“A hostel not a chalet. Unsuitable for families. Dirty, unsafe and shabby.”
As a last minute booking at a discounted rate, we paid Snowlife Ltd £2,280 for a week at Chalet Pleiades in Verbier in March 2009. For this we expected pleasant and safe chalet accommodation.
Having arrived at Chalet Pleiades in the late afternoon and taken one look at the accommodation, communal facilites, cleanliness and security of the place, it was immediately clear that this was totally unsuitable as a base for a family ski holiday and that we would not even be able to spend one night there. Our main concern was the total lack of security but there were also problems with decor and cleanliness.
The rooms we had booked were large but dirty, with very tired and shabby decor, old battered furniture and sagging beds. There were no locks on the windows or doors to the balcony which was obviously dangerous in many respects. The bathrooms were dreadful - very basic and had not been cleaned properly - sanitary fittings were stained and dirty and there was a large pile of hair on the floor behind the door in one of the bathrooms. The rooms had the look and feel of poor quality youth hostel dormitory accommodation and the whole effect was truly depressing.
The two rooms we had booked were next to one another, with a small dirty corridor and utility/boiler room as a communal area joining them together into one 'apartment', which had its own front door. While each room locked individually, there was no lock on the door accessing the 'apartment', so the choice would have either been to lock the children into their room overnight (obviously a huge fire and safety hazard), leave their door unlocked (whereby anyone wandering in off the street through the unlocked and open front door of the building could have entered their room), or for one adult to share the children's room and stay awake all night to ensure they remained safe. None of these were viable options.
The communal areas of the building were no better. We went down a number of flights of uncarpeted concrete stairs to the dark and dingy dining room (which has no natural light), to find a group of young people sitting around on dirty and shapeless sofas, watching sport on television. The room smelled musty and was shabby and depressing. There was also a huge pile of stained sofa cushions piled up on the floor with their covers missing. Again, very like hostel or student accommodation. Indeed, it transpired that the people sitting around, scratching their heads, stretching and yawning on the sofas were staff, or friends of staff. There was absolutely no sign of this being family or child-friendly accommodation, or a professionally run ski chalet. Indeed, one of the staff told us that the only other guests expected that week were former Snowlife reps and their friends.
However, while thoroughly unpleasant and disappointing, these issues were minor compared to the overall lack of security of the place. The building resembles a hostel or block of flats, and is certainly nothing like the traditional ski chalet we had expected. The front door was open on to the street and we all wandered inside and then were able to roam the concrete corridors freely. There was no reception desk or welcome area. The corridors are lined with front doors, many of which had signs on them saying they were private. These appeared to be permanently occupied bedsits, with no connection to Snowlife. So, holiday guests must be prepared that there are unknown permanent residents staying in the same building.
We left the building shortly after arriving, to find alternative chalet accommodation. Fortunately were able to find a fantastic luxurious, warm, clean and comfortable traditional private catered chalet through a very helpful and professional Discover Verbier and Ski Freedom, for the week, for the same price as we had paid for Chalet Pleiades.
On rearranging our private taxi airport transfer from our new adddress in Verbier, we learned from the driver that we were certainly not the first guests he had come across to have been totally dissatisfied with Chalet Pleiades. Indeed, he told us that he was surprised when he dropped us there, that a family such as ours would book accommodation of that type, particularly when he had carried our bags inside and saw more of the place. This illustrates our opinion that the Chalet Pleiades accommodation is being mis-sold as family chalet accommodation.
Having found alternative accommodation, informed the chalet Rep of our decision to leave, and departed Chalet Pleiades rather abruptly, over the next few days we then sought to contact the Snowlife owner, Mr Ashley Faint. Once he had been made aware of the situation, we assumed he would have been keen to speak to us to discuss our concerns and protect his reputation. However, despite leaving both telephone messages and sending emails (which he later claimed never to have received, although of course our Blackberry records show differently), we were unable to speak to him until we were back at home a week or so later. The telephone conversation was most unsatisfactory and unprofessional, with Mr Faint adopting a very aggressive and defensive manner. Some equally unsatisfactory correspondence followed, with Mr Faint flatly refusing to refund any of our money, despite our position that the accommodation was not fit for purpose.
Since our bad experience at the hands of Snowlife, we have read TripAdvisor, and found much anecdotal evidence of other people having similar problems, both with the accommodation and with Mr Faint's attitude and approach.
By adding our story to those already existing, particularly at this time of year when people are looking to book their next ski breaks, we hope to prevent any other families making the same mistake and booking a holiday at Chalet Pleiades. If you are looking for a traditional chalet holiday in clean, comfortable and safe surroundings, with a professional and reputable company, then this is not the place to book!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
