Hotel L'Hermitage Alpe D'Huez

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I’m just glad that the holiday was a last minute deal, therefore below brochure price, because if we had paid the full price to stay in the Hotel L’Hermitage, (A Crystal Club Hotel) I would have thrown myself off the balcony in protest. It was dirty, tired, untidy and in need of a total refurbishment. The heating in the rooms had two settings, boiling hot or off, controlled only by the hotel mechanic, no automated timer for the boilers, and no thermostats in the rooms – seems the hotel owner doesn’t take much notice of guest’s constant complaints about this. Electric sockets were hanging out of the walls and the toilet had no window and no extractor fan. The’lounge’ and I use that word loosely, consisted of 9 seats in the reception area. Unless you can stand the smoke-filled aprè ski bar attached to the hotel. There was no evidence of any hotel cleaning the whole week we were there, and anything dropped on the carpets anywhere in the hotel, remained there.

The food was acceptable, but finding clean pots to eat it off was a daily challenge, that’s if there were enough available. It would seem that whoever is responsible for multiplying guest numbers, by plates/cups/saucers required for the said numbers, must have used their fingers and toes to calculate, then got stuck!!! If you didn’t enter the dinning room immediately it opened for breakfast, you went hungry, as once the serving plates were emptied, 15 minutes later, they didn’t restock them.

This is a family orientated hotel due to the child care facilities offered, and reports were that the crèche and children’s club were very good, but it would have been good ‘dinning-room management’, to put families with young babies in the same part of the dinning room together, so that couples past the baby stage of their lives, weren’t faced with the spectacle of vomiting children first thing in the morning!

The staff I cannot complain about, they were very helpful, and did a sterling job despite poor facilities, and a hotel owner and tour operator that cared very little about customer satisfaction. The staff were the only plus point of the hotel. I would not go to this hotel again if it were free! Letter in the post to Crystal as I type.

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davidof, Give over - its close to everywhere and I'm not a fan of this hotel but to say its in a bad location is not fair.

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sharon1953, so how was the skiing? Was it a confidence booster (unlike Saalbach!) which made up for the poor hotel?

Hmm. I rather liked L'Hermitage. Went there on a late deal, and stayed in the annex - so had a 2 bedroom, 5 bed, suite between 2. The place was kept very clean for us. I liked the the bar, the dining room was OK - though you did have to check that the coffee cups were clean. Families seemed happy - and a point not really to do with Crystal, all the children seemed happy and well behaved - so modern mums and dads must be doing something right.

But it was when I ruptured my Achilles tendon that I realised how outstanding the Crystal staff were. Not realising how bad my injury was, I walked down to the medical centre on my own. The doctor correctly diagnosed a total rupture of the tendon, and put my left tendon in a resin cast. And that was that. It was up to me to organize getting my own crutches and medication from the local pharmacy several hundred metres away. So I hobbled somehow to the outside lobby of the medical centre, and called the hotel. Immediately 2 strong Crystal lads turned up. They lifted me like a hooker in the front row of a rugby scrum, to the nearby ATM so that I could draw some cash. Then carried me on to the hotel, then went to the pharmacy to get all the kit. They were superb. And throughout the rest of my stay, the staff kept an eye out for me, made sure I had space for my injured leg, and asked if they could help me. I came away with rather a warm glow about the nation's youth. Very Happy

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Nick Zotov, very nice to hear something good about Crystal for a change snowHead

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Nick Zotov, As I said. the staff were great, and they told us that the hotel owner doesn't care that much about the condition of the hotel, and spends as little as possible on upgrading - not sure who is responsible, as it's a Crystal owned hotel, perhaps they rent it! But fire doors on the landings shouldn't be wedged open with wooden blocks, not good for couples, singles and especially those with kids!! NorthWestFace, You missed the point, I wasn't blaming the parents or the kids, you can't stop children being sick, it's the norm with change of routine and different food, but it was as frustrating for the parents trying to fit the highchairs in amongst the closely packed tables, as it was for other guests trying to avoid knocking into them - just poor seating arrangements, so you don't need to get so defensive! I've never seen any non-children hotels advertised in the brochures, new one to me - unless you mean the 18 - 30's, but I don't think we'd get in

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hayley t, yes the greens were great, not best time of year though snow-wise, but Saalbach is ssssoooooooo much prettier, different class altogether, in another league when it comes to standards or food, ambiance, atmosphere, aprè ski, and cost of food and drink, almost worth not skiing just to be there!! the Austrians really know how to treat their guests. Tourist board of Saalbach/Hinterglemm could teach the French a thing or two!! wink

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Hotel L'Hermitage Alpe D'Huez

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