Let the skis come to you and avoid the queues

If there’s one thing I never look forward to on a ski holiday, it’s organising ski hire. From having to deal with second-rate ski boots, to realising that the ski hire shop is just that bit too far from your chalet (carrying awkward skis and clunky boots in the snow is never a fun task), it can often become the most tedious part of the trip.

So, when I heard about the new personal ski butler service – Rental Republic – I jumped at the chance to try it out on my latest jaunt to the Alps.

Promising great value (from £10 a day!) and the latest and best ski and snowboard equipment delivered to your chalet door with UPS-style efficiency, I was immediately hooked by the idea.

The process started on the Rental Republic website where I selected my resort (Rental Republic is currently only available in selected resorts in France), dates and choice of skis. It was great to be able to select from a wide range of skis (based on experience) and the handy summary explaining each set was very helpful. You can even chat to a ski technician online if you have any questions.

I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to offer an exact arrival time as I was unsure how long the transfer to my ski resort would take, but it ended up being very straight-forward; all I had to do was reply to the text message sent by Rental Republic 20 minutes before my fitting if I needed to change the time once I was travelling.

Having a mobile on you is pretty central to the efficient running of this service so the only downside to this is if any problems with using your mobile abroad arise (or if you forget it!). Luckily for me, it was as easy as it sounds.

Jamie, my fitter, arrived promptly at my chalet at the time we agreed with my pre-ordered equipment. He was fantastic from the get-go, talking me through the skis and boots and how it all should feel. I was thrilled to hear that my boots (Atomic) were only a few weeks old and they certainly felt as comfy as ski boots could get. Jamie even mentioned that Rental Republic offered one free equipment change in case I wanted to attempt snowboarding for a day, which seemed like a fantastic idea.

After a successful week’s skiing with top-quality skis and boots, all I needed to do was send a text to Rental Republic and my fitter popped back to the chalet within the hour to collect the equipment. It was so easy and hassle-free that I can’t really imagine using another company again!