Resort jobs tips and advice

What you really need to do is get a look at the detailed accounts for a chalet business before you start up on your own account. I bet they don't make much money. You could buy the accounts for a British limited company, although I don't suppose they'd be that detailed - but it would give you an idea.

We have two self-catering cottages here in the U.K. and it is difficult to make much of a net profit. There are a lot of hidden expenses that people don't usually think about - like T.V. licences, public liability insurance, painting, renewing carpets and bedding, replacing the things holidaymakers break etc. etc. And I should think the fuel bills for a ski chalet in winter must be astronomical. Plus, the ski season is quite short, and although some places seem to be able to get customers in the summer the prices are much lower. We use an agency to whom we pay 22.5% commission plus VAT for publicity, bookings etc.

And having to do the cooking as well would be an awful lot of work. The staff in the chalet hotel we stayed in worked extremely hard - up at about 6-45 a.m., bed at about midnight, and a few hours off in the afternoon to catch up on missed sleep or go ski-ing themselves if they had enough energy left.

As someone has already said, it would be a very good idea to go and work for someone else before burning all your boats and buying your own business. I reckon you'd have to do it because you love the life-style and can manage to live on the bare minimum, profit wise. It's never going to be a money making scheme. I'm quite sure you'd make far more money teaching.

Best of luck with the new venture!

Ally

Just made a quick calculation, I took a chalets booking and averaged out the price over the season,
and basic turn over would be £86K ...... it does depend on the number of letting rooms.

Ian Wickham wrote:Just made a quick calculation, I took a chalets booking and averaged out the price over the season,
and basic turn over would be £86K ...... it does depend on the number of letting rooms.

Ian,
That does rather prove my point - teachers wages go up to £105,000 for Heads and Deputy Heads, and £31,000 for the rest of them. Plus they get long holidays.
I would think there was a lot of money to come out of the £86K you calculated as gross profit, before the owner could take their share. Just the food bill must be pretty large - how many people can stay in that chalet?
I know we don't make more than £5000 net on each of our self-catering cottages, and it would be a lot less than that if I was paying a mortgage or deducting the money I could have earned from the capital by investing it somewhere else.

Ally

AllyG wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:Just made a quick calculation, I took a chalets booking and averaged out the price over the season,
and basic turn over would be £86K ...... it does depend on the number of letting rooms.

Ian,
That does rather prove my point - teachers wages go up to £105,000 for Heads and Deputy Heads, and £31,000 for the rest of them. Plus they get long holidays.
I would think there was a lot of money to come out of the £86K you calculated as gross profit, before the owner could take their share. Just the food bill must be pretty large - how many people can stay in that chalet?
I know we don't make more than £5000 net on each of our self-catering cottages, and it would be a lot less than that if I was paying a mortgage or deducting the money I could have earned from the capital by investing it somewhere else.

Ally

That is the minimum turnover not including price increases for Xmas and New year etc,
Making a profit is all down to budgeting and waste control, if I could not make a profit from that turnover then I would need shooting.
These chalet companies do not do it for the love of it they make good profit out of the winter
season, if you wish to make extra money then you would focus on increasing occupancy for the summer season.
Now if I give any more information I will have to charge a consultancy fee :lol:

I fully appreciate that in teaching there is money to be made and the holidays are 2nd to none which is why the decision to give something else a go is such a tough one.

For me teaching has brought with it some very negative experiences and I'm not just talking about the teenage tantrums!! Also the holidays are fantastic but we are expected as part of your contract to spend a portion of the hols marking/writing new schemes of work/ planning etc. this means that by the time I've caught up on the housework and sleep that has been pushed aside in favour or making sure I'm doing everything expected of me in my job both during school hours and after hours, I have very little 'holiday time.'

This is one of my main issues with teaching....work life balance. As a keen snow sports fan and outdoorsy type person, I spend as much time as I can indulging my interests. Unfortunately most of the time I push the boundaries so much I am left completely stressed out/run down and poorly.

Apologies for the rant about teaching - I have just finished 1st week back and have some serious winter blues :oops: Bottom line is that I love being a teacher but feel I need to have a go at something I have always wanted to try whilst I can.

The response to my initial post has been great and I really appreciate it. Has been good to see that our caution about the venture and worries can be backed up by others experiences!!

Right, I'm off to stare out the window at all the lovely white stuff settling in my road....... 8)

AllyG wrote:
We have two self-catering cottages here in the U.K. and it is difficult to make much of a net profit. There are a lot of hidden expenses that people don't usually think about - like T.V. licences, public liability insurance, painting, renewing carpets and bedding, replacing the things holidaymakers break etc. etc. And I should think the fuel bills for a ski chalet in winter must be astronomical. Plus, the ski season is quite short, and although some places seem to be able to get customers in the summer the prices are much lower. We use an agency to whom we pay 22.5% commission plus VAT for publicity, bookings etc.

Hi Ally

Thanks for your comments. I am curious as to whether the size of the chalet makes a big difference to net profit or not? There are some absolutely huge chalets out in the Alps charging £600 a week per person in a 15-10 person chalet. In fact to buy one of those sorts of business is a humungous amount of money frankly something we do not have.
Does this affect your own cottages or do you feel size doesn't particularly matter and it is how you run your business that does?

(Didn't think about buying accounts tho - top idea!)

Amy

Ian Wickham wrote:

AllyG wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:Just made a quick calculation, I took a chalets booking and averaged out the price over the season,
and basic turn over would be £86K ...... it does depend on the number of letting rooms.

Ian,
That does rather prove my point - teachers wages go up to £105,000 for Heads and Deputy Heads, and £31,000 for the rest of them. Plus they get long holidays.
I would think there was a lot of money to come out of the £86K you calculated as gross profit, before the owner could take their share. Just the food bill must be pretty large - how many people can stay in that chalet?
I know we don't make more than £5000 net on each of our self-catering cottages, and it would be a lot less than that if I was paying a mortgage or deducting the money I could have earned from the capital by investing it somewhere else.

Ally

That is the minimum turnover not including price increases for Xmas and New year etc,
Making a profit is all down to budgeting and waste control, if I could not make a profit from that turnover then I would need shooting.
These chalet companies do not do it for the love of it they make good profit out of the winter
season, if you wish to make extra money then you would focus on increasing occupancy for the summer season.
Now if I give any more information I will have to charge a consultancy fee :lol:

Hi Ian,
thanks for your financial advice - glad to see you haven't posted your fees yet :D

I would like to hope that it is all about business management that makes or breaks a business like a chalet. Summer occupancy is something we would look at offering too as we are deadly serious about making a living out of it. I'm sure pure enthusiasm alone will not win us the profits but as per your calculations, we think there is a chance that we could eventually start to make a profit.

So many things to think about!!!

pigski wrote:

AllyG wrote:
We have two self-catering cottages here in the U.K. and it is difficult to make much of a net profit. There are a lot of hidden expenses that people don't usually think about - like T.V. licences, public liability insurance, painting, renewing carpets and bedding, replacing the things holidaymakers break etc. etc. And I should think the fuel bills for a ski chalet in winter must be astronomical. Plus, the ski season is quite short, and although some places seem to be able to get customers in the summer the prices are much lower. We use an agency to whom we pay 22.5% commission plus VAT for publicity, bookings etc.

Hi Ally

Thanks for your comments. I am curious as to whether the size of the chalet makes a big difference to net profit or not? There are some absolutely huge chalets out in the Alps charging £600 a week per person in a 15-10 person chalet. In fact to buy one of those sorts of business is a humungous amount of money frankly something we do not have.
Does this affect your own cottages or do you feel size doesn't particularly matter and it is how you run your business that does?

(Didn't think about buying accounts tho - top idea!)

Amy

With all due respect with a catered chalet you will need a minimum of five letting rooms, the amount of rooms have to be manageable for a chalet team otherwise you end up with a small hotel and the cost implications that come with that. I would work on a min 5 max 7 rooms the more rooms the more turnover, there is no real massive cost implications in catering for ten or 14 persons.
The main thing is that it is run as a small professional business and you have the right staff in place who understand the standards that need to be maintained.