Drought & climate change: Facing the hot tub issue head on

This became an especially pressing matter for us last summer (2022) when the French Alps (along with most of the northern hemisphere) entered into a difficult drought period – the worst in 500 years. A combination of record-breaking temperatures and low rainfall caused rivers to dry, wildfires to rage and crop failures to compound already high food prices due to the impact of the war in Ukraine.

In the Alps, the water deficit had been ongoing since August the previous year, with a major lack of rain/snow in the spring. Sadly, similar patterns seem to be emerging this year. It’s another painful warning that climate change is having a very real impact in our beautiful part of the world.

So let’s take a moment to look at the facts around hot tub usage. On average a hot tub that is refilled weekly, as is the case with our chalet hot tubs, uses 1500 litres of water and 200 kWh of electricity per week in the winter to keep the water at 37.5C.

To put this into perspective, this is around half the amount of water three people are estimated to use over a whole week in a British household, and almost the same electricity usage as a 3-bedroom British household over a whole month (estimated at 250 kWh).

Incredible right?

So, what does this mean – no hot tubs?

In an ideal world, we would provide chalet holidays without hot tubs. But here’s the rub…..

For a very large proportion of our clients, a hot tub is currently an absolute Must-Have and if we were to get rid of all our hot tubs, our business would really suffer and we would struggle to pay the salaries of those who depend on us for their livelihoods.

We can’t change our industry overnight but we need to start a conversation and do something to start moving the dial on this difficult subject

So, our approach is not to cut out the use of hot tubs at our chalets, but to make people think twice about how they use the hot tub, and, in the warmer seasons, question whether or not they really need one.

Last year we introduced a Responsible Hot Tub Initiative to make hot tub use ‘opt-in’ only in the summer, and to give winter and shoulder season guests the option of opting out. We made sure that guests received considerable monetary rewards for making the green choice of not using a hot tub.

So far, only a minority of our guests that have booked for summer 2023 have opted-in to include hot tub usage on their holiday, plus so far a few winter guests have opted out. Not using a hot tub has saved these guests €200 on the price of their chalet holiday.

We’re delighted at the uptake and positive feedback we have had on the scheme and as we head towards the warmer months of spring and summer, we’re hoping to see more guests join the initiative. These green options are built into our booking process so all guests receive the information, but to find out exactly how it works check out the details below.

Finally, if you are joining us and planning to use the hot tub, please remember to help us prevent unnecessary mid-week water changes. You can do so by showering and removing all make-up and sunscreen before entering the hot tub, and keeping all breakable objects, especially glass, away from the tub.

As we step up our efforts to counter the climate emergency, we thank all of our guests for supporting us on this journey. For more ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your holiday and receive customer rewards, take a moment to discover our Green Rewards scheme.