Petit Palais Hotel

3 readers found this review helpful

I have just returned from our skiing holiday and stayed at he Petit Palais Hotel and the staff were young but nice , pleasant, always smiling and adding to a good atmosphere. Apart from perhaps the first night where the food was not great the rest of the evening meals were good and free wine was local. It was little noisy but if you ski like us the full 8 hours without stop , we were asleep by 9.30 so have not found it a problem. Rooms were cleaned every day and towels changed on Wednesday. Unusual not to have a safe. Eating out in town may be expensive but the supermarket was close and their excellent choice of local cheeses and cured hams made a nice change to expensive dinner out. It is very close to the main gondola so you can be on the slopes at 8.30. Afternoon tea was pleasant and always enough cups and cakes for the late arrivals like us. Only the last dinner was little disappointing as they made us wait for 35 minutes for our desert claiming our check got lost but over all the level of service was always good. Manager Miriam was very nice and the reception staff very helpful even when I forgot my goggles he went up to our room quickly with a smile which saved me great deal of time getting out of my gear. The ski room was on the small size to accommodate so many people and the boot storage is not heated so it is good idea to take the lines out of your boots as the radiator in the room is big enough to dry them out overnight.
If you are after the Italian authenticity this is very English hotel so perhaps go to Furgen which is on the slopes but Petit Palais was very convenient location, friendly, no fuss and I will return there next year.

7 readers found this review helpful

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 H&S 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.

2 readers found this review helpful

The Petit Palais is run by incompetant students the level of service is that expected of a youth hostel, I have stayed in hotels in third world countries with better service/food. People complain because of one thing the service is not as expected , your week was probably worse since rumour had it they got rid of the Manager and the Chef the week before. There were about a dozen letters of complaint the week I was there and I am sure many people will write in afterwards.
Better to complain and get a better service then to sit there with a stiff upper lip and take the rubbish that some people call service.... Looking forward to my next Ski holiday in Canada where service really is service

3 readers found this review helpful

I, like others had read some bad reviews about the Petit Palais Hotel and the staff. How wrong these reviews were! The hotel is situated perfectly, right next to the cable car. The rooms are cleaned everyday with fresh towels on Wednesdays and are a good size for one week’s holiday. The food was good. There is plenty to eat at breakfast, yummy cakes in the afternoon and a lovely 3 course meal in the evening (which you choose at breakfast). The Christmas dinner was one of the best I've had outside my own home. The Crystal staff are youngish but that didn’t stop them being cheerful, polite, helpful and hard working. If it hadn't been for them I would have had a terrible holiday. You see it was the other holiday makers or should I say moan makers that brought my holiday down! I've never come across such arrogant, pompous, conceited, pretentious, self-centred, self-important and supercilious people in my life (I feel better for getting that off my chest!). They moaned about anything and everything and they should feel completely ashamed of themselves. The staff are paid a very low wage, work long hours, live in small quarters and don’t even eat the same food as we are served. Their only perk is the skiing which many didn’t have the chance to do as they were working extra hours to keep those awful moan makers happy (although this was never achieved!). It was so obvious that they were angling for some money back (or a free holiday!). I would, without hesitation, recommend this accommodation. Just steer clear from moan makers because you might get dragged down to their level!
Nikki Murphy

Noisy hotel. We were evacuated one night at 3am as somebody did something to the fire extinguisher.
Unfortunately this was the only hotel we could get in for our big group, 15 of us, we understood why. People shouting and screaming at 1-2am at corridors. It doesn't help with the bars opening until late with visitors from other hotels.
We have been skiing in Italy for 10 years, and this is one of the worst place that we've been. Rooms are very small. Food served is very basic, limited and uninviting.
We like Cervinia but not this hotel!

Rauris is a very pretty little village and is kept very clean and tidy. There are four or five bars which we found to be quiet except for the last night. Restaurants were reported to be good by some doing b & b and cost around 12 - 15 euros for a meal. The bar staff were very friendly. The Alpenrose Gastof is a 12 bedroom guesthouse run by a friendly family and staff who can't do enough for you, it's like staying in a family home. The rooms are clean, fresh towels each day. The food was good, plenty of salads, four courses for evening meal, breakfast was plenty of cereal, boiled eggs, fruit juice, rolls, jam etc. What I liked about Rauris was the lack of lager louts so it may be too boring for those under 25... The gondola was a 10 - 15 min walk from Alpenrose, depending on whether its downhill in the morning with your ski boots on or on the way back! Neilson customers can leave their skis in the ski shop by the gondola station. I found the runs limited for an intermediate, 2 lovely long red runs and quite a few interesting good blues, close to reds as a standard but we got a bit bored with it by Wednesday, but to make up for it Neil the rep arranged a trip to the glacier at Kaprun on the Friday, fantasticly large area - like skiing on icing sugar. Overall Rauris is for families and beginners and low intermediates. The area does not link up to others with the lift pass.

Having stayed in Italian owned & run hotels for the 2 years prior to staying at the Petit Palais, I would give the following advice. If you like being in a 'Brit environment' with many of the staff appearing to be gap year students who can best be described as enthusiastic amateurs, then this is the hotel for you. If, alternatively, you prefer to enjoy great local Italian food, then pick a hotel such as the Chalet des Alpes in Pila or the Relais des Alpes in Sauze ( we heard the food was VG at the hotel Breuil).
The location is great, the resort is great - nice & compact, excellent for intermediates. The hotel staff were largely very friendly and pleasant (altho 1 waitress was rather 'jobsworth' and downright rude)...... but rather amateurish. The food was mediocre to ok - Italian hotels provide better food & a wider range at same/less cost. It wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to improve things eg. provide real coffee and not a dish of nescafe instant coffee powder (altho the day the new MD of Crystal came to meet customers for feedback the nescafe mysteriously disappeared!). One evening the chicken was so tough as to be inedible.
The bar area is very pleasant with helpful staff. The Crystal rep (Yvette) covering the hotel was great and organised a good days skiing on the Zermatt side. (Crystal: give her a raise!)
The rooms: rather small, lack of storage and a bit basic for the accomodation standard to which PP aspires. Towels - a BIG problem: never changed. Even if left in a pile outside the bathroom and just inside the door, the staff pick them up and throw them over the radiator (yes, throw as opposed to fold). When questioned, the manager insisted that 1 set of towels was sufficient for the week - rediculous when on a physical activity holiday and showering a couple of times a day!
Getting your skies: convenient as v close to the hotel but scheduled to occur after the Welcome meeting and before dinner - ie. everyone goes at the same time and the line strechs out the door. Worrying, the guy doing the boots & bindings was clearly stressed and couldn't cope with the rush: one of our party was sent off with different size boots and ski bindings which when checked at an alternative rental place were described as 'dangerous! Could be greatly improved with a little thought & planning.
Summary: Great resort, great location, hotel 'needs improvement'. Third consecutive year with Crystal in Italy: Year 1 & 2 excellent, based on year 3 unlikely to go with them again.