The Ski in Luxury team have been chatting to the hard workers of the ski chalet industry to find the most outlandish tales of Divas on the slopes….
The word Diva was born in the late 19th century originally deriving from the Latin word Divus ‘divine one’ and evolving through the Italians to literally mean ‘goddess’. In modern society the word Diva has taken a more negative tenor used to describe a demanding or high maintenance person, however here in the Ski in Luxury office oh how we love a Diva!
Quite simply they know what they like and what they don’t like and who wouldn’t when you are some of the most affluent, royal and wealthy people travelling to lavish and indulgent destinations all over the World? As Beyonce would proudly say, they own it in both business and leisure and so we bow down to the Divas of the world for keeping standards high!
We wanted to take a moment with our fantastic owners and operators to reminisce about some of the most outrageous stories in the ski chalet world!
We hope you enjoy….
? “One guest asked if he could close the piste so he could ski privately. Funnily enough we couldn’t manage that so instead organised for two drivers to do laps from the bottom to the top of the beginner area each day once the lifts had closed and the family skied by themselves. The same clients also decided the highly equipped gym wasn’t enough and had a huge amount of new gym equipment ordered, collected and installed into the chalet for the week. Oh and they casually had a heli picnic on a glacier for 20 guests in total…”
? “We once had a client who felt that the snow just wasn’t good enough in resort. He decided to hire a helicopter for an entire week and went heli-skiing every day, without once skiing in resort!”
? “When a list of various caviar was proposed to one client in resort, as you do, he said it wasn’t good enough and paid for a jar of special black caviar to be flown in by private jet from Moscow!”
? “About 7 years ago I arrived at the chalet to collect one of our guests and she was in an extremely bad mood because she couldn’t walk in her ski boots, apparently they were too uncomfortable. After calming her down and explaining how the boots were needed to fit into the ski’s she swore at me and told me she’s wearing her walking boots. You can only imagine the look on the ski instructor’s face when we arrived in the Van at the nursery slope and I explained Mrs X wanted to ski in her walking boots rather than her ski boots. We both stood in amazement as Mrs X proceeded to try her hardest to clip her walking boots into her skis. Naturally she ended up sat in the snow, tears rolling down her cheeks and an outburst of foul language that only shocked…Two minutes later she was back in the Van to the chalet – she never skied again!”
? “A gentleman came on holiday with his wife, booked a ski instructor for 6 full days and they did not leave the chalet once, let alone go skiing. Each day the instructor waited for them at the agreed meeting point and each day after 45mins the client decided not to go out, they stayed in and watched movies for the entire week!”
? “We had a client who stayed with us for several years and every day a member of staff (myself) had to ski to a restaurant and drop off her shoes so she could change out of her ski boots. We would then have to ski back and pick up her shoes and take them back to the chalet once lunch was finished.”
Having recently introduced a Dog friendly chalets page we thought it only fitting to let readers know some Dogs can be just as demanding as their owners…
? “One guest brought the family dog on their skiing holiday. We were required to carry out a full menu consultation for the dog prior to arrival and was told he only drank Evian water. Of course we ordered some in especially.”
? “We once heard of a dog that got flown with a member of staff in a chartered helicopter from Val d’Isere to Geneva mid-way through the family ski holiday…for a haircut. The dog was then flown back to Val d’Isere in time to meet its owners for lunch on the ski slopes!”
Obviously these stories show us here at Ski in Luxury just how much operators and owners strive to cater for our guests every whim. Nothing is too much trouble!
If you would like to enquire about any of our luxury chalets please get in touch, we would love to hear from you. You can e-mail us or call us on +44 (0)1202 203650.
