Most likely the furthest thing from everyone’s mind is planning travel abroad. And rightly so with an aggressive pandemic, closed boarders and dormant airlines. It may then seem ludicrous to even allow the notion of planning next winter’s ski trip enter your mind – given the instability of the present situation. Remarkably however – there are a few reasons that could actually make this one of the best times to start planning your next ski trip.
Free cancellations
It goes without saying that for anything to be considered it would have to offer a free cancellation guarantee. While almost all operators and services travel related usually carry strict cancellation policies under normal circumstances, now is the time that we will are seeing a lot of relaxing of those policies. Those businesses being proactive in surviving the leaner times ahead may be offering free `no questions asked` cancellations on bookings made at this time in an effort to reassure potential guests. As the consumer – it is a win win as you will likely be able to book your accommodation & services for cheaper than usual and with much more flexibility. If the time of your visit comes around and you are not able to travel or choose not to, you can simply cancel. It will cost you nothing – except your time – to book an option or two under these relaxed policies.
Significant discounts
As touched upon above there are also lots of discounts out there for next winter – be it Early Bird or other – than there normally would available be at this time. Accommodations and services will be competing with each other for the reduced business that they anticipate for next winter. To give them the edge and incentivise guests, prices will be reduced from the norm even during peak periods, and in many cases much bigger discounts than we normal see. Once things resume as after this awful time has passed us by – the prices will creep back up once more as we try to regain normalcy. Coupled with the free cancellations, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to book a few lessons or hotels while the prices are low.
Time to do your research
One of the rarest commodities of the modern working world is time. Though we work so hard to afford our travels, we often lack the time prior to travelling to properly plan and do our research. With so much informations and misinformation online, finding exactly what we are looking for can be like finding a needle in a haystack. When we are disappointed on holiday is it often because our expectations were not managed – be it by us or the services that we booked – which is difficult on all sides (and often costly). It does take time to learn about a new area, a new resort, to find which mountain is suitable for our skiing, which hotels meet our criteria and which ski school can fulfil our wishes. There is also a responsibility on our side to have a good think (and discussions if travelling with others) about what we envision and how we envision our holiday taking form. No two people, families or groups are the same – and neither are their holidays. Therefore the more time you invest in finding the perfect destination, accommodation and services – the greater your enjoyment of it. One of the biggest silver linings to this pandemic is the gift of time that many have been given. So let us use it before we are back on the non-stop rollercoaster of normal life with no time to properly plan our travels.
Nadine Robb is Owner and Instructor at Hakuba Ski Concierge. Hakuba Ski Concierge is a boutique ski school in Hakuba, Japan.If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
Nadine Robb is Owner and Instructor at Hakuba Ski Concierge. Hakuba Ski Concierge is a boutique ski school specialising in private ski lessons, snowboard lessons and resort guiding services. The first of it`s kind in Hakuba, Japan – guests have the freedom to manage their time how they see fit, and have a choice of ski resorts, onsens and local lunch spots to ensure that they get the very most out of Hakuba. Originally from the UK, Nadine has been in Japan for 10 years now, with time spent in Austria and Canada previously. Author to the children`s book `Joey`s First Ski Lesson`, Nadine is also a professional Ski and Snowboard Instructor, Wilderness First Responder and Swift Water Rescue Technician and mother of two.
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5 Comments
I was wondering about this the other day. Businesses are going to be more desperate for purchases and there will be a lot of competition, so prices would lower and there would be more offers to tempt people. But they’re also needing to increase income, so perhaps prices would rise fairly quickly once things start to return to somewhat close to normal in an attempt to make up for some of what’s been lost. I hadn’t thought many places were actually taking bookings at the moment but then again I’ve not looked so I wouldn’t mind seeing what’s available at the moment for some time in the future. And I’d definitely be wanting a guaranteed cancellation policy.
You’re right though, this down period gives us more time to dream about the places we want to go and exactly what we want to do, with more room to browse and plan.
Thank you so much for your comment Tiffany – it is exactly how you say in that things will become competitive and therefore likely cheaper – but I too would anticipate the prices increasing after a short while to recoup losses. I certainly don`t think it that pencilling in something now could hurt – and will likely have the above upsides :)
After the last few months I would expect travellers to be reading the small print a lot more closely. I anticipate that ease of cancellation is going to be a big selling point over the next year or so until we get a reliable vaccine.
Absolutely – a peace of mind through an ironclad cancellation policy will likely be the largest selling point or dealbreaker. I hope that the entire tourism industry gets on board in relaxing their policies in order to give a peace of mind to their guests.
It is great that some ski resorts offer options such as these. In our current state, we don’t know when can we go out again. We don’t know when we can travel and enjoy, live life the way we want it. As of now, all we have to do is just wait and hope that all of this would end soon. I appreciate how these resorts care for their clients and even though tourist and entertainment spots are greatly affected, having no income in this pandemic, they still offer free cancellations and such. It breaks my heart knowing that the places I enjoy visiting the most are the ones closing down, even restaurants are closing down because of the outbreak. I hope that they can recover and get back up running because places such as these are the ones that should stay always, making people happy.
Significant discounts
As touched upon above there are also lots of discounts out there for next winter – be it Early Bird or other – than there normally would available be at this time. Accommodations and services will be competing with each other for the reduced business that they anticipate for next winter. To give them the edge and incentivise guests, prices will be reduced from the norm even during peak periods, and in many cases much bigger discounts than we normal see. Once things resume as after this awful time has passed us by – the prices will creep back up once more as we try to regain normalcy. Coupled with the free cancellations, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to book a few lessons or hotels while the prices are low.
Significant discounts
As touched upon above there are also lots of discounts out there for next winter – be it Early Bird or other – than there normally would available be at this time. Accommodations and services will be competing with each other for the reduced business that they anticipate for next winter. To give them the edge and incentivise guests, prices will be reduced from the norm even during peak periods, and in many cases much bigger discounts than we normal see. Once things resume as after this awful time has passed us by – the prices will creep back up once more as we try to regain normalcy. Coupled with the free cancellations, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to book a few lessons or hotels while the prices are low.
Time to do your research
One of the rarest commodities of the modern working world is time. Though we work so hard to afford our travels, we often lack the time prior to travelling to properly plan and do our research. With so much informations and misinformation online, finding exactly what we are looking for can be like finding a needle in a haystack. When we are disappointed on holiday is it often because our expectations were not managed – be it by us or the services that we booked – which is difficult on all sides (and often costly). It does take time to learn about a new area, a new resort, to find which mountain is suitable for our skiing, which hotels meet our criteria and which ski school can fulfil our wishes. There is also a responsibility on our side to have a good think (and discussions if travelling with others) about what we envision and how we envision our holiday taking form. No two people, families or groups are the same – and neither are their holidays. Therefore the more time you invest in finding the perfect destination, accommodation and services – the greater your enjoyment of it. One of the biggest silver linings to this pandemic is the gift of time that many have been given. So let us use it before we are back on the non-stop rollercoaster of normal life with no time to properly plan our travels.
Nadine Robb is Owner and Instructor at Hakuba Ski Concierge. Hakuba Ski Concierge is a boutique ski school in Hakuba, Japan.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
I was wondering about this the other day. Businesses are going to be more desperate for purchases and there will be a lot of competition, so prices would lower and there would be more offers to tempt people. But they’re also needing to increase income, so perhaps prices would rise fairly quickly once things start to return to somewhat close to normal in an attempt to make up for some of what’s been lost. I hadn’t thought many places were actually taking bookings at the moment but then again I’ve not looked so I wouldn’t mind seeing what’s available at the moment for some time in the future. And I’d definitely be wanting a guaranteed cancellation policy.
You’re right though, this down period gives us more time to dream about the places we want to go and exactly what we want to do, with more room to browse and plan.
Thank you so much for your comment Tiffany – it is exactly how you say in that things will become competitive and therefore likely cheaper – but I too would anticipate the prices increasing after a short while to recoup losses. I certainly don`t think it that pencilling in something now could hurt – and will likely have the above upsides :)
After the last few months I would expect travellers to be reading the small print a lot more closely. I anticipate that ease of cancellation is going to be a big selling point over the next year or so until we get a reliable vaccine.
Absolutely – a peace of mind through an ironclad cancellation policy will likely be the largest selling point or dealbreaker. I hope that the entire tourism industry gets on board in relaxing their policies in order to give a peace of mind to their guests.
It is great that some ski resorts offer options such as these. In our current state, we don’t know when can we go out again. We don’t know when we can travel and enjoy, live life the way we want it. As of now, all we have to do is just wait and hope that all of this would end soon. I appreciate how these resorts care for their clients and even though tourist and entertainment spots are greatly affected, having no income in this pandemic, they still offer free cancellations and such. It breaks my heart knowing that the places I enjoy visiting the most are the ones closing down, even restaurants are closing down because of the outbreak. I hope that they can recover and get back up running because places such as these are the ones that should stay always, making people happy.