On the record — Courchevel, August 2026.
I spent an evening trying to book a single night at seven hotels in Courchevel 1850, with entry rates on those dates running from 1,440 to 5,750 euros, for three dates: 31 December 2026, then 16 and 19 January 2027. Twenty-one attempts. One of them worked.
The rest split into three situations that get flattened into the same word in most conversations. Five properties showed the New Year date with no room available for one night. Two of them, Cheval Blanc and the Annapurna, do not put that date on a public channel at all. Across the January dates, ten of the remaining slots existed as a rate you could see, and could not buy without committing to a longer stay.
The one that went through was a Deluxe room at Barrière Les Neiges on a Tuesday in January, at 3,400 euros.
The minimum stays are where this gets interesting. Aman Le Mélézin asks for seven nights. Les Airelles five. Le K2 Palace, Barrière and the Annapurna four. Le Strato three. That ordering does not match the nightly rates, and once you multiply it out the market looks different from how it is usually described.
Le K2 Palace has the highest nightly rate of the group at 5,750 euros. Aman is well below that at 3,550. But Aman's seven-night gate makes the smallest possible purchase 24,850 euros, against 23,000 at Le K2. Les Airelles, at 3,300 a night for five nights, requires 16,500, which puts it above Barrière at 13,600 despite the lower nightly figure. The ranking you get from the price per night and the ranking you get from the cheapest way in are two different rankings.
The Annapurna is the useful case here. At 1,440 euros it sits at a quarter of Le K2's nightly rate and asks for the same four nights, which suggests the minimum stay is a resort-wide habit rather than something the top of the market does on its own.
Anyone quoting an average daily rate for Courchevel in high season is quoting something they have estimated. For most of that inventory, on those dates, the observable per-night price does not exist. What exists is a minimum ticket, and the length of the gate carries as much information as the number attached to it.
Two things this does not tell you. It does not tell you whether the rooms are full or whether the hotels have simply decided not to sell that way, and those are different market conditions with the same appearance from outside. It also does not tell you what happens in a weak year, because I have one reading and one reading is a photograph.
All of it was checked on 5 August 2026, on official websites, entry category, two adults, flexible rate, room only. Anyone can repeat the search and tell me I got it wrong.