October 1st - it's very definitely autumn now - glacier skiing is starting up again in Europe, the ski magazines are back on the shelves, there's been a few tentative snowfalls here and there, and at CDHQ we're experiencing that buzz in the air when we know that winter is now just weeks away.
Traditionally autumn is the time when the search for ski holidays really hots up - so in case you didn't know, Chalets Direct offers a few ways of finding chalets, apartments, hotels - whatever type of accommodation you're looking for.
We have the usual methods of browsing and searching. If you're an experienced skier/boarder, you may well know which resorts you want to visit. So from the home page you can go directly to resort sections and see what's available. The same with the search - put in your criteria and you'll get a selection back that fits.
We also have the Solutions Room, which since it's inception 10 years ago, has proved to be a useful tool for thousands of people - both holidaymakers and holiday providers.
The Solutions Room allows you to be very specific or very vague. You can say "Ok I only want to go to the Three Valleys, only on these dates, and only to a catered chalet", or you can say that you're pretty much "open to suggestions and what's out there" ?
Once you've said what you're looking for you can then wait for the offers to come back to you. It takes the pain out of looking for yourself and often throws up some suggestions that you may not have considered before - why not try St Gervais, why not try a semi-catered package, why not travel on a Sunday, why not do a ski safari?
There's also the Promotions section on Chalets Direct, which at the moment is packed full of offers, discounts, added extras, and tempting ideas. So if you're very open to ideas you can search the Promotions and see what's available for the dates you want, or in the areas you prefer, and find a good offer which will help you seal the deal. Our Latest & Greatest newsletter showcases some of the special offers, and in case you missed it we had a bumper issue that went out yesterday with some great deals on accommodation, free lift passes, free transfers, free childcare and loads more!
So with all the press over the summer months about there being fewer ski holidays around for winter 2009-10, we'd like to say that ski holidays are definitely out there - it's just knowing where to look!