Just returned from a lovely week skiing staying here.
First of all the pluses:-
You cannot beat the location of this hotel, literally opposite the gondola. A very nice welcome on arrival from the staff and everything explained. The rooms were lovely and cosy and the standard of cleaning was excellent. Lovely to have kettle with tea and coffee in room (just wish they left teaspoons or at least one to stir with rather than horrible wooden stirrers that were attached to the sugar sachets). I took one from breakfast and then hid it in the bedroom in case it got taken away lol! The staff were very helpful but Jessica in the restaurant stands out by a mile. She was always so helpful friendly and polite - an absolute asset to the hotel. Nice touches were the tea/coffee or mulled wine with cake from 3pm, lovely when you get back from the slopes to sit in the lounge/reception area. The ski locker room was good although really hard to actually lock the padlocks as they are too long for the brackets and we had to go back and get smaller ones.
Now the not so pluses:-
Rooms - 3 broken bulbs in our room, not the end of the world and we didn't want to complain but cleaners or maintenance should check these things I think before new guests arrive. It did make the main bedroom quite dark. We were on floor 6 and the wifi was not good unfortunately. This really needs to be improved. Only 2 plug sockets in the room by the dressing table, luckily we saw an earlier review about this and took a plug extension which enabled us to charge multiple devices. Have never stayed in a hotel where there are not plug sockets by the beds.
Restaurant - after reading previous reviews, I was expecting the food to be better than it was. It was not awful but there is room for improvement. Breakfast - I just had cereal and toast, there was no toasting machine to make fresh so all the toast in the tray was predone and stone cold - by the 3rd day I asked Jessica if I could just have 2 freshly toasted ones and the rest of the week, she did this for me without hesitation. Dinner - you had to prebook your time every morning for dinner - 3 sittings:- 6.30pm, 7.30pm and 8.15pm if I remember correctly, we mainly went for 8.15pm and 7.30pm a couple towards the end after one night of ordering a main course that had run out and left us disappointed but they did me an omelettte and chips as I didn't like the other choice. There were 3 choices for each course, starter was always a soup, pasta dish and something else. I had soup twice and it was really lovely, the pate was really good one night too. My kids tended to go for the pasta dish every night, they said some were good, some were a bit tasteless. The main course, obviously a vegetarian and then 2 other choices, there were some nice ones, fish, chips and mushy peas, a chicken pie although that literally came with a tablespoon of mash potatoe and no vegetables which was disappointing - not enough. The main course portions were generally quite small and my 2 boys (16 and 20 years old were always still hungry after dinner). Fresh vegetables were actually missing all nights, that's something that would be really beneficial. Desserts were okay.
You have to remember though that this is 3* hotel and for what we paid, I think it was okay value for money and you seriously cannot beat the location. However, have seen the price increase for next year, I cannot warrant what booking.com are offering for the same thing, a twin and a double a £1500 price increase.
Tips:- Great restaurants nearby are Hunters Sports Bar and Grill - less than a 5 minute walk away, really lovely staff and reasonably priced. Surf Arinsal - Argentian restaurant, more pricey but the steak is divine.
There maybe a few negatives here but have still given it 4 stars because the staff were always helpful and friendly, the hotel was cosy and warm, the rooms were nice and it made it a most enjpyable holiday The location was just the best. I probably would stay again if the price was right but would probably eat out in the evening a couple of times during the week to break it up a little.
Thank you to all the staff for welcoming us so warmly but a special thank you to Jessica for looking after us impeccably at meal times.
