From: sergei@is.morgan.com (Sergei Poliakoff)
Subject: Ski house tips (was: LOOKING FOR SKI HOUSE IN)
Organization: Morgan Stanley - IS
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 15:56:07 GMT

|> -> investigating the possibility of renting a ski house for a group for
|> -> this season. If any of you know of a place, please call or email me.
|> -> I am interested houses (or condos...) which will sleep at least 6
|> -> people.  Houses which sleep more (up to 15?) are fine, too. The
|> -> number of people I involve will be a function of house and cost... It
|> -> doesn't need to be particularly fancy, must have a fireplace or wood
|> -> buring stove, is within 20 minutes or so of Sunday River, and has
|> -> adequate parking.

The best and, as far as I am concerned, only practical  way to do a season
rental is through a licensed real estate broker servicing the area.
There are usually plenty of them in the ski area vicinity, specializing
in ski house/condo ski group rentals. 
Seasonal rental usually involves additional hassles : such as telephone, 
electrical services, assumption of responsibility for snowplowing and
trash removal, which are best handled by brokers.. These issues sometimes 
can become moderately tricky : say,
you rent a half of a two-family, where the other half already signed up with
the snowplowing/trash removal, but you find their fees excessive , or don't
expect to generate much trash at all to warrant paying in excess of $250 
a season ...
Telephone is usually  installed  in your name, and you are added to a 
directory. What you may want to do is to add yourself to a "ski-house"
directory : such sometimes exist. They usually list the houses occupied
by seasonal renters willing to socialize with other ski area "regulars".
There is usually a lot of activity going on - e.g.,  ski house races,
that you might want to  take part in.   There is quite a stable set 
of year-after-year seasonal renters  and you may want to  join this same
circle : share rides, get general area gossip, find reliable sources for
discounted season passes, etc.
Watch closely the electrical service issues : in many ski regions in the 
NE the electrical rates jump up to 4 times during the winter. Many modern
ski condominiums (basically designed to be used only during weekends) have 
electrical heating. These, especially when the structure is concrete,
can run an electric bill over $1000 a month for a 3-bedroom unit. If
you are getting a unit in a concrete structure, check if  INNER partitions
are insulated, especially the ones between units : although external
walls are always insulated, it is practically impossible to heat
a unit  if the ones surrounding it are not heated. You'll end
up buying add-on electrical heaters and in such case you won't believe 
your energy bill. 
Open fireplaces are close to useless as far as heating is concerned - but
this is what most rental condos/houses  have. Try to find the place with
a modern wood-burning stove.
In all circumstances , ask for an accurate estimate of the cost of utilities:
in my experience, real-estate agents in ski areas are absolutely trustworty
in this respect. 
If you are getting a wooden structure, check for wood flies. They are usually
dormant when it is cold, but once you start to heat up the place, they'll
start crawling from everywhere, and make life quite unpleasant. If the 
house got them, there is no way to get rid of them.
Another important point in the ski house is  bathroom capacity and 
particularly hot water tank capacity. Everybody hits the shower after 
a day of skiing,  but most condominiums that I have seen have
water tank capacity enough for may be 4-5 not-so-generous showers.
Of course, you should realize yourself the inconvenience of having
one toilet for 12 people. Remember, this is winter, and outdoor shower
and quick trips to the bushes are not so pleasant.
If you are picky about furnishings : and why not, this place becomes almost
your home for the entire winter - keep in mind that most condominiums
have certain quality and quantity  requirements, while houses usually
don't. 
It is important to arrange for proper insurance coverage : at least in 
Killington area, ski-house burglaries are VERY common. Mostly teenagers,
looking for  TVs, VCRs, etc. They rarely touch skis or clothing , but still.
Stretch your homeowners/renters to cover the contents, and make sure that 
the owner has insurance :  friends of mine had their stuff  all water-damaged 
during the fire in the neighbouring condo, and the owner didn't have 
the contents coverage.
Access to the house is another point to watch for : some roads are unpassable
in winter unless you a have a 4-wheel drive. This may not be obvious 
summer time, but it will make life quite unpleasant in winter, when you have
to park 400 feet downslope from your place.
Last item is surrowndings :  we avoid condominium complexes frequented
by organized bus tours, "bus people" in ski area lingo. These condos  are 
usually new gotten-up very-close-to-slopes dwellings with lots of amenities. 
Closeness to slopes is valuable  if only there is a shuttle service, 
otherwise if you are driving already, 2 or 12 or 22 minutes doesn't make 
much difference.  
"Bus people" can make the place unbearable : noise, trash and simply
general overcrowding.  Amenities - saunas, pools, etc., are usually unusable 
during the season, since bus people have their parties there. If you like 
pools and saunas, it is cheaper to get a house without amenities and get 
a limited membership in a local health club , where the surroundings are 
usually much more discrete.  Another way of getting access to condo complex 
amenities  is to generously tip  the saunas/steams/room/pools attendants 
who usually double as bartenders  at poolside bars.  Usual procedure is to 
leave an extra buck/two for a drink, and ask for a towel.  The added benefit 
is that this same guy/girl usually triples as a ski instructor or a lift
attendant, and knows exactly what is going on on the mountain in terms
of snowmaking/grooming/etc.


Sergei