Resort jobs tips and advice

Thanks to all the posts - seems we are not the only ones out there with the need to 'give it all up' for the mountain life.
However there are some really important points raised here and this has given us a lot to consider.

After constructing several brainstorms on large pieces of white paper (I'm a teacher what can I say? lol) the main debate we keep having is location. Although we have been to the Alps and know many that have been and loved it, we are not too familiar with the larger resorts tending to plump for the smaller or 'unlinked' areas. We would prefer not to have any emotional attachment to the area where we eventually set up business but very confused over the reviews for all the main areas....

We will attempt to try as many of the larger areas such as 3V, Espace killy, portes du soleil etc but worry that money we spend gallivanting around 'trying' resorts may be counter productive from a financial point of view.

What do people reckon?

:? :? :?

Repeart custom is your life blood. With the big ski areas people will generally keep returning year after year as they will never get bored, and then they are all areas that everyone 'must' ski once in their career, so you have a much larger pool of potential clients.

Small out of the way area, you have to ask yourself how many people will want to ski the area year after year after year?

Of course rent etc is higher in the big areas, but so too are the prices you can charge.

Length of season is also an important consideration. No point in being in a low area with a short season!

Getting 'bored' of a resort is something that we are very wary of after our trip to L2A last Easter (sorry but not one of our fave resorts - on 2nd thoughts may have been due to us trying to cram 9 peeps in a teeny tiny apartment praps not the best idea we have ever had!!)

This is why we feel we have to go and 'research' some of the biggies at Easter (cannot justify 1/2 term prices unfortunately)....maybe 3V 1st and then one of the others??

Definitely would like to be in/near a resort that offer higher altitude skiing to prolong the season and potentially allows for glacier skiing in the summer?? :-)

I would risk it. You have perfect skills (language teacher) for 2nd income during winter and can even use these as selling point to attract people in quieter times. People happily pay for money for language immersion holidays, mix in some red wine and beautiful scenery and you could be onto a winner.

Do a season to get some knowledge and ensure you buy correct place and go for it. I have a house in French ski resort but work abroad 9 months a year. I don't bother to rent as margins are not great from my limited investigation. Definitely not easy money and would try to limit your financial exposure if goes wrong. Still only live once and now should be time to buy.

Never even thought of language immersion holidays although would be something that I would definitely consider (love teaching particularly if I teach willing participants!!)

We have been doing loads of research over the past few weeks and the advice on here has been brilliant so had loads to follow up. Our next step is a 'research' expedition :lol: at Easter to 2 of the main linked areas - 3V and Paradiski. We have a couple of properties to look at and some resorts we want to visit as well as the ones we are 'researching' to get s feel for where we want to eventually look to set up the business.

We have also been considering renovation projects too as well as looking into season lets to get an idea of cash flow potential.

With 11 weeks and 3 days to go we want to be 100% prepared for making sure we make the most of our trip as we won't be able to get back over until the summer hols.

Any tips on what to make sure we check out while we are out there??