Tips from the top on selling ski

Chalet specialist VIP Ski scooped Best Small Winter Sports Tour Operator at last week’s British Travel Awards so TravelMole asked managing director Andy Sturt for some tips on how to sell ski.

What would you say is the single biggest factor in your success?

"The secret? I think there is a risk of overcomplicating ski. Certainly it is a challenging environment to deliver a seamless holiday but as long as you care desperately about every customer, listen to them in good times and bad, treat them as you would wish to be treated yourself and never stop trying to get better in everything that you do, then the rest tends to look after itself. I am delighted that the skiing public seem to think so too."

When skiers are booking ski accommodation, is it all location, location, location or are there other considerations?

"There are endless considerations when booking a ski holiday but location is No.1 without a doubt. You want to be bang in the middle of the action as carrying around skis, boots and kids is tiring. Having travelled 700 miles it is always worth finding the operator with the best located property and travelling 701 miles instead. Everyone boasts that they have the best service and best staff and it is hard from a website to determine the good from the bad. You can however establish how far away the piste and ski school is with bleary eyes and whining children first thing in the morning."

How important is price to customers booking ski?

"Price sometimes, value always. Ski is littered with the doomed carcasses of ‘luxury companies’ that simply and lazily bolted together the most expensive elements and ended up with hugely expensive ski holidays that not enough guests ever wanted out of high season. The challenge is to build holidays by listening to what matters to the guest and not wasting money on frippery that they don’t care about. The key for us has been building or designing our own properties in the right locations and at the right price. This has allowed us to deliver great value or, in marketing terms, affordable luxury.’"

How can travel agents sell more winter sports holidays?

"Talk to us and don’t be frightened of ski. Skiing is a challenging environment with massive disparity in quality of service from a plethora of operators all of whom claim to be the best and care the most. It’s simply not true of course. Only deal with the operators who you can trust to deliver the experiences as promised. As a starter you could ask how many of your loyal customers are interested in skiing and offer our range of holidays."

Which of your resorts would you recommend to novice skiers?

"For the absolute novice it is hard to ignore our Summit View development in La Plagne or cluster of chalets in Alpe d’Huez overlooking the ski school, beginner lifts and piste – when you are starting out convenience is everything."

Experts/young boarders? "The extraordinary on and off-piste skiing and celebrated half pipes and board parks of the Espace Killy, our Aspen Lodge collection of suites in the centre of Val d’Isere is the perfect place to stay."

Families? "I take my own family to Les Gets, we have a stunning property on the piste and at the lift crossroads above the resort at 1500m altitude, everything a parent could wish for."

Mixed groups with non-skiers? "Definitely Morzine and the Portes du Soleil, lots of blue runs next to red next to black, huge ski area, easy to meet up during the day and great mountain restaurants. All of our chalets are in the very centre of the really pretty and authentic Alpine village with loads to do for the non-skier."

Party Animals? "That easy, St Anton. Enough said."

ABTA suggested last week that agents should try to get on fam trips to increase their knowledge – any chance you’ll organise some fam trips to give agents an opportunity to experience your holidays?

"We do not wish anyone to travel with us unless we are sure they are going to come back again with their friends. This simple philosophy dictates our sales process and our business. As such, if we choose to work with a travel agent then we have to ensure that our product is being properly represented. The only way of doing this is for each agency that represents us to have someone who has experienced our holidays personally. We therefore actively encourage familiarisation trips for the select group of agencies with whom we work."

By Linsey McNeill