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Understanding the Basic Etiquette of Catered Chalets

Author: Lisa Jeeves
by Lisa Jeeves
Posted: Oct 21, 2014

Planning on taking a ski holiday this year? If you've never experienced staying in chalet style accommodation before, you may be wondering what to expect and what is expected of you. The first thing to note about etiquette in catered chalets is that there are really no set rules, but here are some fast facts to give you an overview.

A Range of Accommodation Styles

Some catered chalets in upmarket ski resorts may be very exclusive establishments, with fine dining and certain assumptions, even if not explicitly expressed, about dress code and behaviours. In those, the etiquette will be as you’d expect in a fine restaurant or hotel though perhaps a fair bit more relaxed – particularly around dress code (within reason). At the other end of the scale there will be many catered chalets where the emphasis is on utilitarianism, value for money and ‘mucking in’. They’ll operate to a totally different set of assumptions.

Up-market

Generally, the emphasis here will be on guests playing their part in helping to maintain a certain ambience. Raucous laughter, borderline toilet humour, practical jokes, horsing around while you eat and leaving wet socks everywhere are all examples of things that would probably get frowned upon. Expect a discrete word in your ear if that’s how you start to behave! In terms of contribution, you probably won’t be expected to do anything. All services will be laid on and you’ll be able to relax and concentrate on enjoying the slopes and returning home to great food prepared by a professional chef, accompanied by some excellent wine. Naturally, you must expect to pay more for this level of food, service and culture.

Budget

As you might expect, if you’re closely counting those pennies but still want the convenience of staying in catered chalets, there is a range of cost-effective options open to you. Be clear though: ‘budget’ doesn’t have to mean poor quality. The level of catering is usually excellent, with emphasis on quality and quantity, but it’ll also typically be homely and prepared by a good cook rather than a cordon bleu chef. You should expect meals like chicken stew or seafood pasta rather than, say, filet mignon.

In some accommodation of this type, you might have a role to play in helping to do things like set the table, serve the food and clear stuff off the table too at the end. These types of chalets are typically very relaxed in culture and with a strong ‘communal’ spirit, which some people love and others don’t. There’s typically a lot of relaxed, good-natured chat, banter, joking and leg-pulling – assuming the group has a good mix of personalities.

You’ll probably need to be a fairly social animal to really enjoy the culture of shared accommodation. You’ll be able to get away with just about any sort of reasonable behaviour and etiquette is very relaxed, though much will be orientated towards collectivism. Don’t think you’ll be able to constantly make yourself mysteriously unavailable when the pre or post meal chores are being allocated! Of course, if you are renting out an entire chalet with a group of friends or family, the dynamics will be very much up to you.

Danielle Hodges is the Marketing Manager for Ski Amis, a specialist ski travel agency and booking service offering bonded holidays staying in catered or self catered chalets in La Tania and other fantastic destinations. For a luxury or good-value skiing holiday and the best catered chalets call Ski Amis.

About the Author

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.

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Author: Lisa Jeeves

Lisa Jeeves

Member since: Oct 18, 2013
Published articles: 4550

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