FRESHTRACKS MOVES WITH THE TIMES
Dancing in the ever-shifting sands of Covid-19 travel, Freshtracks is working hard to keep creating opportunities for Ski Club Members to enjoy snowsports, on fresh snow abroad and dry slopes at home
The Freshtracks team is working hard behind the scenes to ensure Members stay safe and don’t lose out financially
No day has been the same for the Ski Club’s Freshtracks holidays team since March 2020. After repatriating Members caught in Alpine and North American resorts after they went into lockdown, they knuckled down to the task of cancelling and refunding over 200 holidays booked for later that season, as the world battened down the hatches to weather the Covid-19 storm.
Despite the financial implications of issuing full refunds to all Freshtracks customers, the Ski Club remained resolute in its determination to honour its money-back promise. Within two months of resorts shutting down their lifts, all 200-plus Members who had booked a Freshtracks holiday that was cancelled due to Covid-19 had received a full refund.
Since then, the team has kept in close contact with hotels and chalets across the globe to check their health and safety procedures.
As Emma McQueen, Freshtracks’ Senior Sales and Product Executive, explains: “We’re in constant contact with our suppliers to keep up to date with local developments and check the cleaning and hygiene protocols of individual properties to ensure they're aligned with our stringent requirements. ”
The team has also been busy securing additional single rooms at hotels across the Freshtracks portfolio, so solo travellers don’t feel obliged to share twin rooms. Their endeavours are paying dividends: 60% of bedrooms now offered on Ski Club holidays are singles.
Keeping Club Members safe during their ski holidays has always been integral to Freshtracks, and several new safeguards have been introduced in response to the pandemic.
Reps will receive specialist training on Covid-19 precautions and group management through a series of interactive Zoom presentations, and pre-departure information packs will be delivered to guests shortly before they leave for their trip, containing details about restrictions and guidelines in their travel destination.
At the time of going to press, the Ski Club was investigating the possibility of hosting ‘course only’ holidays in Flaine, where Yann Westercamp heads up a fantastic team of instructors who lead a number of enduringly popular off-piste instruction weeks.
There are also plans afoot to run the Club’s UK Performance Clinics, where some of the country’s top instructors offer intensive training days at indoor snow centres, at dry ski slopes across the UK.