Sitting in a heated outdoor jacuzzi pool in a snow storm surrounded by 1m drifts is not to be missed! The hotel sits high the mountainside, and has a bar, restaurant and spa on site. (It's currently being expanded with saunas and hammams as well as the baths, which will make it an even better facility.) The restaurant is fairly basic, and the bar lacks atmosphere and has live bands who should really be consigned to history The location and other features make up for these shortcomings, but they still make the hotel less stellar than it really should be.

We spent one night in a "studio" apartment in one of the four or five apartment complexes. The room was clean and simple with a small kitchen, a tiny TV, shower and toilet and a spacious balcony.

The furniture in the room was good, though old and dull. The bed folded from a cupboard and had very hot duvet and a pillow so flat and flimsy, you could hardly notice it.

We quickly went to the baths, which consist of 3 fairly regular pools. All at the same temperature, no steam baths, no aroma baths, nothing you'd expect from a "spa". The baths, like many areas of the hotel were very crowded, with a lot of small kids and babies around. Another reviewer rightfully pointed out some concern over the hygiene of so many small kids in such a small pool and we also felt the pools were not particularly clean.

The restaurant serves decent food, although its utterly devoid of any atmosphere and service is slow. Taking into account the crying, shouting and playing kids are everywhere; I really wouldn't recommend it for a romantic getaway. Staff in both hotel and restaurant barely speak english or german. Breakfast the next morning was incredibly chaotic and overcrowded.

The worst aspect of it all is however the price. I found everything horribly overpriced. The simple room (with cupboard beds!) plus access to the pool, cost us a staggering 322 CHF for a single night! Towels for the pool came at an extra 6 CHF a piece, dinner cost us 60 CHF pp (2 courses plus drinks), WiFi access is 10 CHF/hr, studio with view to the south is 32 CHF/night extra. Such prices may be OK for upmarket luxury hotels, but most certainly not for the quality and service this hotel offers. I wouldn't go as far as saying this was the worst hotel I've stayed in in Switzerland, but it's definitely the worst in this price category.

I would strongly advise against staying in this hotel.

We decided on Ovronnaz after the school holidays in order to enjoy a calm and quiet holiday.

To start with, I was only notified of major works going on after I booked! When I questioned this I was assured we would not be inconvenienced in any way. There would just be some noise near the pools. I was also assured that our room had been selected to avoid any view or noise.

We arrived on Sunday later afternoon and I decided to go for a quick dip in the pools around 17h45. I stayed exactly 15 minutes because it was so crowded all one could do was hang around in the middle of the pool. There were so many people with small babies which surely cannot be very hygienic as I noticed not all of them were wearing the required swimming-pool diapers (is that why an excessive amount of chlorine is used, to disinfect...).

Bathing being out of the question, we decided to have an early dinner at 19h00. The large restaurant was empty bar for one table. Yet my husband and I were taken to the far end of the restaurant and when we were not sure where we were supposed to sit, the waiter showed us with a nonchalant swipe of the arm "that one or that one". We had the choice of a table hidden behind a pillar or one next to a wall and half hidden by a cupboard. We asked why we had to sit so far and were told the restaurant was 'fully booked' and these were the tables allocated to us. Surely, we could have been given a table closer to the buffet and tables on the other end could have been allocated once there were more people? The menu consisted of : slices of beetroot (beautifully named carpaccio), some soup, carpaccio of beef followed by ... carpaccio of pineapple. We decided to leave and had dinner in the village despite having paid half-board.

We had a small south-side apartment with had a cabin-like bedroom with two single beds foot-end to foot-end. We slept badly because the beds sagged to one side and we had the impression we would fall out of the bed if not careful. Oh, and we paid a little extra for a south-side apartment in order to have a view. Except from our balcony all we could see was 2 large trees and a fraction of a mountain in between.

Breakfast. White defrosted bread, factory croissants, low-cost jams and chocolate-spreads (the stickers indicating the brand had been removed except on one a small piece remained giving it all away), mass-produced eggs (code 02, meaning each chicken has the size of an A-4 sheet of paper to 'run' and never sees daylight during its short life) imported from France. Obviously, Swiss free-range eggs would be too expensive. The coffee was undrinkable, fruit-juice from concentrate. There was not one healthy unsweetened cereal to be found. Idem for yoghurt, canned fruit and muesli presented in large dishes. We mentioned the quality of breakfast to the manager who told us we should have stipulated any dietary requirements when booking our stay! I thought it would have made sense for a spa to provide healthy food as a priority.

We tried the pools again. This time not too many babies but hordes of boisterous adolescents squatting all water jets and bubble baths. Despite the baths being crowded again, there was only one lifeguard present who did his best to discipline the adolescents but with little success. Is one guard for 2 crowded pools really sufficient and safe?

Going back to our room we were welcomed by the sound of concrete being sawn. A room on a lower floor was being renovated. That settled the matter. I went to reception and checked out after having complained - I was told to write to the direction which I will definitely do. The only good thing was that, despite having booked for 5 days, we only had to pay for the night we stayed. And we went to Lavey-les-Bains for the remainder of our holiday - which is where we should have gone from start.

They are constantly expanding Thermalp and adding mor and more studios and as a result the whole place is starting to give the impression of a low-cost holiday complex like there are in southern Europe. When 10 years ago this was a more select kind of place with quality food and service.

We stayed her for 4 nights in august. Our apartment wasn't big, with a small but ok bathroom (shower in the bath, not possible to hang the shower in a way you can stand under it) with the bed filling half the living room and being very old and not too comfortable. Change of linen once a week, we would have liked at least clean towels one extra time.The kitchen was complete, with enough furniture, 4 cooking plates, oven and big fridge. Next to the kitchen, there was a small table with two chairs and a small tv with international channels. The balcony was huge, with a very nice view at the mountains. But, not all apartments have this view! Ours was in building 'les sources', at the back of the complex, 5 minute walk through corridors and with elevators to the main building and pools.
In the main building, there's lots to do with a restaurant, bar (we both didn't try but prices were very ok for Switzerland), souvenirshop, computerterminal (no free wifi around here!) and ofcourse the pool-area. One bath and hottubs inside, two pools with different temperatures and lots of bubbels outside, and great views. Lots of room to change clothes, and nice showers. Can probably get very busy in here, but we had no problems.

In the village there's a COOP, a Migros, a bakery, a few restaurants, and a tourist info (5-10 minute walk). At the back of the village (10-15 minute walk) there's the ground station of the chairlift to the Jurasse, the range you can see from the hotel. It's a cheap ride compared to other spots in Switzerland and there are several short and longer nice walks with great views at clear weather. For the standard walks, no special map other than the free map provided in the hotel and at the ground station is necessary.
For all other activities like nice towns, glaciers, lakes and the more touristspots like Verbier, you will have to drive a while (or take the postbus down), first down the Ovronnaz-hill (lots of curves, that takes about 15-20 minutes).

For us, this place was more than avarage because we stayed here for a semi-lastminute rate (but remember, all accomodation in Switzerland is expensive!), were pleasantly surprised about all facilities, took our own bathrobes, slippers, towels etc. and cooked are own meals to not to make this holiday to expensive and to enjoy cheesefondue or something else with a glass of local wine at our very own private balcony with great views. It's away from the buzz, but we had a few great days in here.