Andy's Blog Archive
Fifth blog
March 2011
Wow what an amazing half term! As I am sure you all know, this is an incredibly busy time of the year with literally the business going from zero passengers to thousands of passengers overnight! Everybody made it out and everybody made it back, we had a couple of bumps, on and off the slopes, but the general feedback so far is great. Thank you everybody involved!
During this really busy time, I am pleased to say that our sales manager Janis McCaffery managed to host a brief inspection visit to Mount Snow. This is some of the feedback and of course the obligatory photo!!
"I wanted to say a massive 'Thanks' for organising last week. I had a really fantastic time and am totally sold on skiing in America. I thought that Mount Snow was a brilliant resort and it really would be perfect for school groups. The shopping at the end of the week was a definite bonus!"
Laura Cosnett - Forest School
With half term now passed, we have a little time to listen to what you have to say before we move onto Easter - so I look forward to hearing from you some time soon.
Stay tuned for further updates,
Andy.
Fourth Blog
February 2011
During this really busy period for us, it’s great to see that we have been able to make some time to encourage new skiers to the slopes. This is what Janis has been up to:
“For the first time our school ski trip will have a blind student learning to ski. This has presented a number of new challenges, but thankfully we have overcome these. One of the main problems was the funding of adaptive ski lessons for our student. Skiclass have been great, they were excited about looking after a blind student and offered a number of prizes including a pair Salomon skis and a Salomon rucksack. These donations enabled us to hold a school raffle and we have now raised enough money to pay for the cost of these lessons. Thank you SkiClass.”
Stuart Milne – Oxted School
If you’re going on holiday with us, I hope you have a really great time! If you’re not travelling with us then I still hope you have a really great time but give us a call next time!!
Next update after the half term.
Andy.
Third Blog
January 2011
Firstly I would like to give a warm welcome to the new SkiClass Senior Sales Account Manager (Long title and a big job!)- Sean Kraft. Sean joins our team with a wealth of experience in skiing and travelling from his prior positions in ski companies and working on Cruise Ships. We are all excited to have Sean joining the team and we are sure he will bring some great tour ideas to the table!
The sales team are now looking towards next season 2011/12- in preparation for this we have raised our game to find you some fantastic, new and exciting ski destinations. Our International Project Manager has just returned to the office after spending a week in Japan looking at potential destinations for 2011/12, he is also heading over to the USA next week to help with the half term travellers and to see what other brilliant options we can offer our groups!
He is the one with the “Jet Set” job, however he does try to assure me it’s not all fun and games! He has found some fantastic resorts in Japan as well as gaining some great local knowledge and we are truly excited to share these with you next season!
We are currently getting ready for 18 of our party leaders to take part in our Inspection Visit to Mount Snow. This is a fantastic opportunity for the Party leaders to inspect and familiarise themselves with a resort they may wish to visit in the future. Our IV’s have proven to be very successful and popular with our Party Leaders- of course if this is something you wish to take part in next year then contact us as we are busy planning the IV’s for next year!
Anyway, the office is definitely buzzing during this very busy period. Our Operations team are currently preparing for the Reps training weekend which is taking place on the 29th and 30th January- we are really looking forward to seeing some new and old faces and have really high hopes for the coming season!
That’s all for now,
Andy
Photo from the airport in Innsbruck watching
the snow arrive just in time for the skiing
competition in Kitzbuhel over the weekend.
Second Blog (Delayed due to Snow)
December 2010
Thankfully i did make it out to France, even if it was a couple of days late! I have to say that the conditions were fantastic. While running around the Grenoble area I popped up to Alpe d’Huez to visit a couple of hotels and thought it would be rude not to have a quick Ski. Unfortunately the weather changed from glorious blue to dull grey by the time I made it up the hill. I didn’t complain as more snow was being delivered and I knew that SkiClass had a group arriving the following week! (bad photo below!)
This time of year is becoming more popular with groups, despite the snow in the UK we managed to see our first guests depart and have had some great feedback from them. I hope that we can help more schools get away for some shorter breaks taking advantage of the early snow and quieter slopes. You don’t have to go for 7 days you know!
With Christmas now behind us the operation team’s attention is firmly on February half term. Hotels are starting to work on the rooming and suppliers are confirming numbers and times, a very exciting time for all! The Sales team are already talking about next season, Winter 2011-2012 and groups are already confirming where they want to go. It’s been great to see so much interest for next year, we will have to keep looking for exciting new places to go.
I hope you all have/have had a great Christmas and New Year. Next update in the middle of January.
Andy 
28/11/2010
Welcome to my first blog!
Please let me say a big thank you to everyone who has sent in their comments about our brochure. I’m delighted that you like the new look – we’ve tried hard to reflect what we know is a core strength of business – the ability to tailor make every trip to meet your needs perfectly. Watch this space as our website gets updated to feature all of our new tours.
Some may say that it’s quite an exciting life style working in travel being able to go around all the exciting school travel destinations. Yes it is! It’s not all good though as I am typing this while flying back from Austria with our favourite orange friends at 11 something at night, instead of enjoying one of the stunning Christmas markets in Innsbruck. I have just spent a couple of days in our Austrian office finalising the planning for this coming season. The team are busy working away getting ready for the first lucky arrivals during the Christmas holidays, as well as digging out the winter woollies. Don’t worry, the resorts aren’t really open yet so I have not managed to get any skiing in … yet!
While I look forward to the delights of the sandwich trolley at 38,000 feet, I want to let you know that I hope to keep you up to date with what is going on every couple of weeks during the season. Before you rush to find the unsubscribe button, don’t panic, I’m not planning on just trying to sell you a holiday (although that would be nice!). I hope to give you a bit of an insight into what’s going on and some of the latest information from out in the resorts.
So with this in mind, I am pleased to confirm that it’s snowing in Innsbruck and the gluhwein is fantastic.
I’m off to France in the next couple of weeks and will give you an update on the latest conditions over there.
Thats all from me for now.
Andy
