Organising a large group

Hey,

So I've rather madly taken it upon myself to organise a skiing holiday next year with a load of people from a university sports club. I'm thinking that I'll be able to get 20 interested parties without too much trouble. Whilst I have planned a holiday before, it's never been with such a large group - so what I want to know is where I should be going to get the best deals, etc. We will all be students, so price is an issue, but we're happy to self cater. Not too bothered by which country, so long as the skiing is good (so not looking at Bulgaria, Romania etc.).

Any recommendations from someone more experienced than myself?

Ta,
Gooseh

Gooseh! Brave!
Can't help with location or accommodation suggestions I'm afraid but something did occur to me when I read your post.
As there will be 20 young people I'd be very careful of SC as I can bet some people won't pull their weight. Also, for 20 people it would be hard to take enough food with you and it could get expensive.
As the party leader most of the catering/cleaning up will probably end up falling to you, so I reckon somewhere that offers half board would be best for you.
And someone has to do all the shopping when they'd rather be drinking!

Be careful of people pulling out of the trip as well - that inevitably happens. Make sure they pay a decent deposit and allow yourself plenty of time to get final payments in.

Good luck.
I bet there'll be someone along with more advice.
:D

you want to be looking at a company like on the piste. they cater specifically for large groups and students. i have dealt with them before and they are quite good. give me a shout if you need a hand setting it all up

Most of the tour operators rate certain resorts as 'good for groups'. I tend to believe this means that they have a large hotel to fill more than anything else.

They usually have a table telling you which weeks have how many free places. As on this link here. http://www.crystalski.co.uk/groups/groupfreeplaces.shtml This can be useful for saving the group some money.

Never take at face value how many free places are available from an operator. We've never booked a holiday with the headline amount of free places. That'll only be for a limited amount of weeks in the season and not for all resorts either.

My parents organise a "group" ski holiday nearly every year, with about 40 going, but they use the easy method of picking a resort and a week, then everyone books their own accomodation and transport. (So kinda cheating...)

You could look at pre-booking the Eurostar night train to Moutier, then book a private coach to transfer you all, then book a chalet. Depending on the Euro, a chalet can often be cheaper than self catering.

I'd advise you not to take responsibility for travel, especially flights or coach transfer - leave it to them. Choosing a resort that's accessible by air/car/public transport would be better than one which depends on a coach transfer: out of 40 people there are bound to be at least couple who don't turn up, perhaps more.

We had a brilliant result this year with a catered chalet for 27 at £430 ph. It was a Neilson holiday found for me by an agent [who'd I'd recommend but the lady who helped me isn't there anymore and the others aren't quite so helpful :evil:]. Our discount equated to something like one in four places free.

Someone like Iglu cover most of the operators. I've had someone very helpful there before too. Once you've found a suitable place you've all got to pay a deposit and then people are committed. I'd highly recommend you get a package ie: flights, transfers and accommodation and then get everyone to book their own passes, hire, etc.

I'm already onto next year's. Glutton for punishment :mrgreen:

the comments on people dropping out are bang on. If this happens you can get landed with under occupancy charges. Better to give a refund (or team T-shirt) in resort than to have to go around asking for a top up. There may be operators who deal with large groups in a different way to the norm so worth looking into ? I think I'd agree with the comments on catering. half board or club hotel/chalet can make life easier (don't underestimate the cost of eating out if you end up in major French resorts).
hopefully of help.