What is a catered chalet? A ski house where someone else cooks

A catered chalet is a ski holiday house, or a large apartment, where staff cook and clean for you for the week. On a typical week you get breakfast, tea and cake when you come off the hill, and a dinner of three or four courses with wine on most nights.

What it means for your week

Nobody in your group shops, cooks or washes up. Dinner is usually at a set time, and the wine is poured freely at many chalets and to an allowance at others. Many will give small children an early tea.

Whole chalet or by the room. Book the whole chalet and it is your group's house. Book by the room and you share the table and the sitting room with whoever else booked that week. Solo skiers often love that. Plenty of people do not, so know which you are before you book.

The changeover. Chalets run on a fixed weekly changeover, usually at the weekend. One group leaves after breakfast, the house is turned round, and the next group arrives later the same day. On your last morning you are out of your room early, and a late flight means an afternoon with your bags in a store.

Its relations. A chalet hotel serves the same kind of board to dozens of guests at once. A self catered chalet is the same sort of house with a kitchen and no cook, though some will send one in for a night or two.

It is at its best for a big group of friends, or a family with older children, booked whole: one table, one sitting room, and nobody on washing up duty.

The thing people get wrong

Assuming catered means every meal, every day. It does not.

Lunch is yours. You eat on the mountain. Some hosts will make a packed lunch, usually as an extra.

One night is yours too. The staff usually get a day off each week. That morning breakfast is laid out for you to help yourself, and that evening you eat out. In a big resort that is a good excuse to try a restaurant. In a small village in a snowstorm it is less fun, so book that table early in the week.

Where to go next

Our explainer, catered chalet, apartment or hotel, sets the chalet against every other way to stay and says who each one suits. If the listing promises ski in ski out, what ski in ski out means tells you what to ask. And for the hours between the last lift and that dinner, what is apres ski covers the rest.