This is part 2, the first part is here:
- Get some experience in chalet work.
This does seem obvious but many people don’t. For some reason they place finding the property higher up the list. When you have some experience of the industry then you’ll be in a better position to determine what you want from your property! It’s fairly straight forward finding work in the chalet business. There are plenty of companies looking for chalet staff. Primarily over the summer but also around January too (replacing the “fallout” from the beginning of the season). You’ll probably be provided with some training and you’ll be able to learn from your mistakes (and those of the company you are working for). A word of advice on this subject. Don’t get a job with an independent chalet operator in the town you want to set up you business in, then attempt to “steal” some of their existing clients and then set up your own business in the same village! It happens, fairly frequently and it’s not nice!
- Choose your ski resort.
You might have already done this. In fact you might decide that your clientel will be much like yourself, will enjoy the same type of skiing and ski resort at your self and so this will be straightforward. Though maybe you’d like to get off the beaten track and introduce skiers to something new! That sounds like a risky business to me. Much easier to stick with an established market. It might be tempting to think that there are some resorts that will offer better value for money when it comes to buying a property. I’m not sure that this is the case. In general the property prices reflect the popularity of a resort and the length of season, so the more expensive resorts probably are more popular, have longer seasons and enable you to charge more for the holidays.
- Do your business plan, to be continued.
- Choose your property.
Most people assume they will be buying their first property. This is fine. For years I have said that the real winners in the chalet business are the owners of the properties. That was over the period 2000 until about 2008 and was down to the large increase in capital value of the properties. If you don’t have enough money to buy a property then renting is the next best thing. Bear in mind that the big tour operators all rent their properties. It offers flexibility, they can increase or decrease their stock of property relatively quickly and they don’t have to have an enormous amount of capital tied up. Finding a property is easy after a bad season, their will be a few operators winding up their operations or downsizing but you’ll need to be “on site”, finding a property to rent in the Alps is virtually impossible via the internet!
- Find your customers, to be continued.
Posted by Gareth 
