Ski resort village spread across a snow-covered valley

Forty-one chalets · Two valleys · Both seasons

Management for Mountain Chalets That Are Let

A chalet earns in twenty-two weeks and has to survive fifty-two, most of them at altitude, unoccupied and under snow. We manage forty-one of them across two valleys: winter and summer bookings, Saturday changeovers that actually finish before guests arrive, snow clearance and roof safety, heating watched remotely so a failure in January does not become a burst pipe, technical maintenance planned across five years, and a monthly statement an owner can audit line by line.

Management Services Request an Assessment

About us

A Company Built Around Saturday

Everything in a ski valley happens on one day. Eight hundred people leave between eight and ten in the morning and eight hundred arrive between four and eight in the evening, on roads that may be closed, in weather that may be appalling, into buildings that need to be cleaned, heated, re-stocked and inspected in the six hours between. Our company was founded by a chalet manager and a maintenance engineer who had watched the same agencies fail that day every winter, and the whole operation is organised backwards from it.

That means our own directly employed housekeeping teams rather than subcontracted crews who take the highest bidder in February, staff accommodation secured in advance because nobody can work a season in a valley they cannot afford to live in, laundry contracted with capacity reserved for peak Saturdays, and a written changeover schedule per chalet with times, tasks and a photographic check at the end. It is unglamorous, and it is the entire difference between a good winter and a season of complaints.

Out of season the work changes but does not stop. Altitude, freeze-thaw, snow load and eight months of ultraviolet destroy buildings quickly, so every chalet has a five-year plan covering roof and gutters, timber treatment, seals and glazing, heating and ventilation service, water systems, snow guards and access. Empty properties are checked weekly through winter and after every heavy snowfall, with heating and humidity monitored remotely and an alert if either moves out of range.

Mountain hut standing in deep snow below a ridge

Advantages

What Owners Get That an Agency Rarely Provides

Six things that decide whether a chalet earns well or quietly loses money.

Warmly furnished lounge with tall doors and daybed

Changeovers That Finish On Time

Every chalet has a written changeover schedule with allocated staff, a task list, a laundry slot and a photographic check at completion, and the day is planned so that the last property is finished before the first guests arrive rather than after. Teams are directly employed and housed, so they are still with us in February, and a floating pair covers illness and the weeks when snow closes the access road. Owners see the completion photographs, which is also how disputes about damage are settled quickly and fairly.

Both Seasons Marketed Properly

Most chalets are marketed for twenty weeks of winter and left empty through a summer that is now busier than it has ever been. We photograph and list each property twice, with summer content that shows walking, cycling, lakes and terraces rather than snow, and we price the two seasons independently against our own booking data for the same street. Summer occupancy across the portfolio has roughly doubled in four years, and for many owners it is the difference between covering costs and not.

Snow and Roof Managed

Access paths, steps, terraces and parking are cleared before guests arrive rather than after somebody falls, salt and grit are stocked before the first snowfall, and roof loads are monitored with clearing scheduled when depth and thaw conditions require it. Snow guards, gutters and heating cables are checked every autumn. Most of the expensive damage we see in unmanaged chalets — ice dams, collapsed gutters, water ingress at the eaves — is entirely preventable and follows the same pattern every year.

Remote Monitoring Between Guests

Every managed chalet has temperature, humidity and leak sensors reporting continuously, so a heating failure at minus fifteen produces an alert within minutes rather than a burst system discovered at the next changeover. Empty properties are visited weekly through winter and after every significant snowfall, with a photographic report to the owner. This single measure has prevented four freeze events across the portfolio in the last three winters, any one of which would have cost more than a season of management fees.

Maintenance Planned Over Five Years

Each property has a written plan covering roof and flashing, timber treatment and staining, seals and glazing, heating and ventilation servicing, water and drainage, decks and balustrades, access and parking, with costs projected across five years so nothing arrives as an emergency in the middle of a season. Work is scheduled for May and October when the chalet is empty. Owners approve anything above an agreed threshold and receive photographs of everything completed.

Accounts You Can Check

Monthly statements list every booking with its gross and net, every expense with a receipt attached, staff hours, maintenance against the plan and the balance held, with an annual summary formatted for an accountant. Our commission is a single published percentage; we take no margin on contractors, no rebate from suppliers and no commission on the linen. Owners keep a live calendar for personal use, and the arrangement ends with three months' notice and a complete handover file.

Ski slopes and chalets above a snow-covered resort

Services

What We Take On

Letting, guest services, housekeeping, maintenance, caretaking and refurbishment.

Full Letting Management

Photography and listing for both seasons, pricing against our own booking data, enquiry handling and guest vetting, contracts, deposits and payment collection, arrival management, changeovers, linen and consumables, damage claims and insurance correspondence, with monthly statements and an annual summary. Owners retain flexible personal use through a live calendar and receive a photographic condition report after every departure.

Guest Services and Concierge

Airport and station transfers, lift passes and equipment hire delivered to the chalet, ski school bookings, a private chef or a delivered meal on arrival night, grocery pre-stocking, childcare, restaurant reservations and a resort guide written by people who live there. A local number is answered from seven in the morning to ten at night through the season, and someone can be at any managed chalet within twenty minutes.

Housekeeping and Linen

Directly employed housekeeping teams working to a written checklist per property, mid-week services on longer bookings, hotel-grade linen and towels supplied and laundered with capacity reserved for peak Saturdays, deep cleans between seasons, and window, chimney and ventilation cleaning on schedule. Every changeover ends with photographs filed against the property record, which settles damage questions in hours rather than weeks.

Maintenance and Snow Work

Scheduled servicing of heating, ventilation, water and electrical systems, roof and gutter work, timber treatment, deck and balustrade repair, plus snow clearance of paths, steps, terraces and parking, roof load monitoring and clearing, and de-icing. An emergency line runs day and night through the season with our own technicians, because a heating failure at altitude on a Saturday evening cannot wait for a contractor from the valley floor.

Caretaking for Private Owners

For chalets that are never let: weekly inspections with written reports and photographs, heating and humidity management through winter, remote monitoring with alerts, snow clearance, post collection, delivery acceptance, and preparation before each family visit with the chalet heated, aired and stocked. Vehicles can be stored, serviced and made ready, and we arrange local trades for anything outside our own scope.

Refurbishment and Purchase Advice

Staged refurbishment planned for the empty months with realistic altitude costs, permissions where a commune requires them, and furnishing specified for heavy rental use rather than for photographs. For buyers we inspect properties, produce income projections from our own data rather than agency estimates, review service charges and access arrangements, and say plainly when a chalet in a particular position will not let well however attractive it looks.

Contacts

Owner Enquiries and Guest Bookings

Owners: send the resort, the chalet's size and position and what it currently earns, and we will return a written assessment with realistic winter and summer projections and a clear fee proposal.

Guests: tell us the week, the number of people and whether you want ski-in access or a quieter position, and we will suggest the chalets that genuinely fit.

Office14 Rue du Docteur Paccard, 74400 Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

Phone+33 4 50 53 27 61

Emailsnowlinechalets@gmx.com

SeasonOffice all year; guest line 07:00–22:00 in season