Dream jobs: Real-life chalet girls tell it how it is

You won’t be surprised to hear that Chalet Girl, last year’s sickly sweet movie about a pretty, working-class tom-boy skivvying in a posh ski chalet where she falls in love with the owner’s super-rich son (and wins a snowboarding competition without a single lesson),  didn’t even come close to showing what it’s actually like for the teams of British girls (and boys) who fly to the Alps every winter to staff chalets.

For a start, they’re not called chalet girls (or boys) anymore, they’re known more respectively as chalet hosts, they’re just as likely to come from Chelmsford as Chelsea and, as far as we know, none has gone on to become a world-class snowboarding champion. At least, not in their first season.

Real-life chalet girls Penny Leonard, who is just about to embark on her second ski season for Crystal, and Ski Total chalet host Charlotte Watts, spill the beans.

Penny on the slopes

Penny, what made you decide to become a chalet host? A ski season was something I always wanted to do from an early age, having skied throughout school and being a very outdoor sporty type. Five months on the slopes sounded amazing and it was the first thing on my list for when I graduated from uni.

I applied for lots of jobs through the Natives website, but after reading the job specs and hearing other people’s experiences I decided I wanted to be a chalet host.

In a nutshell, what does the job involve? Are you essentially the chalet dogsbody? Our role is mainly to look after the guests, cook and make sure the chalet is clean. Dogsbody? Definitely not. Yes, there is a lot of work and early mornings but if you enjoy being around people and have a passion for cooking it’s the perfect job.

Breakfast is a social time as everyone is busy getting ready for skiing, so there is lots of excitement, especially if the guests have just arrived. Once the guests have gone, you clean the chalet, make up the guests’ rooms and get the afternoon tea on the go.

Evening service is a little more stressful as it’s a three-course meal every night, so timing and organisation are important.

It sounds exhausting, do you have any energy left to go out? At first it was tiring so afternoon naps were a must! However I worked in my chalet with my boyfriend so we got into a good routine very quickly. We were able to get out of the chalet by 10:00 with everything done and some dinner prep’d and not needing to be back in until 17:30 to finish off dinner and serve at 19:30.

Once we got passed the need for a nap we were out on the mountain every day for at least 4/5 hours. We had our days off and half days too, which meant epic days skiing and boarding.

We were ready to leave the chalet by 21:30 most nights, which allowed for evenings out in the resort or staying with our guests for a while to chat, which we often did!

The most exhausting part of the job are the transfer days. They are long and hard as the chalet needs to be deep cleaned for the new guests, and dinner also needs to be prepared.

At first we used to dread transfer day as the workload seemed impossible, but once we got into a routine it got quicker and I think, if I’m honest, I actually enjoyed it in the end. With the two of us in my chalet, we could motivate each other and turn up the volume on the music!

Were you already a good cook? I like to think so. I come from a family who are amazing at cooking. Having a boyfriend at uni also helped as we would cook nice meals for each other. We did our season together in the same chalet, so I knew I had someone good at cooking to work with!

When we did our training we had an intensive week to learn the menus and make all our mistakes then. The recipes were great, and they were written really well so that people who didn’t have a cooking background were able to do the dishes and after the training everyone was turning meals out as they should be.

How are you treated by the guests? Fortunately throughout the season we had ace, guests apart from one week. Some nights we would stay behind with them chatting and occasionally we would head out on to the mountain with them. We had a great rapport with all of our guest and so they were all very generous with the tips when they left, and on most occasions they left us lovely letters, which we have kept to this day.

Charlotte, have you had any emergencies to deal with and how did you cope? Once we closed the kitchen door as we went to greet new guests and when we came back it wouldn’t open. We had to get the chalet manager and the owner of the chalet to help. They ended up drilling and cutting the door out of the door frame.  

The worst thing was, the goulash that we had on the hob had caught on the bottom as it took over an hour to get the door to open. When we finally got in the kitchen was full of smoke and the goulash and the pan were completely destroyed. The kitchen smelt of burnt goulash for the rest of the week. We had to quickly re-arrange a different menu for the evening.

Is it a stressful job? Yes, the job can be quite stressful at times i.e. running out of ingredients at a critical time or finding out a guest is a vegetarian as you are serving the main course. I would definitely suggest being organised with your time and planning ahead to avoid any major mishaps.

Penny, skiing isn’t cheap, how do you afford it on a chalet hosts salary? The salary isn’t massive, but we do get food, accommodation, ski pass and equipment hire. With chalet hosting you can earn tips from your guest. Fortunately we did very well with tips so I didn’t touch any of my wages and I had saved quite a bit by the time I got home.

Not everyone is so lucky on the tips, it’s down to the effort you put in with your guests, but as the majority of what you need is provided by the company, you can definitely afford to do a season no matter the background you come from.

Penny, which is better, working in a beach resort or ski? It’s definitely ski for me. I have just come back from working at a beach resort and although I loved it, I missed the mountains and the life of a ski seasonnaire, après etc, so it wins hands down.

Would you recommend it to others? Hell yes!! Other than uni it’s been one of my best times. I only planned to do one season, I am now on my second winter. Ski seasons are special and the people you meet all have that mutual thing in common so some great friendships are formed. I am still in touch with my first season friends and we meet up whenever I am home.

I have been promoted to supervisor for next season. With all the experience I gained I can’t wait to help make the new hosts’ first season as awesome as mine!

Next week: Ski hosts

by Linsey McNeill