How G'lys Ski School Took Its Bookings Off the Phone and Got 20 Hours a Week Back

About

G'lys École de Ski teaches skiing and snowboarding across four resorts in the Swiss Prealps — Les Paccots, Rathvel, Les Mosses and La Lécherette — and runs summer camps once the snow has gone. The school wears its motto on every pupil's bib: le plaisir, ça s'apprend. Enjoyment is something you learn.

Most of that teaching happens in the busiest weeks of the winter, when group lessons for children fill the beginners' areas and every instructor's day is booked end to end. That is where the administration either keeps up, or does not.

The Problem

Before Bloowatch, bookings came in by telephone and WhatsApp, and the school's information was spread across several tools. The team names the friction precisely: the same details typed in again and again, information that was hard to find quickly, and no clear view of what had been changed and by whom.

The hardest part was juggling everything at once — new bookings, last-minute changes, the instructors' schedules and clients' questions — in high season, exactly when there was least time for it. With information in several places came the risk of scheduling errors, duplicate bookings, forgotten payments and late replies. And because clients got in touch across a very long day, it had become hard to separate work time from personal time.

“In the busiest periods, all those tasks piled up into an administrative overload, and it limited the time we had to give each client personal, high-quality follow-up.”

The Solution

The school chose Bloowatch for three reasons: online booking around the clock, fewer phone calls and WhatsApp messages, and payment links that secure a reservation before the day instead of leaving it open.

Sales now come through two doors: the booking widget on the school's own website, and payment links sent straight to the client. Day to day, three things carry the load — instructor management with availability, payments that can be taken in part up front with the rest requested later by link, and a back office that runs in the browser, so the schedule is on a phone as readily as on the office computer.

“Clients can look at what we offer and book online, 24 hours a day, without depending on our office hours. The booking journey is simpler for them, which cuts drop-offs and turns more enquiries into sales.”

What Actually Changed

Asked what really changed, the school's answer was two words: time saved. The examples behind it are specific. In the heaviest weeks, many bookings arrived outside office hours — and clients booked and paid for their lessons on their own, sometimes late in the evening, with nobody at the desk.

When an instructor became unavailable or a time had to move at the last minute, the team could open the schedule, reorganise the lessons and avoid a double booking. And because everything is in one place, a client's contact details, the detail of their booking or the status of their payment is found immediately, rather than searched for across a phone, a chat and a spreadsheet.

Conclusion

The school's own estimate: 20 hours saved per week in season — most of it on managing the instructors — a 65% lift on sales through payment links sent remotely, the channel Bloowatch changed most for them, and an overall estimated sales impact of 50%.

Twenty hours is half a working week, every week of the winter. For a school whose busiest days are also its hardest to administer, that is time given back to the part of the job that matters: the pupils on the snow.