Planning A Ski Trip To Keystone Colorado With A Large Group

Planning A Ski Trip To Keystone Colorado With A Large Group
By Peter Reeburgh

Planning a winter ski vacation to Keystone can be a lot like making a snowball. You start off small, a couple of friends planning to spend a long weekend on the Keystone ski slopes. Before you know it, your friends girlfriends and/or boyfriends, brothers, sisters, next door neighbors, favorite waitress and milkman are included. Before you hang up your skis and wait for next year, think about all of the positives to traveling with a large group. You wont have to wait for your cousin Ed all day, because more than likely, there will be other beginners in your group. You wont need to kick yourself for forgetting sunscreen because somebody will have some you can borrow. Most important, though, you will be able to save big bucks! Thats right, there is power in numbers. Sometimes it takes a bit of research and being able to ask nicely.

By keeping the following three things in mind, you should be able to use the size of your group to your advantage, and save everybody a few dollars. Who knows, they may want to pull their savings and buy a gift for the person who did all of the planning.

Rule #1: Name a contact person.

Rule #2: Know what you are looking for.

Rule #3: Ask in advance, Ask frequently, and Ask politely

Lets discuss rule number one. If you decide on a contact person for your group, you can be sure you are not duplicating each others work. Even though planning a vacation in the snow is fun, it can also be overwhelming and time consuming. Create a list of tasks, such as lift ticket research, lodging research and airline research and then make one person responsible for each of those categories. If your group is trusting, you can give that person the authority to finalize the sale. If you need more information, schedule a time that the whole group can meet in order to hear about the top options.

Rule number two is very important. If you know exactly what you are looking for and where you can be flexible, you might have some leverage. For example, if your group wants to have a nice fondue dinner and is willing to dine before the crowd, you might be able to get a percentage off. When you know the dates of your travel and how much flexibility your group has on either beginning or end, you might be able to get a great ski lodging discount by fitting perfectly into a block of open nights in a specific unit. Every condo owner wants to have as many nights reserved as possible, and if one condo won't fit all, you will surely get a discount if you book multiple condos in the same complex. The key with this is PLANNING FAR IN ADVANCE.

Possibly the most important thing to remember is to ask for the discount. If you have 20 people buying lift tickets for 3 days each, call the ticket office and ask if they offer a bulk discount. By selling 60 lift tickets, the resort knows that is the potential for 60 lunches and countless aprs ski drinks being purchased. If they tell you they cant offer a discount, ask what it would take for them to knock just ten percent off of your purchase. When looking for lodging, discuss several options with the property manager.

For example: You have a group of 20 and would be willing to split into 5 condos that sleep four. Ask if there is a discount for renting five units. Or, your group of ten will take a condo that sleeps 16 and one that sleeps four. If never hurts to ask if the property manager will comp a couple of nights in the small condo. As your dates approach, call your contacts and ask about any other ways to save. During the slower times, such as a few weeks after Christmas, the deals may be sweeter in order to get people on the slopes. Above all else, remember your manners. Nobody will go the extra mile to please a whiner!

When you have hammered all of the particulars out, remind your friends and their friends and their milkman that they are responsible for their own gloves, swimsuits, etc. Then relax and look forward to the champagne snow and hot tub under the stars!

Cheri is a long time trip planner and avid snowboarder. Being part of many group vacations, she has taken the lead role in planning and finding deals and discounts. As part owner of SummitCove.com, a comapny that provides Lodging in Keystone Resort Colorado she knows what to look for when it comes to the power of numbers in groups.

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