SKI SEASONS: THE NEED TO KNOW

Everything (I think) you should know about ski seasons.

By Enya McIntyre

What skills do you need to be a chalet host?

In my opinion, the main quality you need as a chalet host, or any seasonal worker for that matter, is a bubbly and outgoing personality.

Chalet hosting is a hugely social job. If you think about it in comparison to the usual hospitality jobs such as waitressing, it’s far more intimate as you are working in these people’s temporary homes. Bear in mind also, that these people are paying thousands to fly across the world for a magical week of skiing, drinking and eating so you are going to meet a lot of excited faces and be expected to match that energy. 

Don’t be afraid to immerse yourself in it and have fun with your guests. Some of my best memories from my season are with guests - I skied, drank and ate with them.

Don’t be discouraged if you’re not a master chef, nobody expects you to be. Besides 3 people out of over 20 in my company, nobody had any professional cooking experience. You learn everything in training, it’s all practise you’ll be a pro by the end.

Hospitality experience is definitely a plus, as an understanding of restaurant etiquette is valuable in this environment. However, I wouldn’t say it’s absolutely crucial, everything can be learned in training.

WHAT I WILL COVER

• What is a chalet host?

• What skills do you need to be a chalet host?

• Where does a chalet host live?

• What is an average day for a chalet host?

• What kind of meals do you cook?

• What if you don’t want to be a chalet host? What else can you do?

• What companies can I apply to?

• Pros and cons of the different job types

• Crunching the numbers - earnings, spending, savings?

• Budgeting tips

• What to pack

• Packing tips

• Budget-friendly recommendations for your shopping list

• Tips n tricks for surviving a ski season

What is a chalet host?

The answer to this really depends on what company you are working for as it differs from one to the next. 

Generally speaking a chalet host is someone who hosts a group of guests in private luxury accommodation. Usually there will be 2-3 hosts per chalet however this varies between companies.

This involves providing them with a welcome speech when they arrive by explaining different aspects about the resort like ski lift opening times, bar and restaurant recommendations and going through features of the chalet. As a host you may also accompany your guests for drinks or dinner at venues around the resort. 

Aside from hosting, chalet hosts are also usually responsible for the cleaning of the chalet and are expected to refresh the chalet daily by cleaning bedrooms and all communal areas. If the chalet includes a sauna or hot tub, these also need to be cleaned. Heavy snowfall can result in the obstruction of passages in and out of the chalet so as a host it is your duty to ensure these remain cleared.

Basically, your job is to be the hostess with the mostest. You need to constantly be reviewing every aspect of the chalet and thinking what you can improve on. People pay thousands each week to stay here so it’s crucial the standard you provide is high. 

Depending on what company you work for, you could be expected to cook in the chalet also. 

Where I worked, chalet hosts were also the chefs so breakfast, afternoon tea and a 4-course meal were all on my peers and I. In reality it’s not as scary as it sounds - you’re trained on everything!

However, as I mentioned earlier not all companies combine the role of chalet host and chef so it’s important to read the terms of your contract carefully.

Where does a chalet host live?

A lot of people ask this question. I think the assumption is that chalet hosts live in the chalet but in general, live-in chalet hosts are quite rare unless it is a private chalet. Most chalet hosts live in seasonaire accommodation provided by their employer. Some companies will make you pay for your accommodation, others won’t.

Staff accommodation varies from one company to the next. Some companies are so big that they have their own block of staff accommodation. In my case, I lived in an apartment with 3 other girls I worked with. Directly upstairs there was another apartment filled with more of my co-workers. However, the whole apartment block wasn’t all seasonaires. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, aside from us there were no other seasonaires living there.

The accommodation is generally very basic and very small. We had a small kitchen area, a living area, bathroom and two bunk-bedrooms. It’s small but you’re hardly there so it does the trick.

WHAT’S AN AVERAGE DAY FOR A CHALET HOST?

As I mentioned earlier, the role of chalet host differs for each company but my day as a host looked like this:

6.45am: One host will go to the bakery and collect the bread (take this in turns).

7am: Arrive at chalet. Clean up living area & start preparing breakfast.

8am: Guests arrive for breakfast. 

8.45am approx: Guests leave. Clean up & then sit down & eat your own breakfast.

9.30am: One host go clean the rooms & the other start prepping for dinner. If any snow needs to be cleared, now is the time for this. Set up afternoon tea.

12pm: Leave the chalet.

12- 5.30pm: Free time ie. ski/ apres/ nap/ chill

5.30pm: Back in chalet to finish dinner prep.

7pm: Serve canapés followed by starter, main, desert.

8.30-9pm: Clean up & leave chalet.

9pm: Done for the night.. go out/ chill/ sleep :)

(Obviously, this all fluctuates at times)

What kind of meals do you cook?

Luckily, it’s not up to you to come up with the menu for the chalet. We were provided with a weekly menu schedule ie. every Monday we cooked the same items and so on. By the end of it we knew most of the recipes off by heart!

Given the fact it was the French Alps, we had a number of dishes that were traditional to the region such as tartiflette, cheese fondue, raclette and pierrade etc. 

An average daily menu in the chalet might look something like this..

Breakfast:

The breakfast is an assortment of cold and hot food spread across the table: baguettes, sausages, bacon, eggs, fruit, croissants, cereals, juices, coffee etc. We would also do pancakes and french toast.

Afternoon tea:

The cake for this varies every day according to the schedule- chocolate orange was my favourite. 

Dinner (4-course)

Canape: Smoked salmon bellinis 

Starter: Roasted red pepper and tomato soup

Main: Beef bourginon

Desert: Creme brulee

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What other jobs are there?

Resort driver: 

This is basically a taxi driver for a specific company who has to drive guests around the resort. For example a group of guests may want to be driven from their chalet to the piste. 

Rep: 

Remember the types of kids clubs you’d do as a kid and there would always be the leaders taking care of you all? That’s basically a rep except instead of a kids club it’s generally mostly uni students. Reps take care of large groups who book with their company while they’re on their stay. 

Nannie:

Nannies mind the children of guests staying on resort. This is primarily during skiing time so midday but it can also involved nighttime. 

Bartender:

Bartenders work in the various apres or night bars on resort. 

Chefs:

Stick to the cooking. 

Shop assistant at ski hire:

Here your job is to deal with people coming in to hire ski or snowboard equipment. This may involve fitting them for boots and skis as well as taking payment.

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COMPANIES TO APPLY FOR (French alps: val d’isere/ tignes/ val thorens)

CHALET HOSTING

Build my ski trip (I worked there), VIP Ski, Skiworld, Purple Ski, Le Ski, YSE

APRES

Coco Ricos (Val d’Isere/ Tignes) & 360 Bar (Val Thorens) - Folie Douce usually only employs French staff

BARS

Just research what bars are in the area and shoot them a message

REPS

Nuco is most popular

10 things i couldn’t live without on season

1. Are you even irish if you don’t pack teabags?

2. between ski boots and snow boots you’re going to be sick of laces & ties, sliders are perfect for indoors

3. i’m so glad i brought some pictures, lights & decor with me. it made the place feel more like home especially at christmas.

4. berocca, lemsip and Echinacea fueled me.

5. a necessity for work, skiing and chilling

6. wardrobe space is minimal so if you have any hangable organisers, bring them. travel cubes are great too.

7. a sidebag is perfect for carrying small bits while skiing and also great for nights out.

8. it may be cold outside but it’s roasting indoors. a comfy pair of shorts is a must-have for evenings in your apartment or sleeping

9. you can never have too many socks. the more the merrier.

10. your accommodation is going to be chaos. these will be your lifeline.

Tips on how to budget

Even as a seasonaire, there is no escaping how expensive the alps are. I’m talking €14 for a vodka level of expensive. It’s not like that everywhere and after a while you will figure out where and where not to go but no matter the place, you will still need to be on your A-game to avoid big spending.

Pre-drink

Try and pre-drink as much as possible. This is one mistake we made, we opted to go straight out all the time and looking back I realise we would have saved a lot by having a few drinks in the house first. Guests often order big batches of drink to the chalet and may not get through it in the week so whatever is leftover is yours to take.

Bring a hip flask to apres

It’s rare you’ll ever get searched and it’ll make an €8 drink last that bit longer.

Minimise eating out

You really don’t need to go for lunch every single day. Especially if you’re a chalet host and have free food at your disposal - just make a baguette and eat it on the slopes.

Stop “window shopping” !!!!

Being surrounded by wealthy well dressed individuals and a multitude of expensive shops like Moncler, Patagonia, Napapijri and the likes, can lull you into a false sense of luxury and make you think you can afford to and should buy these things too. Try and avoid this trap as much as possible! Of course, treat yourself but keep it to a minimum - nobody needs 10 hats!

Minimise day-time drinks

In the spirit of “holiday mode”, we were constantly going for one singular mid-day drink while out skiing. Bear in mind, an aperol spritz up the slopes could easily be €15. It’s just unnecessary. I would suggest keeping this to a minimum.

Have a treat day

This brings me on to my next point. Try and keep your big spending and treating to one day a week. We were lucky in the sense, that we had a set day of Wednesday off per week so we all had the same day off. On days like this you should do your nice things like having the aperol up the mountain or going for dinner or most likely - blowing all your money at apres.

USE BLACK FRIDAY SALES

This tip is for before you arrive on season. I bought a lot of my ski gear at a discounted rate on Black Friday - you will get stuff for literally half the price.

Ski Gear

1. Sports bras x 4-5 

2. Leggings x 4-5 pairs (useful for layering, work & lazing about)

3. Ski socks (at least 5 pairs, it’s gross but they’re expensive so don’t feel bad about wearing them a couple times before washing, we all do it)

4. Long sleeve thermal top x 3-4 (base ski layer)

5. Mid-layer ski fleece x 3

6. Mid-layer gilet (good extra layer skiing in v cold conditions/ perfect by itself in warm weather)

7. Salopettes x 2 pairs (Honestly, they’re expensive, take up so much space and since it’s an outer layer doesn’t need to be washed as much so 2 is the perfect number. I’d recommend getting one black pair & another colour).

8. Ski jacket x 1 (I did a lot of research on ski jackets before I settled on buying the Columbia Bugaboo™ II Fleece Interchange Jacket. The reason I went for this is because of the adjustable built-in fleece layer allows you an extra layer of warmth on the days it’s really cold but can be taken out when it’s a warmer day. You’re going to be over there for up to 6 months so in that time the weather will fluctuate a lot. By the end of my season, I was skiing in a t-shirt. A ski jacket is really important and also generally expensive so you want to cover all your bases with it.

9. Helmet (It’s cheaper buying them online before you get over there. Just clip it to your backpack for your flight so it takes up no space in your bag)

10. Goggles (get an all-weather pair)

11.  Neckwarmer x 1-2 (this should be plenty)

12. Inner gloves (these are a must have when the weather is super cold)

13. Ski gloves (get the ones that hook together and can hang off your wrists)

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Shoes

1. Snowboots x 1 (something with good grip. I had Moonboots and I probably wouldn’t bother with them again)

2. Docs / boots (these are perfect for going around at day or out at night & they go with everything)

3. Trainers (I think most companies allow you to wear trainers in work. I wore black nike running shoes in work because they were comfy and matched the uniform)

4. Slides (perfect for indoor use)

5. Converse / one other pair of shoes (if you have the room it could be useful to throw an extra pair in. I wore my boots so much that by the end of it they were falling apart, I could have done with one extra pair of footwear)

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As a wise co-chalet host once said,

Miscellaneous Items:

1. Extension lead (a must-have when sharing a room)

2. Adapter 

3. Sidebag (perfect for carrying stuff skiing & nights out)

4. Backpack (in case you wanna carry some bigger stuff as you ski or go somewhere)

5. Tote bag (always useful to have with you)

6. Headphones

7. Water bottle 

8. Vitamins 

9. Berocca boost

10. Cold & flu med/ painkillers

11.  Makeup (a hanging toiletry bag would be useful)

12. Hairdryer (if there are a few of you going together, just share one. The same applies for straighteners etc)

13. Hairbrush

14. Small hair ties for plaits (they’re the best way to wear your hair while skiing)

15. Lipbalm (big necessity)

clothing

1. Socks (lots)

2. Fluffy socks x 4 (I love these for lounging)

3. Underwear (lots)

4. Baggy tshirts x 3-4 (These are great for both skiing and regular day wear)

5. Jumpers x 3-4 (These are ideal for quiet drinks, lounging, daywear, skiing)

6. Turtle necks (Same applies to these as above. A combination of all 3 is probably best)

7. Going out tops x 7-8 (You’re gonna end up having a shared wardrobe with all the girls you meet anyway but it’s better to come prepared. They’re usually small so they won’t take up much space anyway)

8. Hoodies/ fleeces x 2 

9. Cardigan x 1-2 (something that will match everything for nights out & daytime wear)

10. Sweatpants x 1 (I think one should be enough, it’s just for general wear)

11. Jeans x 1-2 (comfy pairs you like because you’ll end up wearing them A LOT)

12. Trousers x 1-2 (you’ll get sick of jeans so maybe throw in one or two other pairs of pants like flares or something to jazz up your outfits for going out)

13. Coat for nights out (jackets being stolen on nights out is such an issue, don’t risk your spenny ski jacket being taken. Get something cheap in a charity shop or Penneys and bring that out with you)

14. Scarf x 1-2

15. Hats x 1-2

16. Gloves x 2

17. PJS x 2

18. Shorts (something comfy for around the house/ sleeping- it gets really warm indoors)

PACKING TIPS

1. Don’t overpack

Packing light for a ski season is near impossible considering how big ski clothing is. What I mean is, don’t be shoving in 4 pairs of jeans, 5 dresses, a pair of heels and your entire makeup collection. Think like a minimalist and pack smart. 

2. Instead of packing everything, choose what to buy over there

The alps are expensive but it’s still possible to find reasonably priced items. Whilst on season, I bought an Oakley backpack to take out skiing and it only cost me €20. I also picked up a pair of slim fitting salopettes for €60 - a similar price to Irish retailers! If you’re stuck for packing space, it may be an idea to buy one pair of salopettes before going and wait to buy the other when you arrive.

3. Invest in a “going out” coat that you don’t care about

Coats get lost/ stolen ALL the time on ski seasons. I honestly don’t think there was one single night on my season where there wasn’t an incident relating to this. The safest thing to do is bring a cheap coat with you that will get you from A to the pub and that way if you lose it, it’s no major heartbreak.

4. TRAVEL CUBES

Travel cubes are the key to great packing and will make storage in your small accommodation that bit easier. Thermals will fit perfectly in a travel cube - just roll them all up, pop them in and zip the bag.

5. Use what you already own

Ski gear is expensive and you’re likely going to have to buy a large majority of the clothes required so why not cut back your spending by using as much of what you already own as possible? For example, thermal sets can be up to €60 a pop. If you already own a bunch of gym sets, you can just use those. I always wore leggings as my thermal base under my salopettes and I never had any problems. 

6. Think ahead with your packing 

You’re going to be over there for Christmas, New Years, Paddys Day and possibly more. Pack some festive cheer, your jersey and whatever other things you might need to bring the celebrations to the mountains.

TIP *** BLACK FRIDAY 2 FOR 1 SALE

TIPS ‘N TRICKS FOR SURVIVING A SKI SEASON

1. Meet your new bff: Naps

It’s so funny so many people start off by saying they’re not really the napping kind. Go on a ski season and then see. You’re going to be having crazy late nights, early mornings and days of skiing. Try and factor some time in for even an hour long nap before your evening shift. It will make the world of a difference.

2. Make friends with the bartenders

Yes, the free drinks are a big bonus but also, it just makes the experience more fun. It means that every time you go to order a drink you’re also having a laugh with a mate. 

3. Have a laugh with your guests

This depends on the company you work for and the type of guests they attract but if you have a group of guests coming into your chalet, for example, on a 30th birthday party and they’re having good banter with you, don’t be afraid to give it back. I genuinely have some of my best memories with my guests. Be professional and do your job but have fun also.

4. Find out what else you can do in the area and make a bucketlist

Seasonaires get discounts on activities in the area. See what’s around and what you would like to do and get doing it! I did Paraskiing while there and it was amazing!

5. Ski/ board as much as you can

Don’t come home from a ski season having hardly hit the slopes. You can drink and party anywhere in the world, it’s a rare opportunity being handed a ski pass and ski hire for free and the slopes at your fingertips everyday for 5-6 months. Don’t let it go to waste.

6. Talk to everyone

You’re not going to end up best friends with every single seasonaire on resort but it’s nice to be nice. Seasonaires are generally outgoing, friendly people so everyone is in the same boat!

7. Take your vitamins 

A berocca boost a day keeps the doctor away. There’s no denying it’s an unhealthy lifestyle so the least you can do is remember to take your vitamins. Echinacea is really good too for preventing headcolds and flus. 

8. Take a night off every once in a while

There’s no shame in taking a night off the beer and believe me you’re not going to miss anything. Cosy up in bed with a cuppa and a good book or switch on the movie you’ve been dying to watch. Have some well-needed me time.

9. Everyone hits a wall

This brings me to my next point. It’s important to take care of yourself because there comes a time for everyone during season when they hit a wall and think fuck this, fuck my job, fuck this claustrophobic environment, I want to go home. Everyone’s been there. It’s normal and it will pass. Just remind yourself how lucky you are to be there. Take a step back from it all for a second and just have a breather. Go for a walk by yourself, Facetime your friends or family, take a couple of nights off the drink and you’ll be back rearing to go in no time. 

10. Love every second of it

This truly was one of the best, if not the best, experience of my life. The amount of fun I had and amazing friends I have made is just incredible. Go in with a positive mindset and choose to love it all. You will have days where you’re walking to work at 7am on an hours sleep with a boozy head wanting to throw yourself in the snow and cry but then you get into work and just laugh it off with your friends and possibly your guests who were out with you as well. There’s no experience quite like it and it’s all ahead of you.

SKI SEASON ‘22 THE MOVIE