Weekly rentals from Saturday to Saturday always structure winter sports holidays during the school term. But Sunday arrivals are increasing, and the offer of short stays during the spring holidays is emerging.
Are you ready to pay a lot of money for a vacation for which you foresee hell on the roads? Strangely, this is not what most French people think about when they book a stay in winter sports. The duration – one week – as well as the dates – Saturday to Saturday – seem fixed. And this has been the case for at least 40 years! At Christmas as far as that goes February holidays, While bookings are off to a great start the Saturday-Saturday logic still structures the transhumance towards the peaks.
Knowing that at least 80% of customers go there by car, it is easy to imagine the problems that noria vehicles will encounter on the narrow and sometimes snowy roads… But nothing helps. The problem is all the more serious as transport accounts for 60% of carbon emissions from mountain holidays, scoffing at ski critics, while rail provision remains notoriously insufficient. «I notice the same problem for crossovers in the summerbreathes Éric Brèche, president of the National Union of French Ski Instructors (SNMSF). The French tradition of paid holidays and school holiday calendars tends to freeze things, let’s not forget. So which side of the room should you look from, knowing that everyone is passing the buck?
Telecommuting and ski lessons
“It must be said first of all that the request comes from the customers themselves, many remain with this logic for various reasons, starting with the management of their children”delays Vincent Lalanne, general manager of the tourist office and reservation center of Val Thorens in Savoy. The French who go to the mountains this winter will spend an average of 6.3 days there, reveals the annual study by the company G2A, a reference in the sector. And as for Clarisse, an Yvelinoise who is used to winter holidays in the Alps and who doesn’t think twice about it “neither” starting from a day other than Saturday the habits are established.
«Furthermore, with teleworking we can organize ourselves to finish early on Friday and leave as soon as the kids finish middle school. We spend a night in a hotel in Albertville.testifies this banking sector executive. “With this arrangement, we might have trouble on Friday, but the next day we get up early and pray that the apartment will be available before 4pm. We rent skis and get lift passes while we wait.” FSE lessons are already booked for 9am the following day. A tradition now consolidated, once again.
An offer that slides towards Sunday
The lines move slowly. “Despite the increased demand for greater flexibility and short stays, the mountain ecosystem remains structured according to this weekly offer, in any case during the long school holiday periods”diagnoses Cécile Revol, general director France of Sunweb, one of the main tour operators in the sector.
The movement can come primarily from the hosts, who are often targeted. And above all, given the typology of the mountains, tourist residences or club villages, the hotel stock represents only 4% of the offer in France. However, the overwhelming weight of these chains compared to the more familiar structures of Austria, for example, does not suggest a change in habits. “Most hosts work according to this Saturday-Saturday logic and everything follows from this: the entertainment program, cleanliness…”, notes Cécile Revol.
Club Med has followed the Sunday – Sunday logic for 30 years
Spokesman
A first example comes from afar. Club Med was the first accommodation provider to switch to Sunday – Sunday already… 30 years ago. Its “all-inclusive” model and its volume of customers convinced the French Ski School (FSE) to collaborate with “the Club” in the late 1990s. “The ski lessons offered by Club Med are independent of the lessons offered by the resorts. We mobilize ESF instructors specifically for our clientsa company spokesperson explains to Trident. All-inclusive courses are offered from Monday to Friday evenings. This allows instructors to be free to organize their own Saturday, but also their own Sunday. Saturdays, without lessons, often allow parents to ski with their children and see their progress.”
Liberal professions
At Pierre et Vacances, which has 65 tourist residences in the French mountains, the Sunday offer increases every winter. And the price does not vary, even if organizing on Sunday is more expensive. “This represents 20% of our peak season capacity, double in the last two years, and I think we will go up to 30% in the next few years”announces David Sandier, director of sales and marketing. «The demand comes above all from particular categories: freelance professionals who work on Saturdays, for example, and who greatly benefit from traveling without traffic jams. Even at the cost of missing a day of lessons if it is not possible to stay at the ski school”.
At MMV, Caroline Marro also notes that a small part of its offer has shifted towards late departures and Sundays, around 10% this season. “But weekdays will remain the norm during peak winter sports season. The flexibility will mainly concern the days of arrival and departure and also the time.predicts the deputy general director of the MMV, which has 11,000 beds in the mountains, and from this winter offers paid Saturdays for early check-in at the end of the morning.
The potential of spring
Photographic print
It is especially during spring holidays, which are more complicated for ski resorts to market, that the logic of short stays gains market share. “To date, 35% of our sales exclude Saturday-SaturdayCécile Revol (Sunweb) rejoices. The demand is there and we have managed, for example, to package stays from 3 to 6 nights, starting to offer it on the accommodation we own”indicates the French director of the tour operator. According to her, this also allows us to respond to the “real” needs of customers. “CThis flexibility is an appropriate response to the need to fill during the low season or to the postponements that we begin to see from February to April.he begs.
“Everyone has to work to satisfy customers”slices Éric Brèche (FSE). “But everyone also has their own constraints, for our part there is an educational program but every ski school is open to developments”. In Les Arcs, Éric Chevalier recalls the flexibility experiment carried out in 2022, when Christmas and New Year fell on a Saturday, encouraging hoteliers to be more flexible so as not to risk losing customers. “When asked when they prefer to arrive, 20% of the customers interviewed opted for Friday, 30% for Sunday and 50% for Saturday. So there’s room.