What we (my girlfriend and I) do is to look for “specials” directly at the hotel websites. So we found a mid-week special next week (Sunday to Thursday), 4 nights in a 38 qm suite, 2000 qm wellness area, including ski pass for 2 for all days including arrival day in St. Moritz. It’s a 5-star S hotel and these guys speak English quite well. Total costs: 1800 Euro for both. Not bad for St. Moritz!
And although I have a full de-ice plane, I don’t fly to Samedan. We drive by car with one overnight stop in Bad Ragaz to have a full ski day on Sunday.
How do we get the hotels we look for specials? We use booking.com, yelp, and loads of other sites to check the reviews.
You don’t need to book 6-9 month ahead. Rather wait and have 2-3 options. Then call them up a few days before. They usually have rooms they need to sell. If not, take the other option.
Just talked with my girlfriend so correction in the procedure:
1) Get a ski atlas and select the ski area you want to go.
2) Check the best hotels there.
3) Go to holidaycheck, tripadvisor etc to review them.
4) Go to the hotel’s websites and check rate/specials.
5) Call them up and negotiate.
Btw, Filzmoos is tiny…
www.bergfex.at is a good source.
Peter wrote:
Yes; I was informed by a German pilot that most Germans book these hotels 6-9 months ahead and they don’t use booking.com; they use the municipality (tourist) website.
Leaving their skis on the sunbeds really early too? 
I was informed by a German pilot that most Germans book these hotels 6-9 months ahead
Leaving their skis on the sunbeds really early too?
Years ago I ran a sports ticketing website for events in several countries. In Germany we sold tickets up to one year ahead and close to nothing on the day at the entrance. In Brasil basically nobody booked in advance but on the date the crowd at the ticket counters was incredible. All other countries we have been to the went somewhere in between those extremes.
Back to the topic we did our annual ski trip this sunday to LSZS. The weather and the snow was great. Only on arrival the runway got closed for some ice removal and we did practice some holdings together with the jet crowd (picture below). Once the runway was reopened hell broke loose as everybody went for the VFR only approach. I think the AFIS operator deserves a day off after this rush ;-)
It would be brilliant, @Sebastian_G, if you could post a bit of info on LSZS here 
Some new info:
St Johann LOIJ can accept a flight from the UK, it turns out
It points to GEN 1.2 which lists LOIJ as international aerodrome. The PNR is 1 hour.
Also -
The place very close to Zell am See LOWZ is Schmittenhöhe This is a lot closer than Kaprun. I hope I got this right:
I flew into EDMA yesterday and the aside from getting bounced around just WNW of Wien between FL090 and finally FL025. The temps were all above Freezing at FL060 it was 14C. Most of the snow was gone from the lower Alps. The direct headwind was 50-55 kts at FL 090 to 070 I sure wish I was going the other way.
That brings me to snow where is it? I was supposed to go with a buddy who cancelled cause the the conditions were too poor for a day trip.
Peter I think the guys a right you have to wait last minute and hope you dont have to sleep at the train station with the migrants.
I just made arrangements to go to Winklmoosalm-Steinplatte with the Internations Ski group of Munich. They are having a ski school starting at 8:30AM which I will be unable to attend. Due in part to a long awaited and eagerly anticipated French Wine/Dinner fest the night before. I getting too old to burn the candle on all ends. So instead of waking up at 5AM I will rest and recuperate from the previous evening’s activities by waking up at a more civilized time of 7AM.
I have never been to this mountain or region and since its my first time in 2 yrs., I figure I better take an easy slope/mountain to start off with. The room was booked for 75 Euros as a single with breakfast included. The lift tickets were about 27 Euros for the day or 51 Euros for 2 day pass. My girlfriend was gracious enough to lend me her car free of charge provided I leave it tanked up. 30 Euros for gas. Its an Auris. Dinner with the ski group is 19 Euros at the hotel.
Damn adding it all up and its less than a 1/2 hr of flying with a landing and parking fee. Thats a VFR approach of course.
Peter Im curious what you will report back concerning the snow conditions. And the travel from Salzburg to the Ski Area.
FWIW, taxi from Salzburg to Filzmoos is €110 each way.
Incidentally the same as from Zell am See to Filzmoos, though somebody flying to Zell would go to Schittenhöhe or Kaprun.
Not sure if I’ve written this before but the airline cost is not far off the TB20 cost, by the time you add up the luggage and “sports equipment” surcharges.
