Messages posted by : Dave Mac
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Perfect timing. I just unpacked from Colorado, off to Niederau in a couple of days to get the season end in!
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Good luck with Alp D'Huez, Billip. I would guess you will have a great time. Our Feb trip was to ADH, OK, but the downside was bad viz. Same on my Jan Austria trip. and same on much of my March Colorado trip.
By way of catch up. I have just booked to go back to Austria on Wednesday.... Still hoping for a late visit to Cairngorm when I get back.... |
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Of course, Iain. And you can find the same info, if yoo look at the start/finish dates of Harriet Green's employment, then check the Share price a few months before, (when I said that management change was evident from the accounts), and then after she left, the correlation is evident. It wasn't just the accounts that looked awry to me, it was also their strategy. They were essentially a ski operator. So why did they end up offering a range of unrelated things, including summer holidays to Russia? I hasten to add that Ido not spend my warm seasons reading company accounts!!!!! |
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To say the least! |
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Andy, I have always said you were a big booker!!!!
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It is only the accommodation element that is preset a year ahead, and as we see every season, even that element is strongly fluid.
Airfares are pre and block booked, but remain elastic when there are fuel cost reductions. Transfer costs are much more competitive than they used to be, lowering fuel cost and the availability of eastern european drivers being influences. Within Tos, there has been strong cost reductions. One of the above posters made a statement a few years back that Thomas Cook was in financial trouble, and suggested it had a limited future. I looked at the accounts, and it seemed obvious to me that management change was required at the top level, and that is what I suggested on J2ski. A few months later Harriet Green was appointed as CEO. Within a short period of time, the company made a significant financial turnaround. When she then left,the share values tumbled. Inghams used to be the market leader in quality. A change in CEO meant that the company aimed downmarket, attempting to gain market share. They laid off some really high performing individuals. This turned out to be wholly misguided, as Crystals, who targeted improving customer care, continued to improve it's care performance. Regrettably, from personal experience, that care level appears to have reversed. The point of going through this diatribe is that company performance has a strong influence on holiday costs. Away from TOs, in seasons where holiday costs go awol, consumers switch to DIY, and costs are challenged. Moving back towards the original premise, no, I do not believe that Brexit will have any significant effect, unless it is a positive one. I worked, for many years as a director of a Scottish engineering company, responsible for generating new business, (and as a result, hundreds of jobs). For the first few years, we were outside the Euro. Nevertheless, we generated a lot of pre-euro business, which continued inside the Euro. I have reflected since then, that my co-directors seemed not to notice that many of my contacts were based in Austria and Switzerland.... They even included one company based in Keystone, Colorado. Whoops, sorry, I mean central Denver.... |
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I used to race there between ski seasons, sharing a house in Glossop with other instructors.
Only cost a broken thumb and six stitches to a head cut. I have always regretted suggesting to the head nurse that she looked like a film star. ~ "It's quite clear that Mr Mac has no need of any local anasthetic", she arched, primly. Ouch. That was the summer, I had an engineering contract to design and supervise the build of a machine to package and palletise Mars Bars. After the machine was built and prep tested, Mars delived 36 boxes, each containing 144 Mars Bars. Unfortunately, (for Mars), they let slip that they could not accept as returns any boxes that were damaged. I quickly organised a more rigourous test spec. It was just amazing just how many boxes were damaged. (Just bad luck, I guess). Needless to say, the following winter in Niederau, Haus Hubertus had a generous Mars bars supply that lasted from mid-December to mid-April..... |
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Hmm, given that I do a budget every year (in actuality every trip), I have a long term history of exchange rates and direct costs.
There are outcome variations. T/O costs are mainly influenced by previous year exchange rates, when they make their booking commitments. Hotel/airlines/local operators can read the signs and take remedial actions. Will skiers be scared off by this currency movement? Possibly some will. There is a longer term upside. In every adverse financial situation there is a corporate learning process, leading to longer term lowering of costs. Just as a leveling issue on costs, my first Austrian 2 week accommodation cost per night was £0.00, my next season cost was £0.33 per night, b&b. As in last season, next season I expect to pay less than €30/night b&b. |
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