The Collingview
A guest suite with its own kitchenette, armchairs and a queen bed under a timber ceiling

Ski season and extended stays

A month. A winter. The whole ski season.

Take the house for the season, 25 to 30 minutes from Blue Mountain, and stop packing the car every Friday. Three sitting rooms, more than one kitchen, laundry and an elevator: a house you could live in rather than camp in, which is why it holds up over a longer stay.

Ask about extended stays

A winter near Blue Mountain, without the Friday drive.

Plenty of people who ski the Blue Mountains every weekend stop booking one weekend at a time after a season or two. The Friday traffic out of the city, the hunt for somewhere with a free Saturday, packing it all up again on Sunday night. Taking a house for the season, what people here call a ski lease, ends all of that. The skis stay here, the boots are dry by morning, and a fresh snowfall on a Tuesday is a short drive to the lifts rather than a trip of two and a half hours from Toronto.

The house stands on a hill just inside Meaford, on the edge of The Blue Mountains, looking across the Beaver Valley to Georgian Peaks and the escarpment. Blue Mountain Resort, the public hill with season passes and the Ikon Pass, is about 23 km away, and Thornbury is about ten minutes down the road.

When the season starts and ends is up to you: most people want the ski months covered, and we set the dates together. Heat, hydro, water and Wi-Fi are included, which counts for a lot with radiant floors running all winter, and a clean with fresh linen comes every two weeks. If it is only Christmas week you are after, that is a shorter stay, and the ski and winter page covers the holiday weeks.

Over a long stay, different things matter.

Not the view from the roof, and that does not get old. What matters is whether there is laundry. Whether two people can make breakfast without colliding. Whether there is somewhere to sit that is not the room everyone else is in. Whether you can get through a wet February without the house starting to feel small.

There is laundry on site. A full kitchen with a gas range and full-size appliances, plus additional kitchenettes elsewhere in the house. Three separate sitting areas across two floors. Several bedrooms with their own fireplace. And an elevator, which stops mattering on day one and starts mattering again on day thirty.

A dressing room walled in white cabinetry with a rolling timber library ladder and a ribbon window above

And then there is the property itself: a country house on open ground at the end of a private drive, a pond, a field, a tree line. Somewhere to walk every day without getting into a car, which after a month is the difference between staying somewhere and living there.

Who takes it long

Four kinds of longer booking.

The ski season
A base for the winter 25 to 30 minutes from Blue Mountain, with somewhere to dry everything out and a hot tub on the roof at the end of the day.
Between houses
A furnished, fully equipped home for a family mid-move or mid-build, with room for the things that did not go into storage.
A project team
Separate sleeping areas and more than one kitchen mean colleagues can share a house for a month without sharing a bathroom queue.
A season away
Autumn through the colour, or summer near the bay, without packing up every Sunday.

Terms

What we can say so far.

Minimum length
Twenty-eight nights. Anything shorter is quoted as an ordinary stay.
Season dates
Agreed with you. Most seasonal rentals cover the ski months; tell us when you want to arrive and leave.
Rates
Quoted individually and not published. Longer stays are quoted lower per night than the same nights booked separately; send the dates and the length.
Utilities and cleaning
Heat, hydro, water and Wi-Fi are included. A clean with fresh linen and towels every two weeks is part of the stay; more often can be arranged.
Company bookings
Invoiced to the company directly, with HST shown. Payment in full confirms the booking, as it does for everyone.
A pine-lined bathroom with a doorway through to a laundry area with washer and dryer
Laundry, which matters more the longer you stay.
Stainless steel elevator doors set into a corrugated galvanised steel wall, beside a round porthole window in cedar planking
An elevator between floors, and the porthole you can pick out from the drive.

A ski season near Blue Mountain, a monthly let, or somewhere to put a family for the eight weeks between one house and the next: all three are the same booking here, and all three are quoted on the length of the stay rather than on the calendar.

Ask about the season, or a month.

Tell us roughly when, roughly how long, and who it is for. Longer bookings are quoted individually, and a person will come back to you, usually the same day.

Ask about extended staysJust the holidays or a ski week?

Keep reading

Long stay questions

Can we rent the house for the whole ski season near Blue Mountain?

Yes, and it is the long booking we are asked about most. A lot of people who ski the Blue Mountains every weekend get tired of booking one weekend at a time and take a chalet or a house for the winter instead. This one suits it: laundry for the wet gear, fires inside, a hot tub on the roof, and room for friends and family to come up and join you. Anything of twenty-eight nights or more is quoted as an extended stay.

When does a season rental start and end?

When we agree it does. Most people want the ski months covered, but the dates are set with you rather than fixed by us, so tell us when you would like to arrive and when you expect to leave and we will quote exactly that.

What is included in a long-term rental?

Heat, hydro, water and Wi-Fi are all included, which matters in a winter with radiant floors running every day. A clean with fresh linen and towels comes every two weeks, and more often can be arranged. The kitchen, the laundry and everything else in the house are yours for the length of the stay.

Is a season or a month cheaper per night than booking weekends?

Yes. Longer stays are quoted lower per night than the same nights booked separately, because there is no turnover between guests. We do not publish rates, so every stay is quoted individually: send the dates and the length and the quote will show it.

Can we ski Blue Mountain every day from here?

Easily. Blue Mountain Resort is about 23 km away, 25 to 30 minutes by car, and it is the public hill: season passes come from the resort, and it is on the Ikon Pass. Georgian Peaks, Craigleith, Alpine, Osler Bluff and Beaver Valley are private clubs, so plan the season around Blue Mountain unless you are a member. Put proper winter tires on the car and allow more time on a snowy morning.

What counts as an extended stay?

Twenty-eight nights or more: a ski season, a winter, a gap between houses, or a stretch of work that keeps someone in the area. Anything shorter is quoted as an ordinary stay.

Do you offer corporate housing or temporary executive accommodation?

Informally, yes. A monthly luxury rental in Ontario suits somebody in the middle of a relocation, between houses, or on a long assignment in the region, and a whole house works better than a serviced apartment for anyone bringing family. Temporary executive accommodation of this kind is quoted by the month, not the night.

Does this work as a remote work retreat?

For a work getaway or a writing retreat in Ontario, where the point is a change of scene and long uninterrupted hours, yes. It is quiet, there is nobody else in the building, and there are several rooms to work in instead of one desk. For a workation that depends on all-day video calls, read the next answer first.

Is the internet good enough to work from the cottage?

There is Wi-Fi, and it is included on a long stay, but the speed has not been measured, so we cannot honestly promise it will carry a day of calls. If you are considering working from here, ask before you book. We will test it and give you the actual figure, not an adjective.

Is there a proper workspace?

There is a fifteen-foot kitchen island, a long dining table and an upper lounge, all of which people work from. What we have not yet confirmed is whether there is a dedicated desk at a sensible height with a power outlet beside it, so we are not claiming a vacation rental with a workspace until somebody has checked.

Can a company book it for staff or a project team?

Yes, and it suits that well: separate sleeping areas, more than one kitchen and two sitting rooms mean people are not living in each other’s pockets for a month. Ask about invoicing arrangements.