Résidence Pierre & Vacances Premium La Ginabelle

The pool, sauna and steam room were great, and we could book the sauna and steam room at the last minute without any trouble. Our room had a good mountain view and a decent-sized balcony. The place was very cute and much bigger than we expected, right in the heart of Chamonix near shops, restaurants and several ski rental shops. If skiing at Brévent, we’d suggest taking the bus instead of walking up the huge hill. Underground parking was fine at an extra 20 euros per night. We didn’t need the Wi-Fi, but it doesn’t really work. My fiance and I stayed for two nights just before the Christmas ski rush, and it suited us perfectly. We’d come again.

The room was old, smelly and dirty. The shower smelled of pee and had yellow stains on the floor, and after the first night I got bitten by bed bugs. We arrived at 12 with our family luggage, expecting to store it as we’d been told, but couldn’t, so we sat in the hot sun for three hours waiting for them to open. Once we got the keys, reception told us we’d have to clean the kitchen and bathrooms and strip the beds when leaving. The next morning I said we weren’t happy and asked for a refund for the last two nights. They offered to send people in suits to clean for four hours, but I didn’t want to stay. They refused the refund. The hotel feels like one star, is very old and dirty, and needs renovation. The photos make it look better than it is in person. We were given just one toilet roll for the whole family. I’m disgusted, and the service was shocking.

The apartments are centrally located in Chamonix, with good standards and useful facilities like a pool and ski storage.

The apartment had black mould on the curtains, the toilet smelled awful, and we had to buy cleaning products for the bathrooms. I was trapped in the elevator for 45 minutes with my eight-year-old daughter after it unexpectedly dropped to the basement. The emergency speaker didn’t work. My family outside realized we were missing, checked the floors, found us, and went out to call for help. My daughter was very distressed. Two days later, the same thing happened to another family with children, and only then did they finally close the elevator for the rest of our stay. We were on the third floor with luggage for a family of five. The receptionist gave us a tin of biscuits as a goodwill gesture. Pierre et Vacances never replied to our formal complaint. When we called head office, a staff member said, “no one cares, this is normal, elevators break all the time”. Unsafe, dirty, with terrible customer service.