Two families, eight people, one week under one roof. That is either the best holiday of the year or the end of a friendship. The difference lies in the floor plan, in the bill, and in five rules.
We built the Grizzly Suite for exactly this: 120 m² on the top floor, two bedrooms, a children's room, two bathrooms, a table for eight. Since it has been let this way we have watched many two-family weeks, good ones and difficult ones. Here is what the good ones had in common.
Who sleeps where
The room plan is the first thing to talk through with the other family, before you book, not on the day you arrive.
- Bedrooms 1 and 2: a double bed each, and a door that closes each. One for each set of parents. No squabbling about which is nicer: both have a beamed ceiling and a view of the Kaiser, and one has the door to the terrace.
- The Bear's Den: the children's room with a bunk bed and a small sofa bed. Four children who know each other sleep better here than each on their own. From the second evening, at any rate.
- Double sofa bed in the living room: for the fourth child, for Grandma, for the teenager. Or free, if there are six of you.
- Cot and high chair: we add them free of charge; tell us when you book.
That makes six to eight beds, and nobody sleeps on an air mattress. You'll find the floor plan with all the rooms on the Grizzly Suite page.
Two bathrooms, one kitchen, one table
For two families, two bathrooms are not a luxury but a condition. One with a shower, one with a separate bath. The trick that has proved itself: family A showers in the morning, family B takes the bath in the morning, and you swap in the evening. Add a slot in the house sauna (free, booked with Martina) and the bathrooms are free again by eight in the evening.
The kitchen is big enough for two adults to cook at once without bumping into each other, and the table seats eight. What is missing is a second dishwasher. The consequence is in the rules.
The cost per head
The suite is let as a whole: one price for up to eight guests, however many come. €280 per night from 1 July to 18 December, €400 per night from 19 December to 30 June. Let's work out a week in September for two families with four children:
- 7 nights × €280 = €1,960 for the whole suite
- Plus €110 final cleaning and local tourist tax of €3.50 per person per day from age 15, which is €98 for four adults: €2,168 for the week
- Divided by two families: €1,084 per family per week
In winter it is €400 per night, so €2,800 for seven nights plus final cleaning and tourist tax. Sauna, ski room, parking, Wi-Fi and the Wilder Kaiser Guest Card for everyone are included. In high season (Christmas, February) there is a minimum stay of 6 nights with arrival Friday to Sunday; otherwise 3 nights are enough.
Five rules for two families
- Each family has an evening of its own. Once a week one family goes out to eat or toboggan on its own, and the other has the suite to itself. That is not an insult; it is good housekeeping.
- Take turns cooking; the dishwasher belongs to the cook. Whoever cooks also loads it. The other family clears the table and puts the children to bed.
- Bedtimes are not up for discussion. The Bear's Den has a door. Whoever has the youngest child decides when it closes; the older ones then read in the living room.
- One plan per day, and it's optional. If you don't want to go up the Hartkaiser, stay on the terrace. Nobody has to come along. Separate mornings are the reason the afternoons together are good.
- Money is settled on the third day, not the last. Count the kitty, settle the lift passes, compare the ski school bills. On the day you leave nobody feels like it.
The packing list that is really missing
Bed linen, towels, crockery, coffee machine, cot, high chair: all there. What families regularly forget:
- Two more charging cables than you think, and a multi-socket adapter
- Slippers for everyone; the wooden floor is cool in winter
- A second pair of gloves per child (the first is gone by Tuesday)
- Swimming things, in winter too: the KaiserBad pool is 1.6 km away
- Headphones for the teenager on the sofa bed
- The favourite cuddly toy; Grizzly likes company
A bear breaks the ice
Four children who don't hit it off on the first evening: it happens. Help comes from the house. In the evening there is “Grizzly and the Wilder Kaiser” for everyone together, by the fire or in the Bear's Den, with a torch. By the second reading at the latest, four children have become a gang.
“Two families, one fridge: that is the real test. If you label your yoghurt, you've already lost. If you let the children whisper in the Bear's Den until nine, you've won.”Grizzly, the house bear
