will be added a Games Room as well fully fitted with a pool table, home cinema television, Wii, children's toys, to name just a few.

So for those who are asking what is behind Chamonix Exclusive's success and appeal to all, quite simply its because at this luxury catered ski chalet, we never stand still!

Ski In Ski Out - Great Mountain Restaurants Chamonix

If you are visiting Chamonix Valley, and Les Houches in particular, and you love great mountain restaurants, the Chamonix Exclusive Ski in Ski Out Blog may be of interest to you as today's blog covers the fantastic (good), the bad, and the ugly Mountain Restaurants. But if there is one restaurant in the Chamonix Valley that stands out, it has to be the Vieilles Luge:

Vielles Luge - Les Houches, Chamonix
As you will see from the blog, this is a mountain restaurant that is a must visit for any skier who thinks skiing should be a gastronomic delight as much as it should about great skiing holiday. 250 years old, a rustic farmhouse where the warm welcome is somehow surpassed by the fantastic cuisine. Lower your head, step inside, and just take in the charming, quaint, rustic, savoyard, cosy,  all rolled in to one. And if you bump into Julie and Claude, give them our regards, and then savour the occasion!

Luxury Ski Chalet

If you follow our Luxury Ski Chalet News Page or Luxury Ski Chalet Blog at our Chamonix Exclusive site, you will have noted that Chris Hogg and Ruby Mahil left our ski in ski out organisation with immediate effect last week. For legal reasons I can not provide any further details on this.

Whilst we had a number of candidates apply, the position has now been filled, and we thank our interim chef for the fine food she served out our luxury ski chalet.

Running A Luxury Ski Chalet Is Never Dull

The last few weeks have certainly not been dull here. Many of you will have seen the press reports relating to Les Houches and Chalet Prarion and needless to say, a great deal is just speculative journalism and inappropriate in our view at that. The fact that Chalet Prarion has no employee by the name of 'Chris May', as the press claim, and never have had, speaks volumes in respect of the credence some of the reports in our opinion should be given!

On a brighter note, a happy New Year and we hope you had a great Christmas! If any readers went on a Christmas ski, or New Year ski break, lets us know your thoughts and accounts and we will try and publish one or two.

I look forward to completing a more in depth blog when I have time and perhaps the next one can focus on the luxury ski chalets in Les Houches in view of the recent attention Les Houches and the most exclusive ski in ski out chalet has received.

Heavy Snowfall Across The European Alps

All across the Alps there has been heavy snowfall with more forecast throughout the week. When you are looking for that luxury ski vacation, you can't help picturing great powder as part of the package. Whilst no operators can guarantee the weather, what we can assure you here on the Luxury Ski Chalet blog is that we will only feature great accommodation ran by people who really care about the service and customer satisfaction.

What Makes A Luxury Ski Chalet

I guess one has to start with a good standard of ski accommodation, but then this in many respects from our experience is only a very small part of the luxury ski chalet package.

In the five years we have been running our luxury chalet we have found that probably the most important element is service which in our view is primarily about the people involved with our business. I genuinely believe that unless you really are passionate about getting it right, and have an inner desire to continuously find new ways to do things better, then the chances of you delivering a luxury chalet holiday are somewhat remote. I guess as an accountant and having worked as a change consultant the desire to continuously move the bar is inherent, and this helps in the way that year on year we strive, and find things to do that little better.

But at our ski in ski out luxury ski chalet the people that deal primarily with our valued clients is the professional chef, and chalet host. Whilst we provide concierge services and support as necessary,

when we recruit our staff we are looking for strong individuals who can effectively make quick decisions and have a real desire to please and provide service over and above the norm. Each year we fine tune the selection process to ensure we make the right choices, and in addition, provide the structure, through enabling controls, checks and systems to be empowered and measured, client feedback being important, to deliver a high quality and exceptional service.

I guess last year we must have got it pretty close with an average client feedback score of 4.8 out of 5.0. But such a high score is never a time to sit back, quite the opposite.

Snowfall Across The Alps

Here in the Chamonix Valley we have again woken to another snowfall and a chance to wrap up warm and enjoy the majestic scenery that we so enjoy as a consequence of living in this beautiful valley. I guess this last point is one of the main reasons, and there are certainly many, that Chamonix is so famous and well loved.

I consider myself privileged in the respect that I have been lucky enough to have skied all over Europe and America and yet this Valley stands out above them all. There are of course some great resorts such as Aspen, Banff, Courchevel, Meribel,St Anton, Val d'Isere, Verbier, Whistler and Zermatt, but none are as pretty and as dramatic as Chamonix (although Zermatt is one that comes very close).

I guess luxury for us goes a little further than just the finer things in life, and a great luxury ski chalet, but having the chance to wake up at any point in the year and have one of the world's most magical views - the Mont Blanc Massif and its 4,000m jagged peaks that are visible from the valley floor is I guess just a luxury that exist here and probably unrivalled anywhere else.