Higalik Hotel

Updated: Please don't believe the hotel's response, especially what it says about the breakfast selection. I'm writing this because I feel I have to share what happened. We've stayed in 4-star ski hotels in 3 Valees before, but never had service like this while paying 4-star prices. This is a very basic hotel and shouldn't be sold or priced as a 4-star property. At €1100 a night, the cost makes no sense for what's offered. One morning we were ready to ski at 8:30, but our skis and boots were gone from our locker. I reported the apparent theft at reception, and the receptionist told me to “calm down” four times instead of trying to sort it out. They eventually realized we'd been given the wrong locker at first. After another family complained, staff moved our gear to a different locker without telling us, leaving a note or apologizing. My leather ski gloves were also put on a boot warmer and ruined by the heat, which cracked the leather. I managed to buy another pair at a nearby store, but this should never have happened. Guests openly complain about the service while sitting in the sauna. The room has no refrigerator, and bathroom amenities are very sparse: no shampoo or conditioner, just a basic shower gel and shampoo combination, no toiletries or shower caps, and only paper cups. By themselves, these things might not be deal-breakers if the hotel didn't call itself 4-star and charge premium rates. Last year we stayed at Château de Mt. Valon in Les Menuires for nearly half the price. The difference was huge: better room amenities, a spotless spa, decent-sized indoor parking, a fantastic breakfast, three-course dinners cooked to order, and genuinely attentive hospitality. Plenty of hotels nearby cost half as much, or even a third, and offer a completely different level of service. Don't waste your money. Original review: The hotel is new, but service is almost nonexistent, and the experience has been very negative. It falls well short of 4-star ski-in, ski-out standards. The biggest problem is the lack of organization and poor service. Breakfast is decent but exactly the same each day, so it gets repetitive fast: two kinds of pre-sliced cheese, two kinds of ham, eggs and a few pastries that didn't seem very fresh. Nothing special. The restaurant isn't actually inside the hotel, you have to enter from the street. It's small, so dinner needs to be booked well in advance. Staff often seem bothered when we ask for help. The only answer we've had to problems is “sorry,” with no follow-up action, which makes the stay unpleasant. The hammam and sauna sound good in theory, but are already falling apart even though the hotel is new. During our visit, children were throwing snow into the spa and behaving wildly, and the staff did nothing to stop them. Parking is very limited, suitable only for compact cars, with almost no extra parking nearby. The new hotel's rooms are also very small. The ski-in claim is misleading for our experience: it's about a 100-meter walk to the slopes, and the hill up to the entrance isn't groomed, so we couldn't ski back to the hotel. There are ski lockers, but getting one was a challenge and we were lucky to get one. The poor service makes this a disappointing stay. It isn't the true 4-star ski-in, ski-out experience advertised, and isn't worth the price. Save your money and stay somewhere else.

I'm writing while still at the hotel. We set off skiing at 8:30 in the morning, expecting the room to be cleaned by the time we got back so we could rest before dinner. But we return around 3:00-3:30 PM and it's still uncleaned, every day. It's a big inconvenience.

Big thanks to Ariane, the manager. I accidentally left my ski jacket at the hotel, and she went out of her way to arrange shipping it back to the U.S. She was kind, helpful and made the whole thing easy. Truly outstanding hospitality. Highly recommend!

You can ski straight to the ski room, and the hotel team were really nice and helpful. The room was clean, spacious and lovely. Great hotel!