Ski Hire St Anton

Just thought ill recommend Hervis ski hire in St Anton .
We tried a few others and as there were 10 of us we normally get a little discount.They wouldnt budge at all and was told to book online for any offers.
So popped into Hervis whos standard prices are cheaper than the others anyway and got an extra 20% off the list price .

Just back from St Anton. Their ski hire prices are ridiculous and there is a remarkable consistency of prices across all the different shops :evil:. My understanding is that nearly all of them are owned by just 2 families. The Austrian competition authorities could probably have fun if they took a close look :roll:.

We used Mietski this time around. They operate a little bit like Ryanair :shock: If you book early enough, the price is really low but then it rises as you get closer to your dates or if demand is particularly high at that time. You also get exactly the skis that you book.

The only difficulty is that they tend to operate out of town and they service St Anton from a premises in Pettneu, which is about 6km from St Anton. We had a car so this was not a problem and saved us about €50 each :wink:.

Have to say this is how it works in Austria - you find one or two local families own pretty much everything from the ski shops to restaurants and huts up the mountain, to hotels.
Its been the same in most resorts I have been to. Solden pretty much belongs to the Riml family.

Having said that when I looked at St Anton ski hire as my friends wife as renting, the prices were outrageous. He did, however, pre book online about 6 months before and saved a similar amount.

Wasley correctly identifies and resolves the issue. A few years back there I met with a local, who told me there was a single family ski hire cartel operating in the Arlberg.
It did not matter which ski agent one used, after all the applied discounts, the bottom line was always identical.

So good luck to Hervis. I have bought a fair amount of gear from there, and one of my ski instructor buddies later became a manager in a local store.

Its funny, price fixing goes in all around us. Fuel, flights, supermarkets........

Hervis is a bit like a European version of Sports Direct - you can find some good bargains, but be careful what you are buying for skiing as some of the stuff is poor quality or low spec. Some, I said, not all ;-)

I hope that price fixing does NOT go on everywhere. It is illegal everywhere in Europe.

Moreover, it is quite evident that price fixing does NOT go on in supermarkets or flights. The Lidl/Aldi effect has brought pressure on to the established supermarkets purely by competition.

"Hervis is a bit like a European version of Sports Direct"
Really? In Hervis, almost all of the assistants have winter multi sports expertise. They are also really helpful in the purchase experience. (Two years ago, they allowed me three separate levels of discount on a pair of skis)
In contrast, shopping at Sports direct is a bit like repeatedly hitting your thumb with a hammer. No sports knowledge, little product knowledge, slow service, overcrowded isles. If they tried to sell ski equipment, they would quickly be out of business.

Sorry to correct you, Dave, but Sports Direct do sell ski equipment (http://www.sportsdirect.com/skiing/skis).

I was quite amused to see they list skis under 'accessories'!

Someone on here once described Sports Direct as a 'jumble sale'; I think that's about right!