From TRAVEL: EUROPE & WORLDWIDE
Snow Time
I still remember that long ago joy. The goodbyes filled with handshakes, the kisses and the optimism that we all felt that Christmas Eve. It seemed special, very special because this day ended the last day of work in the old millennium. When we met again it would be January 2000, the new millennium.
As normal I caught the train home and given the day, I wasn't surprised to find that the paper kiosk had sold out of most things, news was "big" today, so for the first time in my life I bought a copy of the Financial Times. It was better than nothing for the solitary ride home. The travel section caught my interest: "On top of the world in 2000: SKIING: Arnie Wilson on the celebrations planned across the slopes in coming weeks." It went on: "Mountains can be magical places. They will provide a heady backdrop to the next few days as the last Christmas of the 20th century is followed by a little millennium madness. There is the distinct possibility that some skiers may briefly be encouraged to take leave of their senses".
In the Alps, Descent International has been transporting its clients in from Geneva by helicopter and sending in by freight Verve Clicquot champagne at £1,500 a case. Tomorrow the company has arranged for Father Christmas to parachute into the grounds of the luxurious Chalet Brames in Meribel. One of Rick Stein's chefs, Lianne Retallick, will be trying to ensure the culinary expectations of guests will be met, although one Russian client is known to have simple tastes - three raw onions for every meal. A fleet of six vehicles will ferry clients around in Meribel and Verbier to wherever they want to go. "Our guests are not expected to walk anywhere," says Kit Harrison, the company's managing director.
This had to be the most memorable way to start a new millennium. I sat back in my considering the advantages of being rich. Imagine Verbier? Lying on the terrace of the Chalet Septième Ciel or better still in the Jacuzzi, champagne goblet in hand, seeing the Vallee de Grand St Bernard in the middle distance and the snow drenched Massif Central stretching out way out into the beyond. Absolutely nothing interrupting my view, I feel wonderfully on my own and it even feels like the mountain, even the world is my own. A view fit for gods and angels. I imagine the joys of the day on the hill, the almost a vertical mile of powder on the run down the fabulous Mont Fort; the feats, the disasters, falls and the speed, then this moment to recount it all - winding down in this truly luxurious chalet with the entire staff catering for my every shameless whim.
This is your real hedonistic ski rush, skiing as it really should be done, unchanged from those halcyon days. As the Financial Times' Arnie Wilson put it: "Massage, madam? Or perhaps a manicure? Helicopter sir? Would that be for skiing or for shopping? Mobile not working? Borrow mine ? please! Fresh irises in your room every day? Not a problem. TV? Do choose from our 50 channels. I awoke on my birthday to find a champagne picnic had been arranged. Not just any old picnic.
The meal was served on the top of the remote and spectacular Glacier du Trient. And the method of transport to reach this exotic lunch-table? A bright yellow ski-plane?. But there is, of course, a price to pay for all this - Descent International is in the business of attracting clients for whom money is simply no object. Or so I thought. Fast-forward two years and last month a friend -sold me into making up the numbers for a dream skiing holiday. "Yes definitely count me in, it sounds fantastic, I won't let you down, send me the details". Then found out it was in Verbier with Descent International!!! Seriously worried for my solvency, I put on my journalist hat and caught up with Kit Marshall the M.D. hoping to find a way out of certain bankruptcy. Here was a man much younger than I imagined and an object lesson in sincere good manners and politeness for today's society. Ex-Oxford, ex-banker with a passion for adventure and a high degree of craziness, (a good time is being bowman in force 12 hurricane whilst taking part in the BT Challenge Round The World Yacht Race).
Armed seven years ago with a 100 page plus business plan he exploited his love of these mountains and a belief that he could do better. "He is outgunning the established luxury ski operators by playing an exhilarating but dangerous game: giving his skiing clients just about everything they desire. Dangerous because, like children, clients can make more and more demands on him once they realise what the Descent International policy is. And this can erode profits". Kit Harrison: "When you are offering ski holidays at the very top end of the market, there are virtually no rules. Short of burning down the chalet, the client is always right, and within reason they can do almost anything they wan". The choices are very straightforward, you can choose a 5 star hotel where you get the fantastic service, the fantastic facilities, but you don't get the private space you would otherwise get with a chalet operator, but what the operators don't seem to offer is the level of luxury and degree of facilities that the hotel can deliver.
Here you find that you are coming to your own 5 star hotel with your own staff, be it concierge, chef, even masseuse. You will have incredible facilities entirely at your disposal; sauna, billiard room, Jacuzzi, steam room, even the wine cellar is all yours. And the children can enjoy the play-stations in the games room, or a choice of innumerable films, including their all time top ten in the cinema. Yet you don't have to come down and eat in a dining room in a morning at a certain time with a lot of other people - you don't even have to dress up for breakfast, you can be "impossibly" relaxed with your family and friends. I think that's a really unique concept, people say they haven't found anything like this anywhere in the world. It does come down to understanding people, what they want and how they want it. It has taken us some time to continually ensure that we have got it right and on the back of that we have grown the company and hopefully will continue to do so.
I am especially pleased to say that this is despite the economic climate, which has changed dramatically since we started in '97. Then the economy was booming, money was perhaps no object, the world was outwardly a more secure place and markets were more buoyant, more corporate, and perhaps too excessive in their expenditure. That's all well and good but when things change you have to respond and even with softening of the corporate side, we continue to be strong because of the loyalty from appreciative clients. Global events have touched us all and changed our outlooks on finance and security; many people are becoming more discreet - Which is why what we do which is incredibly discreet, yet tailored 100%. We price per property rather than per head ... It takes away all the uncertainties like can I have a discount for this and that, I've got half a nanny, two young children, a puppy and I'd like to stay for just 3 or 4 days... It can get very complex. Being very much your own private hotel and you want to have whatever suits your needs, our raison d'etre is to The skiing in each of the resorts we are in is fabulous.
Funnily enough a lot of our guests don't ski at all, even many of the villagers themselves are not skiers. During the day they enjoy the resort's art galleries, architecture, a glittering array of jewellers and boutiques, snow-shoe walking into the forest, admiring the flora and fauna, riding with huskies on their slays and afterward people start by thinking they're going to go to the bars and restaurants. In the reality this is rarely the case, we find people like to relax and stay in rather than go out, I suppose it's like an inconvenience. They have these wonderful chalets, the spirits are on the house, and the wine is on the house. One has to by and large recognise it's a gentleman's agreement to have free rein over the wine cellar, uniquely however we are sponsored by Verve Clicquot, and throughout the week the yellow champagne, their signature label certainly flows, you just don't need to go out! And dare I mention, if you so desire, you can keep in touch with work or the kids or whatever, having recognised this we've put a full study in each property including fax, computer, printer, everything to be able to run an office. There are even internet connections in every bedroom!. I was sold on this two years ago, but its like many things in life, I didn't believe I could, but opinions change and I couldn't afford not to go "to go to this Winter Wonder Land, that captivated my imagination on that last day of work in the last millennium."
As normal I caught the train home and given the day, I wasn't surprised to find that the paper kiosk had sold out of most things, news was "big" today, so for the first time in my life I bought a copy of the Financial Times. It was better than nothing for the solitary ride home. The travel section caught my interest: "On top of the world in 2000: SKIING: Arnie Wilson on the celebrations planned across the slopes in coming weeks." It went on: "Mountains can be magical places. They will provide a heady backdrop to the next few days as the last Christmas of the 20th century is followed by a little millennium madness. There is the distinct possibility that some skiers may briefly be encouraged to take leave of their senses".
In the Alps, Descent International has been transporting its clients in from Geneva by helicopter and sending in by freight Verve Clicquot champagne at £1,500 a case. Tomorrow the company has arranged for Father Christmas to parachute into the grounds of the luxurious Chalet Brames in Meribel. One of Rick Stein's chefs, Lianne Retallick, will be trying to ensure the culinary expectations of guests will be met, although one Russian client is known to have simple tastes - three raw onions for every meal. A fleet of six vehicles will ferry clients around in Meribel and Verbier to wherever they want to go. "Our guests are not expected to walk anywhere," says Kit Harrison, the company's managing director.
This had to be the most memorable way to start a new millennium. I sat back in my considering the advantages of being rich. Imagine Verbier? Lying on the terrace of the Chalet Septième Ciel or better still in the Jacuzzi, champagne goblet in hand, seeing the Vallee de Grand St Bernard in the middle distance and the snow drenched Massif Central stretching out way out into the beyond. Absolutely nothing interrupting my view, I feel wonderfully on my own and it even feels like the mountain, even the world is my own. A view fit for gods and angels. I imagine the joys of the day on the hill, the almost a vertical mile of powder on the run down the fabulous Mont Fort; the feats, the disasters, falls and the speed, then this moment to recount it all - winding down in this truly luxurious chalet with the entire staff catering for my every shameless whim.
This is your real hedonistic ski rush, skiing as it really should be done, unchanged from those halcyon days. As the Financial Times' Arnie Wilson put it: "Massage, madam? Or perhaps a manicure? Helicopter sir? Would that be for skiing or for shopping? Mobile not working? Borrow mine ? please! Fresh irises in your room every day? Not a problem. TV? Do choose from our 50 channels. I awoke on my birthday to find a champagne picnic had been arranged. Not just any old picnic.
The meal was served on the top of the remote and spectacular Glacier du Trient. And the method of transport to reach this exotic lunch-table? A bright yellow ski-plane?. But there is, of course, a price to pay for all this - Descent International is in the business of attracting clients for whom money is simply no object. Or so I thought. Fast-forward two years and last month a friend -sold me into making up the numbers for a dream skiing holiday. "Yes definitely count me in, it sounds fantastic, I won't let you down, send me the details". Then found out it was in Verbier with Descent International!!! Seriously worried for my solvency, I put on my journalist hat and caught up with Kit Marshall the M.D. hoping to find a way out of certain bankruptcy. Here was a man much younger than I imagined and an object lesson in sincere good manners and politeness for today's society. Ex-Oxford, ex-banker with a passion for adventure and a high degree of craziness, (a good time is being bowman in force 12 hurricane whilst taking part in the BT Challenge Round The World Yacht Race).
Armed seven years ago with a 100 page plus business plan he exploited his love of these mountains and a belief that he could do better. "He is outgunning the established luxury ski operators by playing an exhilarating but dangerous game: giving his skiing clients just about everything they desire. Dangerous because, like children, clients can make more and more demands on him once they realise what the Descent International policy is. And this can erode profits". Kit Harrison: "When you are offering ski holidays at the very top end of the market, there are virtually no rules. Short of burning down the chalet, the client is always right, and within reason they can do almost anything they wan". The choices are very straightforward, you can choose a 5 star hotel where you get the fantastic service, the fantastic facilities, but you don't get the private space you would otherwise get with a chalet operator, but what the operators don't seem to offer is the level of luxury and degree of facilities that the hotel can deliver.
Here you find that you are coming to your own 5 star hotel with your own staff, be it concierge, chef, even masseuse. You will have incredible facilities entirely at your disposal; sauna, billiard room, Jacuzzi, steam room, even the wine cellar is all yours. And the children can enjoy the play-stations in the games room, or a choice of innumerable films, including their all time top ten in the cinema. Yet you don't have to come down and eat in a dining room in a morning at a certain time with a lot of other people - you don't even have to dress up for breakfast, you can be "impossibly" relaxed with your family and friends. I think that's a really unique concept, people say they haven't found anything like this anywhere in the world. It does come down to understanding people, what they want and how they want it. It has taken us some time to continually ensure that we have got it right and on the back of that we have grown the company and hopefully will continue to do so.
I am especially pleased to say that this is despite the economic climate, which has changed dramatically since we started in '97. Then the economy was booming, money was perhaps no object, the world was outwardly a more secure place and markets were more buoyant, more corporate, and perhaps too excessive in their expenditure. That's all well and good but when things change you have to respond and even with softening of the corporate side, we continue to be strong because of the loyalty from appreciative clients. Global events have touched us all and changed our outlooks on finance and security; many people are becoming more discreet - Which is why what we do which is incredibly discreet, yet tailored 100%. We price per property rather than per head ... It takes away all the uncertainties like can I have a discount for this and that, I've got half a nanny, two young children, a puppy and I'd like to stay for just 3 or 4 days... It can get very complex. Being very much your own private hotel and you want to have whatever suits your needs, our raison d'etre is to The skiing in each of the resorts we are in is fabulous.
Funnily enough a lot of our guests don't ski at all, even many of the villagers themselves are not skiers. During the day they enjoy the resort's art galleries, architecture, a glittering array of jewellers and boutiques, snow-shoe walking into the forest, admiring the flora and fauna, riding with huskies on their slays and afterward people start by thinking they're going to go to the bars and restaurants. In the reality this is rarely the case, we find people like to relax and stay in rather than go out, I suppose it's like an inconvenience. They have these wonderful chalets, the spirits are on the house, and the wine is on the house. One has to by and large recognise it's a gentleman's agreement to have free rein over the wine cellar, uniquely however we are sponsored by Verve Clicquot, and throughout the week the yellow champagne, their signature label certainly flows, you just don't need to go out! And dare I mention, if you so desire, you can keep in touch with work or the kids or whatever, having recognised this we've put a full study in each property including fax, computer, printer, everything to be able to run an office. There are even internet connections in every bedroom!. I was sold on this two years ago, but its like many things in life, I didn't believe I could, but opinions change and I couldn't afford not to go "to go to this Winter Wonder Land, that captivated my imagination on that last day of work in the last millennium."
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