The great Lech ski hire swindle!!!!

My good lady wife has asked me to put this thread on as we've just got a good deal on a week in Lech only to find all the savings wiped out by the cost of ski rental. Now I appreciate that rental is usually a tad more expensive in Austria than France but Lech seems to be taking the p..s to levels I've not seen before as in massive rip off merchants. Is this a case of "they've got you by the short and curly's" or is there something i'm missing.Don't mention promo codes done all that and cheapest I can find is 165 euros for the week.I can't seem to find a way round this as their doesn't seem to be many shops to choose from so little in way of competition and what's there seems to be owned by the local mafia{family} so have they got me by the goolies!!!

I think 'rip off' is an over used phrase these days.....

Pricing is usually down to the economics of supply and demand. I haven't skied Lech (but would like to) but I'm led to believe it's a premium resort and as such I wouldn't expect bargain basement pricing.

We always use Snowberry when we ski in Val d'Isere and their kit is brilliant. Current online price for int/adv skis for the week is 139 Euros. Adv/expert is 159 euros.

Therefore Lech seems comparable (unless you are being asked to pay 165 euros for substandard kit)

Out of interest, I only paid 995 krone for advanced skis when in Are, Sweden recently. That calculates to about £80 for the week which seemed amazingly good value.

I agree with Barney. That doesn't seem overly expensive for a resort like Lech.
Indeed in Soldeu, which some people would say was a 'cheap' resort, you would pay 150-200euros for top of the range equipment.

Hang on - seems really expensive to me!
Alpe D'Huez - with Sport 2000. 6 days
free ride skis + multi ride (change as much as you want) + insurance = 112.20 E
or - 85.20 + 15.00 + 12.00
Cham87 first Saturday as most stuff was out. Changed to Head Rev 90 then Rossi Sin 7 (brand new).

Doesn't seem a bad price. Assume season is 18 week and skis are in region of 1000 Euro, plus 3 services so total cost 1060 Euro. Even assuming that the shop is free and the nice person who adjusts your binding gets zero salary that would require equipment to be rented 60% of the time to break even. Of course if you want second or third season skis you would expect a discount but is difficult to avoid the math of running a business.

OldAndy: Out of interest, why did you change from the Cham 87 to the Head Rev 90.

I paid 90 euros in Val for Atomic redster xt last year and was quoted 140 euros for same skis in snowberry so that's a no brainer bb. This year 84 euros in Courchevel again for Atomic redster xt. These are two premium resorts bb and brucie. I rest my case

Interesting. Last year several ski hire shops in St Anton were found guilty of colluding over prices. I noticed that Lech has no Intersport - one of the few resorts anywhere in Europe without one.

My sentiments entirely iainm. I can only find three shops in Lech and prices are exactly the same. I tend to ski on Atomic redster everytime unless a storm comes in and in the Lech shops they appear to only have Atomics from 2014 season looking at the graphics for 165 euros and that's with a promo code. I find some of the previous comments a little naive with the exception of oldandy who seems to be on my level