There is nothing like a corporate ski trip to get to know your best clients, reward your top-performing staff or for a department weekend away. Ski trips live long in the memory and its vital that your guests look back on your event with fond and not bitter memories. That means booking a fully staffed and catered ski chalet for your next ski event!
The reason companies invite top clients, business partners or the top-performing staff members on a ski trip is to spend quality time together away from the office. A ski chalet is probably the most sociable of venue to schmoose any VIP’s guests.
A ski chalet will typically host between 10 to 20 guests in twin rooms so bear this in mind if you plan to ask your guests to share a room, most prefer to offer their guests a room exclusively for their own use. You could, however, book a chalet for a week and invite guests to stay 3 nights, or 4 nights with a quick bed linen change mid-week it’s possible to invite double the guests.
It’s always best to choose a resort your guests will have heard of, the acceptance rate is likely to be far higher if you invite your guests to an aspirational ski resort such as Verbier, Zermatt, Val d’Isere, or Courchevel for example.
How a catered ski chalet works
When you book a ski chalet, normally for a week, it becomes your exclusive home in the mountain. Typically, a catered chalet will have 3 to 6 staff, depending on its size. The chef prepares breakfast, afternoon tea with home-baked cakes, biscuits and soup. Before dinner canapes and drinks are served and then the main event is a delicious 3 or 4-course meal, with cheese and wine.
The chalet is cleaned daily, and beds made by staff. Some chalets, not located on or near a ski slope, offer a driver’s service to get you and your guests to and from the slopes. Drivers are normally available to offer a collection service in the evening if your guests want to sample the resort’s nightlife.
3 days skiing – only 1 day away from the office
With a bit of planning, it’s possible to get 3 days skiing, with just one day off work! Leave work on Thursday evening at the normal time, if you are in London, we recommend using City Airport for convenience. Fly to Zurich and with a short transfer, you could be in the chalet by mid-night. Ski all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leaving the resort as the lifts close, you can get home in time to arrive back fresh at work on Monday morning.
Mountain adventure for your non-skiing guests
Not all your guests will want to ski or snowboard, but that does not exclude them from joining in on the fun. There are many different activities available in the mountains that don’t involve skiing.
Skidoo and guided snowshoe excursions are available, and many chalets have excellent spas, if not in the chalet, the resorts have many options. Pedestrian lift passes ensure any non-skiers can still join you for lunches in the mountain restaurants.
Larger corporate events of up to 1000 people
For larger groups, a ski chalet won’t do, but it’s possible to book a whole resort. Club Med, for example, have excellent mountain-based hotels in some of Europe’s best-loved ski resorts. These can be booked exclusively, or part booked in many resorts. Meeting rooms and full conference facilities are also available. It’s necessary to book as much as a year in advance if you are planning a big event. It’s possible to over brand the hotel and resorts with your own logos too.
Angus Kinloch is the Managing Director at Ski Line. Ski Line specialist ski agency that provides luxury ski holidays to Europe’s and North America’s most popular ski resorts.If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
Angus Kinloch is the Founder and Managing Director of Ski Line, an awarding winning specialist ski travel agency with 25 years in the ski holiday business. Angus has first-hand experience of the many different types of holiday accommodation available through his ABTA bonded agency, including ski chalets, the best slopeside hotels and apartments and all-inclusive skiing holidays by Club Med. Angus has skied extensively with his family and friends across Europe, North America and more recently in Japan.
Did you enjoy this article?
Receive similar content direct to your inbox.
9 Comments
I don’t know why some people hate work team building days, I love them! Good excuse to get out the office and do something different with the company footing the bill. Never had anything more than a local away day though. I think if my boss suggested a ski trip I’d pass out from shock. A chalet is a great idea, quite cosy but versatile for different groups and purposes, and as you say there are resorts for larger groups. Nice way to impress current or potential clients as skiing has quite a professional edge to it and a very positive reputation.
Recently a friend of mine did a corporate event, set in a fantastic house and grounds. But what was different was that there was a darts event spread over the three days where everybody played everyone else. Not that exciting so far … but the winner got 2 x $1,000 air tickets. It was some ice-breaker and got everybody talking. Might be interesting to see what leisure facilities the chalet has and then organise something on similar lines.
Hi Bob, bring the team together, should always be the reason for any event. We once organised an attempt at breaking a world record for the most people on a sledge. Not only was it fun but it made all who attended, world record holders. The sledge was specially made for us by a local craftsman.
I knew a manager of a swanky PR agency years ago who would take some clients skiing way back when to keep the clients happy and relationships strong. Seemed to work and he always ended up getting more business afterwards too, probably through networking with those happy clients after they’d been down the slopes. If there’s money in the pot for such a thing then I can imagine a catered chalet being a very nice touch, really takes the luxury and sense of being well looked after up a notch.
You write about only losing a day out of the office as if the office is the only place where work gets done.
From my experience I think you’d achieve much more in terms of understanding clients’ needs and developing relationships on a few days away from the office environment.
Hi Andy, you are quite right, in fact probably the biggest deals are done away from the office. We always say “a good day on the slopes is worth 2 good day days in the office”
I think this is a very interesting proposal though I’m not sure that our board will go for it. Personally I feel that it is a very short-sighted policy but our hospitality budget has stayed the same for the last 4 years, no increase whatsoever. In real terms, after you take into account the impact of inflation, that’s a considerable cut. In reality we are continually being asked to do more with less.
Some of our competitors in the insurance business do ski-trips for their big corporate clients and I thought I’d take a look to see how things work for this hospitality.
We’ve got some very longstanding and loyal customers and it’s probably high time that we recognised them.
This is exactly the sort of luxurious chalet that would do the job.
The reason companies invite top clients, business partners or the top-performing staff members on a ski trip is to spend quality time together away from the office. A ski chalet is probably the most sociable of venue to schmoose any VIP’s guests.
A ski chalet will typically host between 10 to 20 guests in twin rooms so bear this in mind if you plan to ask your guests to share a room, most prefer to offer their guests a room exclusively for their own use. You could, however, book a chalet for a week and invite guests to stay 3 nights, or 4 nights with a quick bed linen change mid-week it’s possible to invite double the guests.
It’s always best to choose a resort your guests will have heard of, the acceptance rate is likely to be far higher if you invite your guests to an aspirational ski resort such as Verbier, Zermatt, Val d’Isere, or Courchevel for example.
How a catered ski chalet works
When you book a ski chalet, normally for a week, it becomes your exclusive home in the mountain. Typically, a catered chalet will have 3 to 6 staff, depending on its size. The chef prepares breakfast, afternoon tea with home-baked cakes, biscuits and soup. Before dinner canapes and drinks are served and then the main event is a delicious 3 or 4-course meal, with cheese and wine.
The reason companies invite top clients, business partners or the top-performing staff members on a ski trip is to spend quality time together away from the office. A ski chalet is probably the most sociable of venue to schmoose any VIP’s guests.
A ski chalet will typically host between 10 to 20 guests in twin rooms so bear this in mind if you plan to ask your guests to share a room, most prefer to offer their guests a room exclusively for their own use. You could, however, book a chalet for a week and invite guests to stay 3 nights, or 4 nights with a quick bed linen change mid-week it’s possible to invite double the guests.
It’s always best to choose a resort your guests will have heard of, the acceptance rate is likely to be far higher if you invite your guests to an aspirational ski resort such as Verbier, Zermatt, Val d’Isere, or Courchevel for example.
How a catered ski chalet works
When you book a ski chalet, normally for a week, it becomes your exclusive home in the mountain. Typically, a catered chalet will have 3 to 6 staff, depending on its size. The chef prepares breakfast, afternoon tea with home-baked cakes, biscuits and soup. Before dinner canapes and drinks are served and then the main event is a delicious 3 or 4-course meal, with cheese and wine.
The chalet is cleaned daily, and beds made by staff. Some chalets, not located on or near a ski slope, offer a driver’s service to get you and your guests to and from the slopes. Drivers are normally available to offer a collection service in the evening if your guests want to sample the resort’s nightlife.
3 days skiing – only 1 day away from the office
With a bit of planning, it’s possible to get 3 days skiing, with just one day off work! Leave work on Thursday evening at the normal time, if you are in London, we recommend using City Airport for convenience. Fly to Zurich and with a short transfer, you could be in the chalet by mid-night. Ski all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leaving the resort as the lifts close, you can get home in time to arrive back fresh at work on Monday morning.
Mountain adventure for your non-skiing guests
Not all your guests will want to ski or snowboard, but that does not exclude them from joining in on the fun. There are many different activities available in the mountains that don’t involve skiing.
Skidoo and guided snowshoe excursions are available, and many chalets have excellent spas, if not in the chalet, the resorts have many options. Pedestrian lift passes ensure any non-skiers can still join you for lunches in the mountain restaurants.
Larger corporate events of up to 1000 people
For larger groups, a ski chalet won’t do, but it’s possible to book a whole resort. Club Med, for example, have excellent mountain-based hotels in some of Europe’s best-loved ski resorts. These can be booked exclusively, or part booked in many resorts. Meeting rooms and full conference facilities are also available. It’s necessary to book as much as a year in advance if you are planning a big event. It’s possible to over brand the hotel and resorts with your own logos too.
Angus Kinloch is the Managing Director at Ski Line. Ski Line specialist ski agency that provides luxury ski holidays to Europe’s and North America’s most popular ski resorts.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
I don’t know why some people hate work team building days, I love them! Good excuse to get out the office and do something different with the company footing the bill. Never had anything more than a local away day though. I think if my boss suggested a ski trip I’d pass out from shock. A chalet is a great idea, quite cosy but versatile for different groups and purposes, and as you say there are resorts for larger groups. Nice way to impress current or potential clients as skiing has quite a professional edge to it and a very positive reputation.
Recently a friend of mine did a corporate event, set in a fantastic house and grounds. But what was different was that there was a darts event spread over the three days where everybody played everyone else. Not that exciting so far … but the winner got 2 x $1,000 air tickets. It was some ice-breaker and got everybody talking. Might be interesting to see what leisure facilities the chalet has and then organise something on similar lines.
Hi Bob, bring the team together, should always be the reason for any event. We once organised an attempt at breaking a world record for the most people on a sledge. Not only was it fun but it made all who attended, world record holders. The sledge was specially made for us by a local craftsman.
I knew a manager of a swanky PR agency years ago who would take some clients skiing way back when to keep the clients happy and relationships strong. Seemed to work and he always ended up getting more business afterwards too, probably through networking with those happy clients after they’d been down the slopes. If there’s money in the pot for such a thing then I can imagine a catered chalet being a very nice touch, really takes the luxury and sense of being well looked after up a notch.
You write about only losing a day out of the office as if the office is the only place where work gets done.
From my experience I think you’d achieve much more in terms of understanding clients’ needs and developing relationships on a few days away from the office environment.
Hi Andy, you are quite right, in fact probably the biggest deals are done away from the office. We always say “a good day on the slopes is worth 2 good day days in the office”
I think this is a very interesting proposal though I’m not sure that our board will go for it. Personally I feel that it is a very short-sighted policy but our hospitality budget has stayed the same for the last 4 years, no increase whatsoever. In real terms, after you take into account the impact of inflation, that’s a considerable cut. In reality we are continually being asked to do more with less.
Some of our competitors in the insurance business do ski-trips for their big corporate clients and I thought I’d take a look to see how things work for this hospitality.
We’ve got some very longstanding and loyal customers and it’s probably high time that we recognised them.
This is exactly the sort of luxurious chalet that would do the job.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on our blog James.
Dan – Ski Line