Who offers ski hosting?

If this is the way that French resorts are going to be micro managed in future then I probably won't bother to spend my hard earned cash in France. I will take my custom elsewhere and I expect many others will do likewise.

It is a double edged sword. Make ski hosting safer by all means by regulating it but don't ban it. Looks like protectionism to me just dressed up as 'elf and safety.

bandit wrote:

andyhull wrote:I wonder how much ESF would expect their staff to be paid for a day hosting with no instruction involved?
I bet they'd not be able to offer hosting at a price people would be prepared to pay.

Across the pond, it's common for the resorts to offer and fund "Meet the Mountain" ski hosts, who offer orientation to their guests. Perhaps this may be a model that France could use.

I was thinking along these lines too, and I've seen it work well at places like Fernie, Squaw and Heavenly. But they are relatively small ski areas and I just can't see such a system being at all effective in the French mega resorts.

And all this is another reason not to want to go to France and spend my hard-earned where it is a little more appreciated!

Across the pond they do a lot of things that the French don't. But then the lift passes are 40% more expensive over there.

andyhull wrote:Across the pond they do a lot of things that the French don't...

Andy, never having skied in the States I'd be interested to know what are the "things they do over there" that aren't usual in European resorts ?
Thanks.

billip1 wrote:

andyhull wrote:Across the pond they do a lot of things that the French don't...

Andy, never having skied in the States I'd be interested to know what are the "things they do over there" that aren't usual in European resorts ?
Thanks.

Mountain hosting at a variety of times/levels free daily, usually done by an enthusiastic local in exchange for free liftpass.
Sniffle stations on the lifts, tissues then 6 feet further on a bin to dispose of them in.
Friendly staff that slow the lift for kids/beginners and help them out.
Singles queues to fill every seat everytime reducing time spent queueing.
Smiles and helpful information when asked about suitability of terrain for your 2nd week skier daughter etc rather than the standard "Bleu" response.
Don't get me wrong I love skiing in Europe, size of resorts, relative ease of travel/cost, quality of food all are better than US/Canada but customer service skills across the board? With the possible exception of the Scandies the US/Canada have got that sussed.

All of the above, customer service is on a different level altogether. But that's why it costs so much more.

I do wonder if some of the perceived difference in customer service standards is purely a language thing?

It's got to make a difference. In France for a lift attendant to come down the lift queue to find out how many are in your group so they can fill the lift bubbles, they'd need to speak about 8 languages. Even so it's quite evident that they couldn't give a damn if the lift bubbles are full or not, regardless of queue length, so I'm not sure.