A day in the life of a chalet girl who hosts guests in a $100,000-a-week rental home in France and skis every day

India Hogg, 22, described her situation as a bit cliché. In 2021, she graduated from university and watched her friends get jobs and start their careers. So, she joined them and started a corporate job in London, she told Insider.

After three months, however, she had enough. She decided she was done commuting into London and working a traditional 9-to-5.

"It was just the classic, 'Oh my god, I need to get out of this corporate life,'" Hogg said.

Hogg joined a handful of Facebook groups advertising seasonal work. In one group, she found a job listing for a chalet host. Also referred to as chalet girls, ski properties hire hosts, who are typically women according to The Guardian, to serve food, tidy rooms, and clean up after guests.

The Guardian reports that the role became common in the 1960s when British aristocrats traveled for ski holidays and hired on-site staff instead of bringing along hordes of staff.

Then in 2011, the US movie "Chalet Girl" debuted and popularized the role, Snowplaza reported. In the movie, Felicity Jones plays a skateboarder who winds up moving to a ritzy ski resort where she works as a chalet girl and falls in love with a guest, Hogg explained.

When Hogg saw the listing for the job, she said she immediately thought of the movie. Spending the winter skiing in a ritzy resort with the potential to find love was all she needed to convince her to apply.

"I've always loved skiing. So I knew I wanted to have an excuse to live in the mountains but also make money," she said.

Hogg said both her hospitality experience and the fact that she happened to hold a French passport helped her land the job.

Last winter, ski resorts were desperate for workers who were authorized to work in Europe, according to The Connexion. Since Hogg is half French, she said she believes that's what gave her the leg up in getting the gig.

A week later, Hogg hopped on the Eurostar Paris train from London heading toward Courchevel 1850 in France.

Courchevel 1850 is a luxe ski village nestled at the top of the Courchevel ski resort in The Three Valleys region in France.

According to Oxford Ski Company via Travel and Leisure, Courchevel 1850 is the most luxurious ski resort in the world, as of last December. Oxford Ski, which specializes in luxury ski holidays, came to that conclusion by reviewing the gross revenue of the more than 60 resorts in its portfolio. Courchevel 1850 topped the list.

And it's not just expensive by Oxford Ski Company standards. Courchevel 1850 also makes the list of wealthy resorts on sites like Ski Solutions, Luxury Columnist, and Jet Finder.

While Hogg had skied in France before, she had never been to Courchevel 1850. She heard about the resort in the media and from her parents, who had skied there long before it was the ritzy village it is today.

Today, visitors will find everything from Michelin-starred restaurants, five-star hotels, designer stores, ritzy nightclubs, and Champagne-filled après.

And after six months, Hogg came to the conclusion that "Courchevel 1850 is the most ridiculous place on earth."

Hogg said she was a chalet host in a five-bedroom vacation rental in Courchevel 1850. Due to privacy, Hogg told Insider was not able to share interior images of the chalet where she worked.

There, she worked with another chalet host, a chalet host manager, a driver, and a chef.

Guests, who would often arrive on private jets on Courchevel 1850's tiny airstrip, would typically stay in the chalet for a week. A week at the chalet would cost between $83,000 and $104,000, Hogg said, adding that this didn't include tips, the cost of skiing, or other activities.

"The clientele that we had were people that I never even had been confronted with," she said. "They're flying in the private jets, getting all their ski gear delivered to the chalet — brand new Fendi and that sort of thing — it was mental."

While Hogg wasn't skiing in brand new Fendi, she said her chalet did provide her with ski gear for the season. The job also supplied her with a room and food for the season, she said.

Each seasonnaire, or seasonal worker, also received weekly pay.

But Hogg said she earned even more from the tips guests left at the end of their stay. Typically, she'd earn between $500 and $1,000 a week in tips, but said it varied. There were some weeks when she received more and other weeks when guests tipped in chocolate, she told Insider.

Since Hogg's decision to quit her job and become a chalet girl had been last minute, she arrived in Courchevel 1850 the day before her job started.

She said she disembarked from the train, ate a croissant at a café in Courchevel, and prepared for her first day.

From setting alarms incorrectly to lacking expert wine knowledge, Hogg said the first week was filled with hiccups.

"I had experience, but it really was not five-star experience," she said.

But after she tackled the learning curve, she fell in love with the job. By the end of the six months, Hogg said she had mastered making beds and shining bathroom faucets. She also said her time in Courchevel 1850 gave her a fresh outlook on life. She left the seasonal job with gratitude and eagerness to take risks in her career.

Take a look at a typical day for Hogg in Courchevel 1850.

The Courchevel resort is made up of six villages, with Courchevel 1850 sitting at the very top.

Hogg said the bottom villages were more affordable and where she, along with most of Courchevel's seasonnaires, lived.

Hogg's home for six months was a small chalet in the village of Le Praz. Besides the chalet manager, who lived in another part of Courchevel, the rest of Hogg's team lived in the quaint home, she said.

Inside the chalet — which Hogg said was significantly smaller than the chalet she worked at — she shared a bedroom with the other chalet host.

The accommodations were simple, but compared to other seasonnaires, Hogg said she was lucky.

"I've known other people who do seasons, and I've heard horror stories," Hogg said. "They were sharing with eight other people and everyone shared a room with bunk beds."

On a typical day, Hogg told Insider she would wake up in her chalet around 6 a.m., get ready, and head up to the five-star chalet where she worked.

Her commute was on a bubble car, which is Courchevel's gondola, and was included in the price of her seasonal ski pass. According to Courchevel VIP, a ride in the bubble lift takes about six minutes to get from Le Praz to Courchevel 1850.

Hogg said the morning views of snow-covered evergreen trees and manicured ski runs were incredible.

"Compared to my commute in London, it was the life," she said.

Once Hogg arrived in Courchevel 1850, she said she would stop and pick up bread and croissants at a local bakery.

Then, she'd head to the five-star chalet, where her breakfast shift began. Hogg said the guests supplied the chalet's chef with breakfast requests, and he "would make whatever they wanted."

Typically, breakfast included croissants, pancakes, waffles, eggs, and meats; a full English breakfast, she said.

Guests would choose a specific time they wanted breakfast served and it was Hogg's job to make sure the table was set and breakfast was ready by the time they woke up and came into the dining room.

While the guests were eating, Hogg said she would clean their bathrooms, tidy their rooms, change their sheets, and make their beds. Hogg and the other chalet host were responsible for cleaning the entire chalet and everything had to be done a certain way, she said.

"All the towels had to be perfectly folded. There were specific ways you had to do the toilet paper," she said.

Once breakfast was finished, guests would typically return to their rooms to get ready for the day.

During that time, if any beds were unmade or if a spot on any sheet or pillowcase was left behind, Hogg explained she would have to sneak back into the room to remake and re-tidy the rooms.

Once they left, Hogg said she ate breakfast at the chalet, which often included a leftover croissant from the bakery.

Hogg said the service guests expected was extreme, but that the "payoff was unreal."

Around noon, after Hogg finished cleaning, she was free until her dinner shift started at 7 p.m.

Typically, the previous night dictated how she spent her afternoon. If she was out late partying, she'd likely go back to her chalet in Le Praz for a nap, she said.

But most days, Hogg was on the slopes. While the chalet supplied Hogg with skis, ski boots, and ski poles, Hogg said she paid for her ski pass out of pocket, which cost around $1,200.

Courchevel 1850 is part of The Three Valleys ski area, which meant Hogg had access to 375 miles of ski runs. "The skiing was limitless," she said.

Even after six months of skiing, Hogg said there were still slopes and areas of The Three Valleys that she never explored because it was so massive.

Hogg said she and the other chalet host split responsibilities.

Most days, the other host served guests afternoon tea. This meant Hogg had a longer afternoon break, but it also meant that she was responsible for dinner service each evening, she explained.

Around 7 p.m., Hogg said she would head back to the chalet to start preparing for dinner.

In the evening, Hogg would retreat back to the chalet where guests were enjoying post-ski activities. Hogg's chalet host manager was the guest's main point of contact, and she said she was in charge of scheduling ski rentals, massages, and any other activities the guests desired.

"They'd go in the Jacuzzi, go in the spa, some of them would have massages, and we would prep," she said.

Hogg and the rest of her team would start getting ready for dinner.

"I'd make sure they have drinks, make sure they have Champagne, and any cocktail they wanted," she said.

After cocktails were shaken and stirred, Hogg would set the table for dinner and serve a three-course dinner, which she said often featured seafood and steak as the main course sandwiched between an appetizer and dessert.

After dinner, Hogg said she would sneak away to the guest bedrooms for turn down service.

After dinner and dessert were served, Hogg stayed at the chalet to help with any other guest requests.

Often the guests wanted more drinks, so she said she would spend the night pouring wine or making espresso martinis.

If they requested food, the chalet's chef was around to make it. "Whatever the guests wanted, we would give them," she said. "If they wanted lobster at midnight, they would get lobster at midnight."

Hogg said her evening shift didn't have a set end time, but she was usually done around midnight. Though, there were plenty of nights when she dreaded her 6 a.m. alarm as she worked until 3 or 4 a.m, she said.

Luckily, Hogg said she wasn't on call 24/7. If anything came up while Hogg was off for the night or afternoon, guests would reach out to the chalet host manager.

The chalet couldn't serve already opened bottles of wine to guests, which meant that anything opened was up for grabs at the end of the night, Hogg said.

"I would finish my shift at midnight, and then I would grab an open bottle from the chalet," she said. "Then we would go party until whatever time, and then I'd be up again in the morning."

When Hogg first arrived in Courchevel, she said she would go out with other seasonnaires in Le Praz and the lower ski villages in Courchevel where the bars and clubs were more affordable.

About a month into her season, she said she made a friend who wanted to go out in 1850. Together, they headed to 1850's exclusive clubs. One connection lead to another, and "we literally ended up going to a party at this amazing chalet at 4:00 a.m. in the morning," Hogg said. "We were going and jumping in pools and jumping in Jacuzzis."

After that night, Hogg said she rarely went out in the lower villages. Instead, she said she stuck to exploring Courchevel 1850's club scene, where nights were often filled with free drinks, plenty of dancing, and invitations to private chalet parties.

Each week, Hogg said she worked four full days and two half days, and one day a week she didn't work. Hogg coordinated with her coworkers to decide on the schedule, and she typically would take the same day off as her other friends working in Courchevel, she explained.

When Hogg wasn't working, other members of the five-person team would step in to complete her responsibilities and Hogg did the same when her coworkers were off. "We all helped each other out," she said.

When Hogg's day off finally arrived each week, Hogg said she would go all out. "We would absolutely seize the day."

That meant skiing all morning, Champagne showers during après, and late nights out with her friends, she said.

While she didn't find love like the lead in "Chalet Girl," she did make lifelong friends, learn about privilege, and launch a career focused on content creation and traveling, she said.

Today, Hogg has traded the snow for saltwater, where she works as a content creator for The Yacht Week, which hosts sailing festivals in Croatia and Greece.

Hogg said she was grateful for the experience but added that there were plenty of times she questioned her decision.

"I would be tidying people's rooms for hours and then be like, 'Why am I doing this? I've got a degree,'" she said. "I'd be cleaning toilets and cleaning bathrooms, but I would look outside and be like, 'This is why I'm doing it. I'm getting to live the dream.'"

If anyone is considering a season in Courchevel or any ski resort, Hogg urged them to take the chance and experience something new. On TikTok and Instagram, Hogg documented her life as a chalet girl.

"I know how out of reach this experience is for many people," she said. "But I think if people can do it and are in the position to take risks, then they should do something like this."