OK. I admit it. I am a fussbudget. As a matter of fact, I consider myself the mother of all fussbudgets. So if you are not, you might want to stop reading here. I book my ski vacation 5 months in advance; I pay top $$$ for my vacation, since this is the one week every year which gives me quality time with my family, and I want everything, absolutely everything to be perfect. And when its not… I'll come clean – IT SHATTERS MY WORLD. And this was the case here. As reference to my sanity, though, please refer to my review last year: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g196714-d575725-Reviews-Residence_la_Ferme_du_Val_Claret-Tignes_Savoie_Rhone_Alpes.html, not only from a similar establishment, but actually one under the same management, which caused me to return to this chain, only to be very very very disappointed. And especially reading the review of my predecessor, I can absolutely see that what happened in my week there was not coincidental.

First things first – let's get the good out of the way. And there is a lot of good. The apartments are very nice; They are very very comfortable for 3; 4 would find it pleasantly accommodating. 5 or 6 could have crammed in, but then there would really be no living-room, which would make the entire setup not that great. Free(!!!!) wireless Internet works flawlessly.
The pool, saunas, jacuzzis – all top notch. And all that is on premise and that's absolutely great. The fact that what they call "the training room" has only one treadmill, a couple of bikes and one cross-country device, did not bother me much, as really the last thing I want to do after a day of skiing is hit the gym anyways.

The not so good. The first is really on me. I learned the hard way that one cannot overstate the importance of a ski-in/ski-out accommodation. The walk to the nearest lift (which, in all fairness, is very central, has short lines, and can connect you to anywhere in the resort) is 5-10 minutes, and that's what the agents will tell you as well. However do that with your boots on and carrying your skis when you are still cold in the morning? A nice way to get yourself warm, but definitely not fun. Do that _after_ a full day of skiing. Really not fun. Lesson learned: compromise on anything, but the ski-in/ski-out option. The second is on cgh. And falls clearly under "false advertisement". The site, as do the agents, claim that all rooms have a direct private phone line. That was an important feature for me, as I needed to take calls, and the roaming charges on the cell phone are killers, especially when receiving calls. Well guess what? According to the on-site manager, cgh decided to cancel this great feature, but they "forgot" to take it off their web site. So I could get incoming calls on my "direct line" phone only a few hours a day, when the reception was manned; 10AM-noon (very helpful, like I did not come here to ski) and the slightly more reasonable 4PM-8PM;

The bad: making my reservation 5(!!!) months in advance I explicitly did the research and asked that my room configuration be with 2 toilets. Guess what again? I got in and got a room with only one. Well… at least after some arguing they changed that. The room I received was very mal-maintained; Right off the bat I needed to replace 6 (count'em 6!!!) light-bulbs. The room was not clean, I found many leftover items from the previous guest. The microwave would not rotate (took over 24 hours to fix that one). All-in-all, not what one would expect. Then there's my favorite part - the utensil counting ceremony. Guest are required to go voer all the items in the apartment, knives, spoons, plates, cups... you name it and fill out an appropriate form. Two comments here: a. I just paid 1500 Euros for this week; you think I'm going to try and make up for that with a spoon? Secondly and more importantly - there were quite a few things missing, which makes one wonder... why are we doing this count if nobody even gives a hoot? And then there's the toilet paper; one roll of paper for an entire family for one week? And only 2 garbage bags? Wow! Must've saved a whole lot on that one.
Then there was the TV thing. The site and the agents promise a multitude of satellite channels. I had only 6 and they all spoke French. And every day they told me they would fix it, and every day they did not.

Once again – I am a fussbudget. So you will say "big deal – so no phone line, 1 toilet and no TV". You are absolutely right. That's why I told you that if you are not a fussbudget like myself you should have stopped reading this review a long time ago. But… I am…. And here's the thing… Had I paid… I don’t know… $500… maybe…$600 for this week, maybe, just maybe this would have been acceptable. I shelled out almost 1500 Euros(!!!), making the reservation 5 months in advance. I mean I don’t think I could have found a more expensive place even if I searched real hard. And for that I got an accommodation which not only that did not justify the 4* it is assigned, but a level of service which does not even justify a 2* establishment.

So which stay was more indicative of cgh? Last year's wonderful stay at La Ferme? Or this year's horror story? I'm afraid that like many other establishments the macro-economic situation results in a lower level of service across the board, and there are probably things that even money cannot buy. This affects the maintenance of the place, its cleanliness, and even the communications with cgh itself. Too bad.