Ski Resort Hospitality Jobs
Find information on different types of jobs in hotels and hospitality.
Ski resort towns are built around the hotels and the guests, so there are a number of jobs available each season in the hotels on the mountain and around town. Ranging from the large hotel chains, down to smaller boutique hotels, and everything in between. You might also consider working in a hotel outside of the ski resort town if your first choice is not available, this might mean getting to live in a large city and travelling to ski on weekends.
Roles available
The most common jobs are managers, bar staff, chefs/cooks, waiters, lobby staff and cleaners. See Ski Chalet Chef for further information on chef/cooks jobs.
Managers will need some degree of experience working in a hotel, given the complexities involved. The job will involve management of the team, pre-season training of staff, finance and the books, ensuring guests receive what they need from staff, rosters, and managing stock.
In general, cleaners, lobby staff, waiters and bar staff do not need experience as a pre-requisite, though it certainly helps your application.
Hotel cleaning is actually quite a good option. It allows you to just do the work at your own pace, and you can often get night shifts which means more time for riding during the day.
What are the jobs like?
Working inside a hotel can be a lot of fun for a ski season. Hotels are generally bigger than the tour company chalets, which means a bigger team of staff and more friends to make. Of course, the other side is that you are less likely to get to know the guests in the same way, and the job is a little less personal than working in a chalet.
There will be a difference in your working hours depending on your job. Cooks, waiters and bar staff will generally work in the evenings (and mornings if there is a breakfast service for cooks and waiters), while cleaners, lobby staff and managers will work more typical hours throughout the day.
Given you interact with guests as a waiter, bar staff or manager, it will certainly help if you can speak the local language.
Pay and advantages
Hotel jobs are a good way to work a ski season. The pay won’t be spectacular, but that’s not the reason to do a ski season anyway. You’re inside, you are hopefully working with a good team and hopefully the snow is good!
One of the differences of working in a hotel compared to a chalet is that the teams are a little bigger. As a result, you are not always “on” in the same way as in a chalet where you are constantly interacting with the same guests.
For some of the larger hotels, you might also need to fend for yourself as well in terms of finding seasonal accommodation, buying your own lift pass and arranging your own food.
