The best apps for finding and booking ski instructors
There is now a plethora of apps and websites to help skiers and snowboarders book instructors or mountain guides, or just find someone to hit the slopes with.
Like all sections of the tech industry, they do come and go, but we’ve picked out some of the best, offering an innovative way to get the most out of your ski holiday. Most focus on specific regions or collections of resorts in Europe or North America.
Best for finding instructors in France
Maison Sport
Founded by three former British ski team coaches/athletes, this is a booking website for private, adult group or children’s group ski and snowboard lessons. Maison Sport says it has more than 300 instructors registered and the site recommends two or three best suited to your needs after you input ski resort and dates into its search engine.
There’s a great live chat facility with Maison Sport administrators on the site, and you can also message the instructors before making a request to book. Maison Sport advises customers to message three instructors. At this point, users create an account, and after deciding on an instructor and making a request to book must enter payment details. Payment is taken if the instructor accepts the reservation, but not released to the instructor until after the lesson takes place. Users can leave online reviews for instructors.
A post shared by Maison Sport (@maisonsport) on Jul 17, 2017 at 1:37am PDT
All registered instructors are qualified to work independently, which means they have the highest ski instructor qualification, as required under French law and are verified by the French Government Department of Sport.
How much?
Website is free to use, Maison Sport adds a 7 per cent booking fee.
More info: maisonsport.com
Best for last-minute bookings
SkiBro
This booking app gives an instant view of available instructors where you are, and is beefing up its offering this winter by expanding from Val d’Isère/Tignes to more resorts in France - Paradiski (Les Arcs and La Plagne), the Trois Valleés (Courchevel, Méribel, Val Thorens) - and the Swiss/French Portes du Soleil area.
Instructor profiles include a video introducing themselves, details of what kind of lesson they specialise in, and customer reviews. There’s on-peak/off-peak pricing and live in-app GPS tracking to facilitate a meeting point - users can see each other on a map. However, since it’s only recently launched, there are not many individual instructors signed up as yet. Evolution2 is SkiBro’s main ski school partner, SkiBro handles the payments, and takes a commission on the booking from the school.
As well as instructors and guides, SkiBro also plans to offer booking on fun, adventurous experiences including dog sledding and heliskiing from January 2018.
How much?
Free app for iPhone/Android, no booking fee.
More info: skibro.com
Best for making new ski/snowboard buddies
GoSnow
This app is used by 75,000 people over 120 resorts in 16 countries. Users fill in profile with a photo and details such as home town, next planned trip and favourite resorts. While you can use it to buy lift passes and organise instructors in your chosen resort (instructors have to upload certificates to prove their qualifications), it’s probably most useful for hooking up with nearby skiers/snowboarders.
It can help you join a group of like-minded riders on the slopes or at resort events, organise car sharing to/from and around resorts. You could also organise group holidays with people who live near you. While it has a lot of users, including some in the UK, most are currently American. Payment for any lessons is done within the app.
How much?
Free app for iPhone/Android, no booking fee.
More info: gosnow.in
Best for speeding up research
Ongosa
This website aims to use information about what skiers and snowboarders want, then link them up with the best instructor or mountain guide to suit their needs within 48 hours of a request. Ongosa estimates it saves each client about an hour of research time.
After doing the research, the team offers up to three suggestions from an established network of 4,000 professionals, and based on actual availability. Ongosa works with private instructors, guides and ski schools (including New Generation, Oxygen and the ESF). It operates mainly across Europe, but says it can also help clients headed to Canada, Japan and the US. Clients only pay once they’re happy with what they’re offered.
How much?
Free to register. Ongosa adds a 3 per cent fee per transaction.
Contact details: ongosa.com
Best for sharing the cost of an instructor or guide
Roped Up
The Roped Up website brings together like-minded skiers and snowboarders who want to hire an instructor or guide for a group session, but don’t have enough people. Users create a group by sport, ability level, instructor type required, dates and so on, and then either invite other users on the site to join the group, or search and link up with other groups already set up.
This can save quite a bit of money. For example, if you arrved in Chamonix and took a guide on your own or in a pair it would cost in the region of €350 — but that price can be lowered using by Roped Up to organise sharing the guide with other people.
The service is available for Méribel, Val d’Isère and Chamonix in France, and Verbier in Switzerland. Guides and instructors from well-established ski schools are available to hire from half a day to six days, for from one person to a group of eight. Roped Up also runs events such avalanche training days, all of which are bookable on the website.
How much?
Free-to-use website. Roped Up charges €15 to €20 per half-day/full-day transaction for the cost splitting service.
More info: ropedup.com
Best for price comparisions
Check Yeti
Founded in Austria and Switzerland in 2014, this well-established online platform (website and mobile app) allows users to search for and compare ski/snowboard instructors and guides in more than 350 resorts across Europe. Everything from kids’ courses to off-piste lessons is available, across five countries and in several languages, and instructors and schools registered must have appropriate qualifications and licence for their resort to sign up.
Users type the ski resort they’re going to into the search facility on the app or website, and a list of ski school offers instantly comes up — there’s no need to create an account if you don’t want to and you can message providers with any questions before confirming a booking. Payment is handled by a third party provider — credit cards are charged as soon a booking is made. The booking is binding once the ski school has accepted it, but can be cancelled. Some schools won’t charge even if you cancel 24 hours before a lesson, others have stricter policies.
How much?
Free app, no booking fee.
More info: checkyeti.com
