Gstaad has a season, and the season has a shape. Knowing the shape is most of the work.
December
The village fills between Christmas and the first days of January and empties immediately afterwards. Chalets for that fortnight are spoken for a year ahead, often longer, and usually by the same families. If you are asking in October you are asking late.
January
Quiet, cold and the best skiing of the winter. Also the month when a table at the Chesery is simply available. For anyone who wants the place rather than the crowd, this is when to come.
Late January
The Sommet, and the village changes character for a week. Worth attending or worth avoiding, depending entirely on why you are coming.
February
School holidays across Europe land in staggered weeks. Swiss, then various British, then French. Each brings a different set of families and a different mood. We plan around them rather than into them.
March
Long light, soft snow by afternoon, terraces open. The month locals keep for themselves.
July and August
A different village entirely. Hiking, the Menuhin Festival in the church at Saanen, and the polo weekend. Rates fall, the valley is green, and almost nobody who knows Gstaad only in winter has seen it.
We hold relationships in the valley year round, which is why a request in November can still produce something in December. Not always. But more often than a first-time caller manages.
The valley on the other side of the same mountains reads very differently in summer, and we write it up as a day out of Zurich.