Booking last minute in the 3 Valleys

Hi,

My partner and I are looking at going to the 3 Valleys, probably Meribel as a friend is doing a season there, on the 24h January (or thereabouts). We are on a really tight budget and so thinking that booking last minute is probably the best option.
Has anyone any opinions on the positives or negatives of booking late, whether generally or more specifically in the 3 Vallyes? We are also looking at getting a group of people to lessen prices, but I'm worried that the larger our group the more inflexible we may be. Perhaps booking separately in twos would be wiser?

Any thoughts or experiences greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Robin

Booking late probably works best for small groups - the larger the group, the more difficult it is to secure good deals and you run the risk that you will be spread over accommodation all over the resort or worse still not being able to get everybody into the resort (possibly not too much of an issue if you travel on 24 Jan). On the other hand, a larger group can make the cost of transfers much cheaper. Finally, if you have a decent size group, the main TOs usually offer quite substantial discounts. We are getting 3.5 free place for a group of 20 adult places (unfortunately, they do not count child places for the purposes of the group discount) departing on 31 Jan - a discount of 17.5%.

thank you very much for your advice