Jeff Vezina, Christopher, and Shawn Johnson are hanging out in the lounge at the Samesun Hostel in Revelstoke. They’re only at the hostel temporarily, and not because they’re backpacking across the country.

They’re here to ski.

“I heard there’s good snow and lots of it,” said Vezina, who hails from Quebec City. Christopher (who wouldn’t give his last name) was here from the United States, and Johnson came from Newfoundland earlier in the year to work in construction at the resort.

The three are like the majority of guests at the Samesun Hostel. Twyla Unland, the manager of the hostel, estimated that 95 per cent of the hostel’s guests recently have been people coming for the ski season.

Unland said guests are much more prepared this year and are staying for only a night or two before moving into rooms they’ve already arranged before arriving.

“Definitely this year we’ve seen a real shift,” she said. “Word is out that housing is difficult to come by. People are coming early and they’re well prepared. They have places lined up before coming.”

At the Revelstoke Employment Service Centre, manager Kathy Thacker has heard a slightly different story.

“What we’re hearing from them is it’s easy to find a place to live but there’s no work, where last year it was easy to find work, but there was no place to live,” she said, though she pointed out she did not have hard data for that information, it was just what she’d heard.

The sound of foreign accents at the employment centre is a sign that word of Revelstoke is spreading.

“Lots of people from out of country – Australian, English, New Zealand – those are the main parts of the world that we’re seeing,” said Thacker.

She said the employment centre had an average of 104 people come in each day this October, down from 110 per day in October 2008.

Job seekers are seeing much fewer offerings this year, said Thacker, noting that an entire board used to be given over to hospitality positions, but this year that’s not the case.

“I haven’t seen it this slow in terms of jobs since we opened in January 2003,” she said. “Although we’re extremely busy in terms of people coming through the door.”

She also said jobs are getting snapped up much quicker.

“We’ll post a job and then the employer will phone quite soon after asking us to take it down because they’ve already got lots of applications.”

Mark Renfree, from Brisbane, Australia, came to Revelstoke because of the snow and because he’d seen a few ski movies that were filmed around here. “It’s pretty quiet for jobs,” he said while scanning the job offerings listed at the employment centre. He was staying at the hostel while looking for accommodation.

Vezina was in a fortunate position. He contacted Glacier House about a position before coming out and was offered the job after one meeting. It also comes with staff accommodation, saving him the trouble of looking for housing.

Christopher found housing within days of arriving in Revelstoke, right at the foot of the ski hill, he said. The price was also right – $250 per month.

The catch: “It’s a real junker.” Which is why he was at the hostel while cleaning out the place before moving in.