Catered Chalets - A Very British Accommodation Option

Whenever the subject of winter holidays is brought up to a British winter sports enthusiast, his or her mind will immediately turn to ski chalets. La Tania (in the French Alps) and the rest of the popular Alpine winter resorts are prolific in these, offering from the most basic ‘budget’ type to the ultra-posh catered type - prices for the rental of which can reach absurd heights. Regardless of which category they fit into, all these have one thing in common: they are in consistently high demand, and it is not unusual to see any given company’s offer of accommodation become fully booked during the winter months.

What is even more surprising about this type of accommodation, however, is that very few people outside of Britain seem to have heard of it. While for British skiers, the types of chalets La Tania and other resorts offer are the accommodation option for a snow holiday, most of the rest of Europe seems perfectly content to stick with hotels or lodges for all their sleeping and eating needs on this kind of break.

Proof of how popular these types of resorts are with Britons is the fact that most of the chalets La Tania and its neighbouring resorts offer are actually run by British nationals or UK-based tour operators. A quick search on Google will reveal a near-monopoly of URLs ending in.co.uk, or otherwise geared at the British market. This, in turn, raises the question of why this phenomenon occurs, about which we shall speculate in the lines below.

A question of culture?

Of course, when thinking of the potential reason this kind of accommodation is popular with Britons, the easiest path to take would be to resort to that age-old (and not entirely unfounded) stereotype of ‘British sophistication’. Although the British Isles are no more or less sophisticated than any other civilised country, their nationals do seem to be brought up to demand a high standard in all walks of life, and it is easy to imagine how this might extend to holiday accommodation. Perhaps the main reason for the plethora of ski chalets La Tania and the rest of the Alpine resorts boast is the fact that, unlike natives of other European countries, Britons are not content with a stay at a hotel or lodge, and demand a little more comfort and luxury with their holiday booking. This would be very much in keeping with the traditional British spirit, and would therefore make sense in the context of an entire people.

Serendipity?

Alternatively, one might consider that this British propensity is down to nothing more than serendipity. Perhaps the original entrepreneur to come up with the idea was British, and the rest just followed suit; or perhaps no company outside of the UK ever found a use for investment in this area, for one reason or another. Potential reasons abound, all of them eventually leading to the same conclusion: this phenomenon might simply have been born out of luck.

Whatever the case may be, however, there is very little doubt that renting a picture-postcard chalet is an eminently British thing, and our preferred form of accommodation when heading to the slopes. And why not?

Danielle Hodges is the Marketing Manager for Ski Amis, a specialist ski travel agency and booking service offering bonded holidays in La Tania and other fantastic locations. If you're looking for catered or self catered ski chalets, La Tania is ideal. For a luxury or good-value skiing holiday call Ski Amis.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.