The Alpine Generation Reviews

I worked as a Chalet Host for The Alpine Generation over the 2024/25 winter season in La Tania, Courchevel. I was optimistic coming into this job having been given a good impression during the two-stage interview process and from the highly-curated website with cherry-picked reviews. Previous to this review, there have been no reviews from an employees perspective for this company, making the process of looking for seasonal work a bit of a guessing game. I found that a lot of the right things were said during the interviews, which were not necessarily followed through in my experience during the season. In hindsight, it felt like a lot of things were miscommunicated or unsaid, leading me to be misled in my expectations. Some of my negative experiences working for this company are outlined below. Salary and ‘annual leave’: The overall take-home salary is less than average and the pay system is poorly explained in the beginning. While deductions for rent, food, ski hire and ski passes were communicated and expected, the total tax deduction of circa. 400 euros was not divulged upfront, and the combination of deductions meant the take-home salary was less than expected. The system of days off/annual leave was also poorly communicated and left even the resort managers totally confused and still trying to clear it up towards the end of the season. It seems that the company uses your annual leave to subsidise your rent; charging 788 euros at the completion of your contract. You are given an additional 4 RDOs to be used throughout the season however, if you do not take these they are not paid out. Our resort manager did not realise this and was scrambling towards the end of the season trying to fit everyone in. Training: Training involved 2-days at the beginning of the season sitting in a room listening to the senior management talk through the chalet host guide. This was not particularly engaging or useful. If anything, it was a nice opportunity to meet the other hosts. We were told we would have fire training but this was cancelled and never re-arranged. Senior and resort management: The company appeared to have lost a few key management positions last minute, including a maintenance position. For this reason, when issues occurred, our resort manager was underqualified, undersupported and lacked motivation to resolve issues. I can only speak for the management in our resort, but we had serious issues with communication and professionalism with our resort manager. Several times, they would disappear for days at a time without warning and it would require repeated messages and usually a few days to weeks to get any information or any maintenance issues addressed, even when it was impacting guests. Furthermore, it was clear that they were often drunk or high while working. Despite communicating our issues and challenges with them during the mid-season review, nothing improved and it appeared their motivation went downhill even towards the end of the season. Senior management came to the resort for a ‘check-up week’ twice during the season but hardly engaged with the chalet hosts during their stays. During one of the stays the resort manager from another resort came to check in and asked us how the season was going while our guests were in the same room, so we were unable to speak freely… During this visit, the resort manager parked their car outside our chalet, blocking the path to both our chalet and another chalet for several days and did not move it until they left, even when asked repeatedly. Maintenance and stock: The chalets were quite run-down with broken radiators, broken dishwashers, broken balustrades, wobbly chairs, curtains fell apart often, linen that didn’t fit or had stains, etc. When there was an urgent maintenance issue, it could take days to several weeks to be addressed, or was simply not addressed. We had a broken dishwasher which took 9 weeks to replace. In terms of stock issues, there were several occasions when our company ran out of white wine - this was likely due to several staff drinking it. Also, when Reblochon cheese became too expensive for the company we were told we had to make the Tartiflette with Brie or Camembert because it was cheaper, which felt like a cheeky shortcut to make considering it is quite a well-known and loved dish in the French Alps and for guests staying in our chalets. Finalising end of season contract was a nightmare. Trying to get a clear answer about when we would no longer be required and could book flights was next to impossible. This lead to many staff having to book last minute and expensive flights. The initial contract lasted until March 28th and in future I would consider finishing at this point rather than trying to deal with finishing dates and negotiations around this. Post season it took over 3 months to receive our staff accomodation bond return. We were told this was due to overall chalet cleanliness which is something that should have been resolved during the clean up week at the end of the season. Regardless of this our expectations were that our bond was for staff accommodation not chalet cleanses - again another lie. Overall communication from senior management concerning this was difficult and spars required repeated emails and prompts.