Relaxing isn't always that easy though. I like to think I'm a laid back kind of guy but the reality is that I can find it very difficult to properly switch off and unwind.
Modern technology doesn't help. For many people the fact that they can connect to their office via iphone / Blackberry etc while away means that they are expected to ... or feel they ought to. Between Christmas and New Year I switched off the e-mail on my phone but it took proper willpower to not simply switch it back on again. Rather sad!We provide wi-fi in a number of our chalets but I'm almost starting to see this as a curse rather than blessing. Perhaps people would prefer to be able to say to their boss or employees "Really gutted to tell you this but my chalet is completely cut off from the outside world, figure things out for yourselves I'll be back in a week!".
Another pressure can be spending time with the family. It should be a period of unadulterated joy and expectations in advance of time together are high. The reality may be that your three year old will sometimes be quite annoying across a week of full contact and this is the only opportunity you and your spouse will have to discuss the need to move the mortgage and when the bathroom is going to get re-grouted. This doesn't reduce your love for your family(!), it's just that the reality of a break may not live up to the dream.
So we come to the purpose of this blog post. I don't have a solution to how to better help people relax on holiday (although we already do everthing we can think of to reduce the stresses and strains that a family holiday can produce). I want ideas ...
How could we help you relax on holiday?
Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk
6 comments:
From experience at one your your chalets (and we're coming again at the end of Jan) is to let us do our own washing. Now, absolutely everything else is taken care of, but to charge extortionately (euro12 a load?) and/or make it diffcult to do clothes washing for a family with young children was really annoying.
Other than that, honestly, we couldn't fault it.
Thanks for that feedback Jill and I take the point. It's on my list.
Have a great time at the end of the month.
We have stayed in a couple of places where there have been some board games for us to play - old favourites like Boggle, Yahtzee, Scrabble which are often forgotten at home - these have been really relaxing and great fun!
We have a few board games (but it's probably time for an update). What we have added this year is a selection of Orchard Toys games in all chalets http://www.skifamille.co.uk/ski_famille_and_orchard_toys.html . Great fun!
How about allergy relief?
Over 30% of the UK population suffer from allergies at some point in their life - often childhood, and currently 1.8% of children at nursery school age have the killer allergy - peanuts.
My (now 15-yr-old) son is one of them and he/we always need to carry an Epipen for emergency.
Which brings us to the 'Epipen moment'... the moment when you produce the Epipen and start explaining. Sometimes their eyes widen at the prospect of the responsibility and you watch them step back. Other times they take it in their stride.
On ski holidays, the Epipen moment comes when you hand your kid over to ski school.
In my experience the Americans are usually excellent: "Oh, an Epipen! Yeah we're all trained on those and we have a routine for carrying it with us"... and the French are CRAP.
(I remember really losing it one time when at the END of the week I discovered the Courcheval ski school weren't even aware they had the Epipen!)
So, anything your staff can do to help prepare the way for, and/or manage allergy fears.... that could help guests relax.
Very interesting comment. Adding allergy training into the first aid course for our nannies would be very straightforward. Educating French ski instructors may be a bit more of a challenge .... Another one for my list, thanks.
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