J2Ski Holiday 2014

You are spot on there Ally, as usual.

We could use this "down time" to gather info and do some research perhaps on options as they are put forward? Then attack the decision making/surveys etc. in anger as we approach next season. If we can get the when and where finalised around Christmas, after everyone has had their chance to make suggestions and vote (or however we are going to reach a consensus), we can book in January.

We might even be able to leave the booking until after the 2013 trip, so that those going can report back on how it worked out, which may (or may not) encourage others to sign up for 2014.

Hi Icy, and Felthorpe

I started typing a reply and it totally disappeared

I wonder if it will ever re-appear?

Icy,
I started organizing the January 2013 holiday in March 2012 and some people had already booked their 2013 ski holiday by then, so they couldn't come.

I don't really know how to cater for the last-minute type of person. It's easy enough to book a ski holiday last-minute if it's just for your own family, but it's much harder if it's for a group.

There may well still be places in the chalet in Les Brevieres at the last minute. But I don't know, because it's out of my control. Even Bonjour don't know. I just had a booking this morning for one of our own cottages for tomorrow

As far as I know the only way we can make a block booking is either to make it well ahead of time (like I did with Bonjour) or to go for a less popular date (like the other lot did by going for the end of April). Bonjour were happy to hold the entire chalet for us for a month whilst I found out how many people wanted to come. I don't know how long other companies would hold it for us.

If I'd waited until a peak booking period I'm sure Bonjour wouldn't have been willing to hold the whole chalet for us. They told me at the time that bookings were quite slow (apart from for entire chalets). By the time I phoned them towards the end of March 2012 the first 2 weeks of January 2013 had already been booked.

Felthorpe,
If we could make the same sort of arrangement with the accommodation owners as we did this time, we could do something like start the booking process for 2014 at the beginning of January 2013, and end it at the beginning of February. That way, as you said, people could see how much fun we'd had during our Les Brevieres holiday before they made up their minds. We could sort of be like J2Ski group holiday guinea-pigs

AllyG wrote:I'm really glad Snapzzz and Ian decided to stick to J2Ski

The trouble is, Snapzzz, no thread on here ever stays 'clean' for long

(And I should know because I'm the Wibble Queen!).

I think using this thread to collate ideas is fine, but then we need to use something like that SurveyMonkey to count the votes. But this time I'd like to find a survey where the voting isn't anonymous.

The other problem is that this is the 'quiet' period for J2Ski.
So I think, like Old Andy suggested, we'd have to let the voting run for several months, probably into next winter.

I've noticed that quite a few people book their ski holidays as soon as they get back from one, so I reckon we'd have to have the holiday for 2014 all sorted by, say, the beginning of January 2013. And then people could decide whether they wanted to come or not.

I would suggest resort nominations by PM and then post the list and the short list

What a good idea Ian! I never thought of that.

I wonder how large my inbox is

AllyG wrote:What a good idea Ian! I never thought of that.

I wonder how large my inbox is

I don't really know how many J2skiers want to book a J2 ski hol, just a guess I'm thinking 20 ???

OR to make sure we cater for all tastes.........

Firstly, I come in peace. I think the end of the season is making some a bit tetchy, but it looks like you've all calmed down now.

I would definately consider the 2014 trip as I can't do the 2013 trip as its in January, I really don't mind where we go, as long as there's snow, that's all my requirements