TH Sestriere - Olympic Village

We left for another hotel for the final two nights as more people in our 16-person group kept getting sick and staff were still ignoring our concerns. We paid extra just to get away, and it was a relief to be treated with basic decency again. I’d strongly recommend staying somewhere else. Stay safe. The first night, people started having nausea and diarrhea. Staff first blamed the water supplier, then a local virus, and later said there was no issue. Some employees said many guests were ill, while others claimed nobody was. We found sealed snack packages chewed open in our room. I doubt ours was the only rat in the hotel, and the conditions felt unsanitary. When I told reception my wife was sick, the supposed 4-star staff didn’t offer help or mention the medical center. I had to pay a 30-euro deposit for a kettle. They only happened to tell me about the medical center on day five, after I asked what they were doing about the sick guests and rats. The receptionist said they would act only if a doctor reported it, not if guests did. The room was dry and poorly ventilated. Our two-room accommodation had just one window, so the second room was dark and extremely hot. A broken lamp made a loud noise and kept us from sleeping. I reported it in the morning and was told maintenance would come. I went skiing, then found out that my sick wife had spent all day in that dark, noisy room because nobody came. I stayed at reception until they called maintenance. A 10-second call was enough for them to realize it wasn’t an easy fix, so they moved us to another room. A 4-star hotel shouldn’t need to be pushed like that. Every trip to reception felt like an argument, something I’ve never experienced in all my travels, yet here it happened every other day.

The lifts are really close, the food is decent, the staff are helpful and nice, and the cleaning ladies do a great job. That’s about where the good points stop. For a 4-star hotel, it’s quite run down. There are no glasses or cups in the rooms, even though there’s a kitchen, and there’s no WiFi either. The beds are hard, and I could feel every spring. The radiators can’t be adjusted, make a strange noise all the time, and leave the room too hot for sleeping. The shower cabin is tiny, even for a small person. Also, 4 of the 10 people in our group probably got food poisoning. I can’t confirm it, but it seems the most likely explanation.

Hearing that there were mice or rats in a neighboring room was the last straw for me. I had no desire to stay another night, and I regret choosing this hotel. It also made me question what hotel star ratings really mean. The stay was bad enough before that. Our room was poorly cleaned and maintained, and the whole place seemed outdated and in need of renovation. The temperature couldn’t be controlled, and the engineering systems were in disrepair. There was no bathroom ventilation, and even basic kitchen items like cups and glasses were missing. The staff were unfriendly and unhelpful, which made everything more frustrating. For the poor facilities and service, the price simply wasn’t justified. I’d never return or recommend it, and the experience put me in a bad mood and really affected my holiday.

The only real plus was how close the hotel is to the ski lifts. The rest of the stay fell well short of what I’d expect from a 4-star place. The rooms weren’t properly maintained, and we had to pay extra for basic kitchen utensils. Most of our group became ill with diarrhea, vomiting, and other stomach problems. As the days passed, we noticed more and more guests with similar symptoms. When we raised it with staff, their explanations kept changing: first altitude, then a message from the water provider about compromised water, which they said was safe again, then a denial and talk of a so-called “resort virus.” There were no prompt sanitary measures. Anything they eventually did came on our last day, far too late. We hadn’t been told there was a doctor available at the hotel. When we found out and sought help, the doctor seemed irritated by how many people were asking to be seen. One person in our group was given a shorter course of antibiotics than needed, with no explanation that treatment should continue. When we asked, the doctor said he only treated patients until they left the hotel. That felt incredibly irresponsible.