We have not been satisfied with the resort maps we have been showing on SnowRental for a while. They were either too small and no detail was visible, or too huge and took a long time to load and never fitted on the screen anyway. So we have been working hard to come up with an alternative way of viewing piste maps online and hope you like the results:
Some examples
http://www.snowrental.net/skiing/france/val-d-isere/val-d-isere-pistemap.html
http://www.snowrental.net/skiing/switzerland/verbier/verbier-pistemap.html
http://www.snowrental.net/skiing/austria/zell-am-see/zell-am-see-pistemap.html
Starting with a high(ish) resolution piste map we use a tool to cut the image up in to lots of little tiles that are then displayed using the Google Maps interface. This means that you can zoom in and pan and drag the map around to examine the pistes in resort. You can use the standard map controls to pan and zoom (top left), but you can also double click to zoom in, and click and drag the map with your mouse or use the mouse wheel.
We think that this strikes a better balance between detail and file size and makes for a useful way to check out the ski resort you are interested in.
We are working on providing this for the 50 most popular resorts on SnowRental by the end of the month.
PS - If any tourist offices want to get in touch to provide a really high resolution version of your piste map, we would love to hear from you as we think we can produce even better results if you can provide a better starting image.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Tell us what you think
Frustrated? Delighted? Simply want to express something about our site, our service or ski hire in general?
Click here and tell us what you think
Click here and tell us what you think
We would be really pleased if you could spare us a few minutes to answer 10 quick questions about ski hire and preparing ski holidays online. Click here to start the survey.
Its quick, straightforward, and wont take more than 5 minutes to complete. It would be really very much appreciated and will help us to improve and get closer to providing just what you want.
Thanks in advance for any time you can spare and your answers really will help shape the things to come.
Its quick, straightforward, and wont take more than 5 minutes to complete. It would be really very much appreciated and will help us to improve and get closer to providing just what you want.
Thanks in advance for any time you can spare and your answers really will help shape the things to come.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Ski Lift Pass Pay As You Go
An interesting development from the Compagnie des Alpes who own and run a number of ski resorts in France : pay as you go. According to www.carteskieurfrequent.com you buy a card for 30€ and ski when you like, currently in 2 pilot resorts of Les Arcs and Serre Che. You will be billed for the days skied on your credit card registered with them. As these resorts now use hands-free lift pass systems, you can manage your lift pass purchasing online.
Whats more, and this is usually harder to come by, you get can a discount. From their site they reckon you can save up to 25-30% by skiing on a Saturday, 15% outside of Feb school holidays, and 10% during the Feb hols.
It sounds a great idea, and as the name suggests, directed towards those that can ski regularly near one of the participating resorts, although small aside it may also be a good offer for fair weather skiers that are not sure to ski all week ever day.
It also remains to be seen if one run or one hours of skiing means you will be charged for the whole days ski pass.
Whats more, and this is usually harder to come by, you get can a discount. From their site they reckon you can save up to 25-30% by skiing on a Saturday, 15% outside of Feb school holidays, and 10% during the Feb hols.
It sounds a great idea, and as the name suggests, directed towards those that can ski regularly near one of the participating resorts, although small aside it may also be a good offer for fair weather skiers that are not sure to ski all week ever day.
It also remains to be seen if one run or one hours of skiing means you will be charged for the whole days ski pass.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
SnowRental Supports English Racers
Support English Ski Teams
SnowRental is pleased to be supporting English ski racers by working with Snowsport England.
Each booking made by clicking on a SSE button means SnowRental donates ALL of it's commission to support the English ski teams. For an average ski hire booking this amounts to £10. Not only are you supporting the best English ski racers by booking your ski hire in this way, but you will also be making a saving on the prices you would pay in the ski resort in the same ski shops.
Rent skis across Europe and save up to 45% in over 700 shops. Book ski hire online now and save both time and money compared to hiring in the ski resort. SnowRental allows you to choose from a huge range of skis, snowboards and ski boots and book directly with the ski shop in your chosen ski resort.
Rent skis and boards online now
Spread the word
If you run a website, you can add your support for the English ski teams by displaying a button. All bookings for ski hire made via this button will directly increase the amount being paid by SnowRental to the English ski teams. Simply cut and paste the code below on to any page.
This will display a button like this:
Please do contact us if you require any help or want more information.
Is this a genuine offer?
Indeed it is. SnowRental is run by skiers who love skiing and ski racing too. Although we won't make any commission from these bookings, as well as feeling good about trying to help top English racers, as a business we are happy to donate all our commission to the teams as we feel its a great way to get our service more widely known. We are pleased to be working with Snowsport England as an official partner and are aiming to make a significant contribution to the funding of top English skiers. If you are still not sure you can always check the SSE website to read about this partnership.
Not happy?
If for some reason you do not wish to show your support in this way click here and your booking will in no way be associated with this programme. If this is the case then please do let us know your thoughts and let us know how we can improve
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Ski Hire Group Booking Service
A common question that we get asked is "Do we offer cheaper prices for groups".
We negotiate the best prices with the shops in resort on behalf of all SnowRental customers, so the prices you see are already comparable to group prices you may see elsewhere and are already at the lowest price possible. Our negotiating power comes from acting collectively on behalf of all SnowRental users, so everyone using SnowRental gets the lowest possible price.
However, we understand that organizing a large group of people can sometimes be a time consuming and thankless task, so we are here to help. We do provide group booking service, just contact us and a member of our team will be your personal assistant in arranging equipment hire for your group. Whats more, if you are a large group of over 20 people we will do our best to provide additional incentives to thank you for your efforts in organizing your group. This depends on which resort you have chosen but for example we can often offer free ski hire for you as a way of saying thanks.
Send Us Your Group Details
To get started, send us your group details. We need to know:
-Resort
-Dates
-What type of equipment you want
-Heights and weights if possible
-Ages of any children
A simple list in an email, a spreadsheet, notes on the back of your mouse mat, whatever is simplest for you, we will take it from there and help get all the details you need. We will create your basket and send it to you to review before making a payment.
If for instance you are several families and want to make individual payments, we can create a basket for each family to review and check but all bookings will still be considered part of the group.
If you have any questions contact us or simply let us know how we can help arrange your ski hire this winter.
We negotiate the best prices with the shops in resort on behalf of all SnowRental customers, so the prices you see are already comparable to group prices you may see elsewhere and are already at the lowest price possible. Our negotiating power comes from acting collectively on behalf of all SnowRental users, so everyone using SnowRental gets the lowest possible price.
However, we understand that organizing a large group of people can sometimes be a time consuming and thankless task, so we are here to help. We do provide group booking service, just contact us and a member of our team will be your personal assistant in arranging equipment hire for your group. Whats more, if you are a large group of over 20 people we will do our best to provide additional incentives to thank you for your efforts in organizing your group. This depends on which resort you have chosen but for example we can often offer free ski hire for you as a way of saying thanks.
Send Us Your Group Details
To get started, send us your group details. We need to know:
-Resort
-Dates
-What type of equipment you want
-Heights and weights if possible
-Ages of any children
A simple list in an email, a spreadsheet, notes on the back of your mouse mat, whatever is simplest for you, we will take it from there and help get all the details you need. We will create your basket and send it to you to review before making a payment.
If for instance you are several families and want to make individual payments, we can create a basket for each family to review and check but all bookings will still be considered part of the group.
If you have any questions contact us or simply let us know how we can help arrange your ski hire this winter.
Monday, October 29, 2007
On skie à Tignes
L’hiver arrive à Tignes!
Dans les Alpes, c’est la période où l’on commence vraiment à sentir l’hiver arrivé. Les températures chutent et les sommets commencent à se couvrir de leur manteau blanc.
Depuis le 29 septembre le glacier de Tignes est de nouveau ouvert après 1 mois de fermeture, on peut skier à 3500 m d’altitude le matin de 8h30 à 15h00.
Il est vrai qu’à cette période de l’année on rencontrera surtout des skieurs professionnels des équipes de ski européennes ou internationales qui s’entraînent été comme hiver.
Les amateurs de freeride pourront également profiter en avant première du Snowpark qui ouvre sur le glacier le 27 octobre.
Et dès le 1er décembre ce sera l’ouverture de l’Espace Killy qui regroupe les stations de Tignes et de Val d’Isère et là ce sera le début de la saison d’hiver pour de nombreux vacanciers, on a déjà envie d’y être !
Et pensez dès maintenant à réserver votre équipement de ski
http://www.snowrental.net/be/ski.asp?sr_resortid=tignes
Dans les Alpes, c’est la période où l’on commence vraiment à sentir l’hiver arrivé. Les températures chutent et les sommets commencent à se couvrir de leur manteau blanc.
Depuis le 29 septembre le glacier de Tignes est de nouveau ouvert après 1 mois de fermeture, on peut skier à 3500 m d’altitude le matin de 8h30 à 15h00.
Il est vrai qu’à cette période de l’année on rencontrera surtout des skieurs professionnels des équipes de ski européennes ou internationales qui s’entraînent été comme hiver.
Les amateurs de freeride pourront également profiter en avant première du Snowpark qui ouvre sur le glacier le 27 octobre.
Et dès le 1er décembre ce sera l’ouverture de l’Espace Killy qui regroupe les stations de Tignes et de Val d’Isère et là ce sera le début de la saison d’hiver pour de nombreux vacanciers, on a déjà envie d’y être !
Et pensez dès maintenant à réserver votre équipement de ski
http://www.snowrental.net/be/ski.asp?sr_resortid=tignes
Friday, August 31, 2007
More Ski Routes With Ryanair
Budget carrier Ryanair is to make cheap ski travel easier than ever, by offering two new services.
The low-cost airline will fly from Liverpool to Friedrichschafen as well as from Bournemouth to Milan Bergamo.
Ryanair will carry ski equipment free of charge on all bookings made before September 30th.
Sinead Finn, the airline's head of sales and marketing, said: "To celebrate our record Winter Ski programme, Ryanair is offering skiers and snow-boarders an unbeatable package of the lowest fares guaranteed and free ski carriage. No other airline can match Ryanair for price, choice or convenience for flights to the slopes."
She added: "To match Ryanair's first ever Skis for Free programme we've made our ski flights available for just £10 - and that includes the airport taxes and charges. Fares this low are certain to go fast, so we'd urge skiers and boarders looking for the cheapest way to the pistes to book straight away."
The £10 fares are only available until September 6th. Details of the skis for free on the planes are here
The low-cost airline will fly from Liverpool to Friedrichschafen as well as from Bournemouth to Milan Bergamo.
Ryanair will carry ski equipment free of charge on all bookings made before September 30th.
Sinead Finn, the airline's head of sales and marketing, said: "To celebrate our record Winter Ski programme, Ryanair is offering skiers and snow-boarders an unbeatable package of the lowest fares guaranteed and free ski carriage. No other airline can match Ryanair for price, choice or convenience for flights to the slopes."
She added: "To match Ryanair's first ever Skis for Free programme we've made our ski flights available for just £10 - and that includes the airport taxes and charges. Fares this low are certain to go fast, so we'd urge skiers and boarders looking for the cheapest way to the pistes to book straight away."
The £10 fares are only available until September 6th. Details of the skis for free on the planes are here
Thursday, August 30, 2007
SnowRental Supports English Racers
SnowRental is pleased to be supporting English ski racers by working with Snowsport England.
Each booking made by clicking on a SSE button means SnowRental donates ALL of it's commission to support the English ski teams. For an average ski hire booking this amounts to £10. Not only are you supporting the best English ski racers by booking your ski hire in this way, but you will also be making a saving on the prices you would pay in the ski resort in the same ski shops.
Rent skis across Europe and save up to 45% in over 500 shops. Book ski hire online now and save both time and money compared to hiring in the ski resort. SnowRental allows you to choose from a huge range of skis, snowboards and ski boots and book directly with the ski shop in your chosen ski resort.
Read more about how to participate here.
Each booking made by clicking on a SSE button means SnowRental donates ALL of it's commission to support the English ski teams. For an average ski hire booking this amounts to £10. Not only are you supporting the best English ski racers by booking your ski hire in this way, but you will also be making a saving on the prices you would pay in the ski resort in the same ski shops.
Rent skis across Europe and save up to 45% in over 500 shops. Book ski hire online now and save both time and money compared to hiring in the ski resort. SnowRental allows you to choose from a huge range of skis, snowboards and ski boots and book directly with the ski shop in your chosen ski resort.
Read more about how to participate here.
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