Résidence Odalys Aquisana

The staff were incredibly friendly and explained everything we needed to know. We also appreciated being able to order baguettes, pain du chocolate, and croissants in the evening for collection at reception the next morning. The free shuttle to Frejust chairlift was useful too. The place was clean, and the fairly new apartments had everything we needed for a week. The stay was reasonably cheap, so if you want extra space, you could book a room for six even with only four guests.

We had a good experience overall. The hotel is nicely located near shops, and you can walk to the lift. There's also a ski bus to the lifts every 15 minutes. Our room was big enough and the kitchen had everything we needed. There's a sauna, but it's not included in the price. Remember to bring your own towels, soap, and dishwasher tablets, as seems to be the way in French hotels.

For a basic checkout at reception on your last day, you have to book an appointment, and it's first come, first served. If the schedule is full, you might be forced to check out at 8 a.m. We paid for end-of-stay cleaning, yet reception still gave us the unpleasant message shown in the picture. We asked, and confirmed it wasn't handed to us by mistake. At 1600 euros a week for three people, I expected three keys, but the lobby flatly refused. The contract said there was a laundry room, but it turns out there's only one washing machine for the entire building. Ridiculous if you need to do laundry. This was way overpriced and lousy value for money. It seems Odalys is cutting costs on equipment, cleaning, and front desk service without considering guests. We won't be back.

The lifts are only a ten-minute walk away, and the shops are 15 minutes on foot. The rest of the stay was terrible, and I definitely wouldn't recommend it to international travellers. At 2200 euros for two weeks, it wasn't cheap, yet the only thing supplied was bed linen, and we had to make our own beds. We had to buy everything else, including towels, bin bags, toilet paper, detergent, and soap. We also had to clean the whole room before leaving, including the toilets and floors. That didn't feel like a holiday, more like doing their work for them. When we asked staff for anything, they'd say “impossible.” There was no English TV as advertised. When I asked, I was told it would take another month or two to fix. Internet was out for four days, staff were rude, and there were three false fire alarms and evacuations.