St Anton weekend accommodation

Looking for help. A group of 9 of us were planning on heading to St Anton on Thursday 14th March and staying until Monday 18th (flights into Zurich booked). I had expected that accommodation would be easy to find at this time of year. However, I am really struggling to find anything other than the high-end, very expensive hotels:twisted:.

The Tourist Office have given me a list of places that "have availability" but when I contact the places, they are not making it available :evil: I presume the Tourist office are simply working off the availability calenders that they keep and that most accommodation is still holding out for Saturday to Saturday bookings.

Is it too soon to panic :?:
Will accommodation become available over the next few days :?:
Is it time to start looking at other resorts :?:

All offers/advice welcome :wink:

We are not fussy about the type of accommodation or location.

Seems like it's 'bonkers busy' out there at the moment. Only thing I can suggest (if you're not too fussed about location) is to try your luck contacting accommodation in the outlying villages like St. Jakob or Pettneu. These places often aren't as precious about the Sat-Sat thing. You would obviously have to factor in taxi costs if you are intending to sample the nightlife. Hope this helps and good luck! :thumbup:


Copied and pasted from the Sidney Reilly site. Not great news, but it could be worse -) .

2. Bookings are normally from a Saturday to a Saturday - the only way that you can get something different is at the last minute or maybe in the off season although some tour companies do offer different start days.

Last Saturday it was booked solid in a radius of 15km, including Pettneu, and there were a handful of overpriced rooms in back streets of the lacklustre town of Landeck 25km away. Every parking space and bar stool in St Anton was also occupied. I found St Anton a horrible resort with the main blues a mashup of patches of hard, icy snow alternated with mounds of spring snow, swarming with skiiers who were understandably, but dangerously, struggling with the conditions.

I much prefer small resorts with quiet well maintained pistes. But if you are there for the party atmosphere, St Anton would still be a good choice.

Thats why a lot of people don't use the pistes in St Anton ;-)

Does it have to been St Anton? As you're flying to Zurich, are any of the Swiss resorts an option. In my experience, Swiss hoteliers are not tied in to Sat to Sat or Sun to Sun and are a lot more flexible. You can book accommodation through the tourist office websites - and they show only the rooms available and the price you pay.

Why not try Engelberg? Easy to get to, loads of hotels and perfect for a long weekend (and the deepest snow in Europe at the moment!)

LOTA wrote:Does it have to been St Anton? As you're flying to Zurich, are any of the Swiss resorts an option. In my experience, Swiss hoteliers are not tied in to Sat to Sat or Sun to Sun and are a lot more flexible. You can book accommodation through the tourist office websites - and they show only the rooms available and the price you pay.

Why not try Engelberg? Easy to get to, loads of hotels and perfect for a long weekend (and the deepest snow in Europe at the moment!)

No, we are not tied to St Anton though it was our preference. Anyway, we have given up on the place after countless fruitless emails to accommodation all over the place including outlying villages such as Pettneu :twisted: .

So we have now decided to go to Laax. Its only 90 minutes from Zurich airport and, as you say, it seemed a lot easier to get accommodation for a long weekend. The area looks pretty good with a claimed 235km of skiing with quite a bit of it Red or Black. They also claim excellent access to off-piste - though this is largely irrelevant to me. My knees are simply not up to the demands of serious off-piste :twisted: .
Hopefully, Swiss prices will not be too severe though I am sure they will seem horrendous after the excellent value we got in the Dolomites earlier in the year. :wink: