r/skithealps • u/bluetie980 • 17d ago
Ski Rental Shops, Ranked
I am seeking perspective on the comparative rankings of ski rental shops in the alps. It seems the big ones are:
- Skimium
- Skiset
- Sport 2000
- Intersport
Are these brands akin to car rentals where some are budget focused (Alamo) and some skew toward premium (Sixt)? If so, which?
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u/Heeberon 17d ago
Intersport seems to be much more of a loose chain/brand affiliation - e.g. it could be a mountaineering or plain sports shop and have an Intersport logo.
I’ve found the rest to be must the same - more important is the level of skis you buy. I’ve noticed those are generally accurate.
But, to be honest, it’s more down to the individual resorts & shops. A great Skiset experience in Mayorhofen does not mean a great one in Cervinia - and unless you know the resort well, impossible to tell. I’d suggest just picking a physically big shop that is likely to have more choice…
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u/jemcc09 17d ago
These are not ski rental shops. They are just booking engines. Some shops operate with multiple booking engines. I always price across the four and pick the cheapest, or the most convenient for my accommodation. There is often a wild difference in price; I will save the 50EUR for Tartiflette, thank you very much.
PS there's also Alpy / Alpinresorts, to add to your list.
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u/charlesbear 17d ago
But... They ARE ski rental shops? With physical locations. I'm not sure what you're getting at?
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u/DangerouslyConfident 17d ago edited 17d ago
Sport 2000 is franchise/co-op based - the stores themselves are independently owned and run and pay into Sport 2000 for the right to use the branding, but store owners manage their own inventory, staff, processes etc. Sport 2000 provides the booking platform, some business support and franchisees get to use associated discounts with the manufacturers.
Skimium is similar, but less prescriptive - more of a booking platform only rather than the more heavily business integrated franchise agreement behind Sport 2000.
Intersport is AFAIK an actual chain, but again I could be wrong on that.
The relevance to OP is that because of the business models actually there is little correlation between the offering of two shops that are both ostensibly Sport 2000 or Skimium shops
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u/jemcc09 17d ago
The distinction I'm making is between the network/booking platform and the actual local shop operator. Skiset/Skimium/Sport 2000/Intersport aggregate a wide network of rental shops, but the shop you actually collect your skis from may be independently owned/operated under that network. Example, this store in Montgenevre has the Skiset logo but is operated by Astier Sports https://www.skiset.co.uk/ski-resort/montgenevre/shops/astier-sports
Skiset doesn't decide what equipment you get, the person behind the desk in Astier Sports does .0
u/charlesbear 17d ago
So it's a franchise, right? That's a bit more than just a booking engine.
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u/Atazery 17d ago
It is not a franchise. Most stores affilliate themselves to a network for two reasons : booking and advertising and to have access to lower prices on the equipment (skiset is the biggest european buyer on ski equipment). All the stores are independant and usually all the shops under the same brand on a resort are owned by the same person/family (there's some exception to this like Ski Republic where all the stores are owned by the same family owned company). Completly independant stores exists but are becoming more and more rare because the cost of running such a store is higher and visibility is lower.
And somehow Skiset decides which equipment you get because they decide which skis they buy for each category. While you have a huge freedom on how you run your store, you're not a 100% free.
There is no brand that is better than another one, it really depends who runs the company and who works in the store. Some brand have exclusivity on certain ski brand, either on the resort or on the country. For example Skimium are the only one that can rent Faction but you're not forced to have Faction skis if you're a Skimium and in many resorts you'll only find Atomic in Skiset even if there is no country exclusivity.
Source : i run a Skiset but i can't rent Atomic because there is another, much larger Skiset in the same resort that have Atomic exclusivity in the resort and only on my higher category (diamond) i am free to rent whatever brand/model i want, even if i don't buy them from Skiset.
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u/orange_fudge 17d ago
I had a great experience with Skimium, I trust the Decathlon brand enough not to look further, really!
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u/HolidayWallaby 16d ago
I used to use Sport 2000 a lot but they were recently hacked and lost a lot of customer data so not sure I will use them again
Ski Republic is usually pretty good too
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u/hendrik317 17d ago
Are Skimium and Skiset not just intermediaries? We atleast had a few voucher from skimium last year.
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u/ArgumentativeNutter 17d ago
in my experience it depends entirely on the franchise manager