Ski servicing before the season: drop-offs and timing

Skis and snowboards come out of storage in the weeks before the first holidays, and their owners want them back before they leave. Plan pre-season servicing like a production line: two or three service levels with clear contents, drop-off slots with a set number of places per day, and a collection date given at drop-off that falls before the customer leaves. Open these slots early in the autumn so the work spreads over several weeks instead of the last few days.

Release settings depend on the skier, not only on the ski. Ask at booking for height, weight, age, ski level and boot sole length, or ask the customer to bring the boots. Record the setting and give it to the customer. Only adjust bindings if you are trained and equipped for it, and say clearly in the service description what the check includes.

A full service with a stone grind takes much longer than a wax, and the grinding machine can be the bottleneck. Count how many pairs you can process per day for each level, keep room for urgent repairs, and turn that into drop-off places. Publish several weeks of slots from early autumn, and give the collection date at drop-off, with a margin before the customer's departure.

Look at each pair with the customer: deep base damage, cracked edges, delamination or a binding that no longer holds. Some damage is not worth repairing, and the customer should hear that before you start. Label each pair with the name, the service and the collection date.

A family may bring several pairs at once, including children's skis that need new binding settings after a year of growth. Treat a family as one booking with several places, and plan the binding checks together while everyone is present.

Give the collection date at drop-off and stick to it. If a pair is ready early, a short message lets the customer pick it up and frees space on your racks. If a repair takes longer, say so as soon as you know, with a new date that still falls before the departure. Keep finished pairs grouped by collection day so handovers are quick when several customers arrive at the end of the afternoon.

Once the season is under way, demand shifts to quick waxes and edge touch-ups between trips, plus repairs after a rock. Keep short slots for these and a few longer ones for urgent base repairs, so a skier who leaves on Saturday can still get the skis back on Friday.

A storage wax at the end of the season protects the base until the next autumn. Offer it as its own service, and the next pre-season service starts from cleaner skis.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Create one service per level and a separate binding check, describe what each includes, and publish drop-off slots that repeat weekly from early autumn. Set each slot's capacity to the number of pairs you can handle: when all places are booked, the slot no longer appears on your public page. Each slot belongs to one service and sits within a single day. Customers book with their name, email and phone and can add an optional note with their departure date and skier details, which you read in your new-booking email. For a family drop-off, you can book several places at once from your calendar.

Places and prices are examples: set your own. If a pair will be late, tell the customer yourself; if you move a drop-off, change it from your bookings list and contact the customer, as Book does not email clients when a booking is rescheduled or cancelled. Book costs €5/month, all-inclusive: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no commitment.