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24/07/2011
Issue 54

You can guarantee when you start to take off a roof it will rain like heck.

If you have a look through the enquirer archive you will find several articles about tipping. After doing many seasons I’m a firm believer that all chalet staff, with a possible exception of those that are totally useless (<3%), should be tipped at the end of the week at least 10 euros by each guest. That way they can go and get hammered in the local bar at the end of the week. This is fine for a chalet but what do you do in a chalet hotel? Instead of 1 or 2 people looking after you have a huge team from hotel manager to dish washer. I still believe that the same amount should be tipped with one proviso. You should make sure you know where your tips are going.

From an accounting perspective tips don’t really exist. If they are declared I suppose they have to be taxed and as everything is in cash its easier to divvy it up between the staff under the table. This is fine in principle but…

As the last guests left resort and the season drew to a close I got chatting to a chef who had been working in a chalet hotel (that will of course remain nameless) all season. He said he had just got tipped 40 euros. I said for a chalet hotel that wasn’t bad for a week. He quickly interrupted and said that the 40 euros tips was for the entire season and not for a week. After asking how many staff worked in the hotel and how many guests they averaged every week I calculated that on average each guest tipped just 1.3 euros. It was also pointed out that everyone in the hotel got the same tip regardless on how much of the season they had worked. Not only is it wrong to divide the tips at the end of the season instead of every couple of week but with the majority of generous guests it’s hard to believe that this figure is correct.

Now I’m in no way insinuating that the hotel managers might have spent most weekends at very expensive French nightclubs getting drunk on the pooled tips. That would just be wrong. Wouldn’t it?

The editor

Brownstock Music Festival

Jess (who some of you will know as she works for New Gen in Courchevel) runs Brownstock Music Festival on her family's farm in Essex in September. Started as a small affair - but now its a fully formed boutique festival with 4000 visitors heading down to the farm during the weekend.

Click here for more info

2010-11 seasonnaire hoodies/t-shirts for sale
As usual we alway have a few t-shirts/ hoodies left over. So if you see anything on the list let me know. I'll even post it for free.
1850 Print
Purple t-shirt medium (blue print)
Green t-shirt XL (blue print)
Green long sleeve t-shirt XXL (yellow print)
Grey hoody XL (yellow print)
1650/1550 print
Green long sleeve t-shirt medium (blue print)
Yellow t-shirt large (blue print)
Red Hoody medium (blue print)
Hi-vis yellow Hoody medium (blue print)
Hi-vis yellow Hoody large (blue print)
all t-shirts 20euros / £17
all hoodies 35euros / £30