Hotel Madarao

The room was filthy, smelled terrible and looked as if it hadn’t been vacuumed or dusted in ages. The floor mats were disintegrating, wallpaper was peeling, the sink was pulling away from the wall, and the badly fitted shower and washing machine were both out of order. There’s loud bar music every night, too. This is basically a youth hostel, and not a good one. Maybe it suits young people who want to party and have somewhere to sleep between hangovers on the slopes. For everyone else, look elsewhere. Hotel Madarao, please get the place in order. For what a stay costs, surely some of this can be fixed.

We had a warm welcome every time, and the staff were genuinely lovely. The hotel’s in a good spot, so I’d stay again, just not in room 122. The breakfast is very basic, so don’t expect much. Our room needs work. The front door had a covered-up hole, maybe from too much Après-ski :) Then there was the falling ceiling…paper? And the shower curtain had a lot of mold, way more than I’d let slide as a little bit.

The one real drawback was the hot water, and the onsen was still out of order. It’d also be nice to get coffee a bit earlier in the morning. Even so, I’d definitely come back one day. It’s a great place near the slopes, and the bar does a really good burger. They pour beer the way we do back in Australia. Everyone on staff was super nice, especially Dave in the ski hire shop. He really knows the ski and board rentals, and was an absolute legend, sharing heaps of tips and helping us throughout our stay. Cheers, Dave.

Unless you’re really on a tight budget and don’t mind kerosene smells, loud nights and a bit of disregard for local culture, I’d skip this place. We were meant to stay a week but left as soon as we found somewhere else. It was like being back in a frat house, especially on the weekend, with girls screaming all night and loud music from the bar below. Oz snow says the passes give access to all four mountains, which is true, but transport only ran to one mountain two days a week. On the other days you had to find your own ride if you wanted to go beyond Madarao. That’s pretty poor. The shared facilities were a mess. Only one upstairs toilet worked, the toilet area smelled of urine, and there was no hot water or soap for washing hands. Showers are down in the basement, with cracked tiles, tiny stalls and an onsen that hasn’t worked for years. When we arrived, the whole building reeked of the huge amount of kerosene heating they use. Our roughly 14m2 room had two big heaters that really weren’t needed, mold on the floor near them, broken paper windows that defeated their purpose, and a hole in the wall. The only genuinely good parts were the 10-minute walk to the mountain and the guys in the rental shop. There are lots of better places with 10/10 service.