Club Hotel Petit Palais - Cervinia - Italy

Just back from a week at the Petit Palais. Unfortunately, I booked this hotel package before reading the reviews on other sites and I want a good kicking!! (Before your read on, this review is based upon what I experienced last week (29 Mar - 5 Apr) at the Petit Palais and I am someone who has skied around the world for the last 20 years and have experienced self catering right up to 5* luxury hotels.)

Quick Review:
Not a 4* Hotel. Poor levels of customer service. Sewer smell in the dining room. Small rooms with ensuite bathroom. Food adequate with poor selection at breakfast. Tommy/Ben good behind bar. Close to main gondola.

More Detailed Review:
DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT THE BROUCHURE SAYS:
The Hotel Petit Palais, for many years considered one of the best hotels in Cervinia, is now a very popular Crystal Club Hotel where the high standard of space and comfort is matched only by the friendly and welcoming service of our own club staff.”

THIS IS NOT A 4* HOTEL- so don’t expect any luxury here. It is a basic 2/3 star with an added Turkish bath and sauna facility that offers massages (£40 upwards). All of the brochures of this hotel Crystal, First Choice, TUI etc only have 2 pictures of this hotel: an external one and a view of the lounge/bar. Now I know why!!

ROOMS
The rooms are small and basic - no tea/coffee making facilities and no safe in your room. Apparently Italian HS have decreed that kettles are not allowed in your bedrooms!!
The ski room is not heated, so I would suggest that you bring your boots back to your rooms to get dried out for the following morning. There is a hair dryer in the bathroom which will dry your boots out quickly.

FOOD
The service from the staff in the dining room is very poor - if you want something you had better go up to the server and ask for it as the staff do not have a clue about how to serve and customer focus/care. Your cooked breakfast order is likely to get lost as the 5/6 serving staff are more interested in getting everyone out quickly so that they too can get on the piste. The cereal selection is either Corn Flakes, All Bran or Coco Pops. Finally, your dirty plates are not cleared away until you have left the table.
High Tea is a joke. Only a small selection of stickies are brought out and if you are not first in line, or are willing to push the young children out of the way, you will not get any doughnuts/biscuits. If you are lucky the staff will bring another plate out 20 mins later. At least there is a large basket of white bread rolls which always last through high tea.
Evening Meal selection is adequate - you select your choice the day before to enable to chef to work out his quantities etc. Free house wine is limited to 250 ml. However, if your turn up around 8 o’clock ish you are more likely to get more of the free house wine (as they do not have enough of the ¼ ml bottles to cover all tables). It is better to ask for both white and red with your meal althoug don’t expect anything descent.

BAR
I agree that Tommy and a couple of other staff (Ben in particular) who work behind the bar are good behind the bar; but then again most student union bar staff are competent too.
The staff are not the real problem. They are essentially youngsters working their gap years and are more interested in getting on the piste than giving you a 4* level of service which you would receive if you had booked a privately run hotel. It is the management who are at fault. They do not have you the customer as their No1 priority and the levels of service are not up to the brochure statement. Having made a formal complaint to the Crystal Rep regarding poor service in the dining room, the following morning my table was ignored by 6 staff and the manageress!!

IN SUMMARY

BAD POINTS:
1. Poor customer care (from most staff).
2. Sewer smell in dining room.
3. Room service will not clean your room.
4. Management not up to the task.
5. No coffee making facilities in your room.
6. Mad rush at high tea for stickies/buns.
7. Not enough cups/saucers for guests at high tea.
8. Selection of cereals at breakfast (Corn Flakes, All Bran Coco Pops)
9. Bedrooms are small.
10. Not a 4* Hotel.

GOOD POINTS:
1. Close to the main gondola which gets you up to the midpoint on the mountain.
2. 5 min walk into the centre of town.

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