In the wake of the collapse of Descent International, a new concept in chalet holidays has been born, reports Peter Hardy. It draws inspiration from the very first chalet holidays of 1932, and lower prices should be the result.

Erna Low skiing in the 1950s

Erna Low emerged today as the driving force behind the biggest makeover of the ski chalet holiday since its Austrian founder invented the concept 77 years ago.

Consensio Holidays, which has risen from the still-warm ashes of luxury operator Descent International has come up with a new approach to the traditional alpine weekly house-party. It offers dramatically lower risk to tour operators and chalet owners and should result in cheaper holidays for skiers and snowboarders across the entire price spectrum.

Chalet Brames, an ex-Descent property, now available for rent through Consensio

The idea is remarkable in its simplicity: instead of contracting properties at a fixed annual rent, Consensio works with each luxury chalet owner as a partner on a profit-sharing basis. If they don't manage to put bottoms on beds, they don't make money - but most importantly, they don't lose money on the scale that drove Descent into voluntary liquidation last month with Prince Andrew among its list of high profile creditors.

Strangely, it's much the same idea as Erna Low, the very first ski tour operator, had back in 1932. Rather than expose herself to the risk of taking on chalets for the whole season, she worked with owners to provide 10-day ski holidays to Sölden in Austria.

For £15 you got return rail travel from London to Austria, German lessons and full board accommodation. Lifts were not included in the package....largely because there weren't any.

So, enterprisingly but perhaps not surprisingly, one of the three shareholders and investors in Consensio is Joanna Yellowlees-Bound, the managing director of Erna Low.

She said today: "Erna would have been fascinated that the chalet holiday has gone full circle. We've avoided chalets for many years because of the financial risk of contracting properties over a whole season. This is just a fairer system all round.

"Working with owners in this way as a team in a changing market makes an enormous amount of sense and we are very excited about Consensio which already has promising bookings for this season."

Chalet Montana, Val d'Isère, also available for rent through Consensio

This year the Consensio concept is confined to £5m to £20million chalets at the top of market, but I expect other high-, middle-, and even budget-range operators to swiftly follow its lead for the 2010/11 season, regardless of how quickly the market recovers from recession.

At present, most of the 20 large and 60+ smaller companies that offer chalet holidays rent their properties on an annual or longer term contract. They pay a set fee regardless of whether or not they fill their rooms each week.

If they succeed in doing so - at or near their brochure price - they can make a substantial profit. But for most companies last season, recession and unfavourable euro exchange rates spelt near-disaster.

In an often vain attempt just to break even, they were forced to slash prices to ridiculously low levels to try and fill planes and beds. It made for a miraculous winter for bargain hunters, but left several on the brink of collapse.

The root causes of the problem - the one that largely contributed to Descent's failure with debts of £1.5 million - are the cripplingly high rents demanded by chalets owners.

Operators were left with no option but to ask owners for reductions of up to 40 per cent in mid-winter. They've also had to go cap in hand to them for the coming season which is still fraught with financial uncertainties. Some accepted they had no alternative. Others, after decades of competition between rival operators for their properties, refused to accept the shift in the balance of power.

The response of Crystal, the largest operator, was what ski MD Mathew Prior famously described as 'aggressive negotiation' across the French Alps. If this did not have the required effect, the guillotine followed. He cut his entire chalet programme by 40%, leaving 60-odd disbelieving chalet owners wondering how they were going to find bodies for their duvets this winter.

Ceri Tinley, a former financial director of Descent and now one of the key figures behind Consensio said: "Our business plan has come about because of the downturn, and this shift in the balance of power. Chalet owners who were used to a queue of operators outside their front door are no longer in a position to dictate prices."

Already Consensio has gone into partnership with the owners of two former Descent chalets in Val d'Isère, one in Courchevel, and four in Méribel.

Ironically one of these properties is 15-bed chalet Brames in Méribel, which belongs to Peter Scott, polo-playing friend of Prince Charles. He made his fortune out of advertising agencies and the sparkling mineral water that bubbles up in the grounds of his Hampshire home. Scott was one of the two founding directors of Descent International - and when it began 12 years ago, Brames was its first ski chalet.

Picture: Chalet Brames in Méribel

It seems there are not only circles, but circles within circles in the current ski chalet market.

Historical footnote:
Erna Low was the first tour operator to offer chalet holidays to British skiers, but it was Colin Murison-Small who first contracted chalets from their owners for an entire season.

"I have hired a chalet in Grindelwald," said the first advertisement in 1958 in The Daily Telegraph for this curious British concept of a ski holiday.

"An English girl, Loveday, who will be living in the chalet for the whole season, will feed you and will do all she can to make you comfortable and keep you happy."

He went on: "In addition to continental breakfast, lunch and dinner, you will be welcome to have tea with bread and butter and jam at no extra charge, although you will have to buy your own cakes."

From such humble beginnings above an ironmonger's shop in the Swiss Bernese Oberland, the chalet party grew to what it is today. However, in the course of half a century, much has fortunately changed.

Murison Small's army of young unqualified Muribirds nightly conducted often indigestible, culinary experiments on their guests from the tear-smudged pages of a cookbook borrowed from Mummy.

Tinned mackerel pate and ubiquitous Spag Bol dominated the menu because more inventive variations were prone to disaster.

Chalets were furnished uncomfortably with whatever oddments a Swiss ironmonger's wife considered to be utilitarian rental chic.

Savvy guests skipped the last couple of runs of the day and hurried home to grab the single lukewarm bath that ancient plumbing permitted.

It's a sobering thought that the early Muribirds, as the first chalet girls were known, are now drawing their pensions.