Club Hotel Le Totem

Location is fantastic - adjacent to lifts, ski schools and ski hire. Whizz Kids child care was well run with good staff. Weather and snow were good. Accommodation is typical Alpine 3 star although bed linen was rather threadbare. Unfortunately... Catering was poor with cooked breakfasts cool (temperature that is - grey scrambled eggs and undercooked bacon). Afternoon tea was disorganised - insufficient cups/glasses. Pre selection of evening meals chaotic with changes to menu. Two of our party had upset stomachs. Childrens' food was dreadful. Quality of evening meals was variable but the restaurant organisation improved over the week only to fall flat with the final "gala" dinner - stone cold, undercooked (verging on raw) gigot chop masquerading as osso bucco. Cleanliness left a lot to be desired. The bar (design by NCP) was dominated by a rancid stench eminating from a filthy area below the bar with an open waste pipe partially obscured by black polythene which went all week without remedy. I suspect that later in the season this will be a pretty good choice once the staff have been trained and the management get their act together. It is, however, unacceptable that Crystal are charging premium rates for the Christmas and New Year periods when they clearly do not have adequately trained staff to run a hotel. Despite of everything we did actually have a great week.

After staying at this hotel for the festive season 4 years ago, and experiencing what we believed to be 'teething problems' with the service and quality of food during the Christmas week, we thought they'd have sorted them by now and gave them another chance. Wrong! It appears the staff changes on a seasonal/weekly/daily basis and any continuity of decent service is obviously lost. Some staff did their best to appease customers, but before a day on the slopes began, there were issues with breakfast (only one day with a 'hot' breakfast, the rest being warm, including carrots in beans etc) and after a good day's skiing there were issues with afternoon tea (often in short supply, and 'hot' drinks a bit of a lottery). And then there were the evening meals . . . out of the whole week, only one night in the hotel was anywhere near half decent. Chef's night off (chef 1, 2 or 3?) was also a good night for food. Long delays, food being returned due to poor quality/temperature etc. made an evening meal last up to three hours. Shame the wine didn't last as long. When the Area Manager is cooking (didn't know he was also a qualified chef) for Crystal customers, you know it's worth eating out. . . This hotel has great potential due to its location and access to the slopes, which is why we returned. The Christmas price tag however, is way too high for Crystal guests to be the guinea pigs for the season. It needs to be right from Day One, and requires an effective management team and more experienced staff to lead the way. We all deserve a good Christmas, including Crystal staff at this hotel, and they need to get it right for the whole season.

We stayed for Christmas and suffered the total disorganisation and lack of ability/interest of many staff. Food was atrocious and two of the first three nights after 1 & 1/2 hours waiting we received a stone cold main course and on pointing this out had it replaced with an identically cold one shortly after, causing us to end up abandoning the meal to put our toddler to bed. The second time was Christmas Eve. Twice in a week pourable "Smash" style powdered mashed potato was a main part of the main course. Service in the restaurant was generally abysmal and time you sat down had no bearing on when you might get your various courses, and several times people who had come in for a sitting an hour later got served their main course earlier than those who had come in at 7pm. The only meal I saw the majority of guests enjoy that was served timely was the one most of us took in the restaurant Les Cimes on Boxing day on the "chefs" night off. We never received the advertised coffee after evening meal or the promised four course speciality dinner(which given how bad 3 courses were may strangely have been a benefit) The celebration pack to be in room on arrival finally came from Sunday evening onwards after repeated chasing in dribs and drabs over 3 days. Some celebration! One rep was rude and the others no great help. The staff misinformed many residents as to the time of the Christmas Eve torchlit descent and firework display meaning those with young children were in the childrens meal when the descent occurred and had to leave the meal and rush out only to catch the very end of the fireworks after hearing them going off. Many staff appeared to have given up trying well before the end of our week and staying near the stairwell to their accomodation we were treated to hearing them running up and down swearing during the night regularly during our stay. It appeared there were many under experienced staff treating it as their skiing holiday that was being rudely interrupted by the need to occaisionally give us some service rather than our very expensive Christmas holiday that was being ruined by the poor food and service they were giving. Cleaning was good on some days and poor on others and on packing to leave we found a large french banger in a low level cupboard that a child could easily have found but clearly the staff didn't when cleaning the room before we arrived. The few competent and hardworking members of staff that were there I felt sorry for since they were well aware of the level of overall service customers were experiencing and felt embarassed by it and felt let down themselves by Crystals management. Should you have already booked or be a glutton for punishment and book now be aware that if you pay for "Superior" skis through Crystal in this resort you will be very hard pressed to see any way in which what you are given is different to standard which is at the low end of standard anywhere else. Due to its location and the ski area this hotel, if well run by a company that cared about its customers after they have paid their invoices, could be a very nice hotel to spend a ski holiday at. As it is even Basil Fawlty would have realised by the second day that the food and service was abysmal, and unlike the management I think he might have succeeded in improving it . Even Manuel would have noticed there were two table 52s in one restaurant which was a reason one waitress gave on our second to last night for why we always waited so long for our food. Amazing. We have had six ski holidays with various companies in Italy, Austria and Canada in the past five years and never needed to complain about any of them until now. The brochure account of what the hotel offers and the club hotel experience generally is nothing like what we received at Le Totem.

Having just returned from our Christmas week's skiing holiday I can only hope that this was a one off - oops oh no according to tripadvisor it happened exactly the same time last year!! Obviously Crystal do not want to receive good reviews for the Christmas week at this hotel and only give staff one week to get the whole hotel ready for guests. We were also subject to various chefs during our stay as many left after only a few days eventually leaving us with one that considered Kangaroo pie as a suitable choice on the menu! Food and service was diabolical throughout our stay despite some attempts by middle management to improve things. It would appear that head office are not concerned about standards in this brand named property once customers have paid for their holiday. We spent most nights complaining about the food and the final straw came when our daughter suffered from food poisoning and we were served with mouldy bacon the following morning. Thank goodness the snow was good! Fawlty Towers would have been a luxurious alternative!

On arrival we re-named this hotel from Totem to something rhyming but beginning with Sc! The stay was dreadful only saved by the skiing and the friends we made. Both myself and my partner were ill, we never had a hot or warm meal until we went out on Chef`s night off. I have just looked on Crystals web-site and discovered we should have recieved a four course meal on one of the evenings ( lucky escape! this could have meant waiting 3 hours between courses instead of our average 2 and a half! ). We don`t blame the staff as they were inexperienced with no training and certain ones ( Chris ) went out of their way to try to rectify problems. We had 3 chefs in our 1 week stay which does not give consistency. All in all we had a dreadful stay, no Christmas! no hot meals, and a Manager who agreed with everything we complained about. We will not book with Crystal again and go back to our usual reliable Esprit.

I was there for the same shambolic xmas week and had the same experience, poor management had let everyone down and although the young gap year staff tried hard, without any training and leadership they floundered, if youre thinking of going to this hotel in the near future dont as it wont get better this season, how can you run a ski company in this way and get away with it, if youre thinking of other crystal hotels be warned that the catering is bought in en masse on contract and you will have the same type of food as we did, good job the skiiing was good, Pierre @ vacances do good apartments - look up their website and go there instead!

My family and I have just spent Christmas Week on our fourth Crystal Club Hotel Ski Holiday - it will be our last!! The hotel is ideally located and the skiing was excellent as was the local ESI Ski School. The good news ends there. Although we are full of praise for all the staff who were at the hotel, from the Reps to Alex the Maintenence Officer, the whole hotel experience was dire. Crystal once again put in unexperienced staff into the firing line with a hotel of 250 customers for the first time on Christmas Week. The manager left three days before opening and after the first night of trying to feed guests, the new manager took over as chef!! The staff were left with little direction and the hotel customers were mere guinea pigs being led by headless chickens. The principle complaint is the restaurant with mediocre food served on a chaotic basis, seemingly devoid of any system. Christmas also failed to make its way to Le Totem with the usual Club Hotel touches missing. The room, although a good size, had non-working lights and tepid heating which could not be turned up! The whole experience was like being in a Youth Hostel (which we like - but not at this price!) with bad school dinners. It was a pleasure to eat out when the kitchen staff had their night off. My sympathy lies with the staff who are still there (some have already left!) who are trying their best working very long hours to make it work, with little time off and seeming little support from Crystal.

Before I set off for this Hotel I was very concerned by the reviews I saw on tripadvisor regarding the poor standard of food etc. Happily in my view it was all wrong. There was a full selection everytime breakfast with no limits on portion size and it was hot. The evening meals were very well presented and well cooked and service fine. People could have extra bread but you have to ask which I do not find a terrible hardship. I can understand why some people (maybe larger people) may have classed the main course portion size as small but personaly I rarley eat a 3 course meal every night and when you combine the 3 courses I think they were correctly sized within the overall meal. The Hotel does, as Flaine itself does suffer from it's general appearance but as most people say you either love it or hate it. I was surprised when I first arrived but found I soon accepted it and the ski area and convinience easily compensates. As a parent if you have experianced transporting children and equipment to ski schools etc. then you will appricate this and on this point the Hotel is hard to beat. Overall it was totally in line with what I expected from a 3 start hotel and I travel a fair bit. I think that they may have had a temporary kitchen issue when other reviewers visited or they have different expectations. I would happliy return...

Ideally located close to the lifts. Skiing area great. The rooms were as expected for a ski hotel - basic! The rooms are usually clean though I think the staff here were in such a rush to get out onto the slopes they neglected to remove previous occupants belongings, forgot to empty the bins, oh yeah and didn't clean the bathroom - we did have clean sheets and towels on the first day of our stay though. In general the staff were OK but you definately got the impression they didn't care. (Unless that is they thought you might tip them, and why should you tip when you feel ripped off already?) The food was diabolical. Not once in the week was there a full selection for breakfast hot or cold. We varied our time of arrival to breakfast to see if this would help. It didn't - Continental breakfast without bread or Croissants? Full cooked English breakfast with either bacon or egg never both together and never cooked in an appetising manner. Oh and don't forget the tepid stewed coffee! Starter one night consisted of 1/4 of a small tomato with a teaspoon of mozarella. Another night soup was served barely luke warm in a coffee cup. Raw frogs legs? Well I like my beef rare but not my frogs legs. The duck was burnt when I specifically asked for it pink. The lack of bread was such a feature we, and several other groups, resorted to bringing our own into dinner. I shall not comment on the desserts only to say we never actually got what we ordered because the chef had run out, every night it seemed we were doomed to have a substitute Chocolate mousse!!! Despite complaints to various staff and managers no attempt to improve was made through the week. Top tips Crystal: 1. people come to spend a full day exerting themselves on the mountain - send them out with a decent breakfast and feed them well when they return and they might even return the following year! 2. fresh towels for a bath following a day of exercise is not at all unreasonable in this day and age 3. The customer is generally right - it really does pay to listen AND react accordingly

We have gone skiing most years for the last 19 years to France, Austria and USA. We stayed in one better but more expensive hotel, (because it had an excellent leisure complex) but Le Totem was easily the best value for money ever. Never before in a club -hotel of this sort of standard have we had such good quality food, and such choice. The hotel itself has an superb location and is a neat example of classic good design. Ski lockers way above average, bar bigger than most, 2 pool tables, lovely terrace - it has it all. The staff were friendly, polite and efficient. Some of the other reviews below of this hotel are just WAY OFF and totally unfair to the hotel management and staff. The staff are not laid back - they were attentive, polite and well trained. The food is great in terms of choice, and quality. In terms of quantity breakfasts (cooked) were as big as you wanted, and dinner was normal sized portions, but you could have side orders if still hungry. Some people in reviews have complained about kids not being disciplined and running about. HELLO! its a ski holiday hotel, not a geriatric home in Bournemouth. If you want to escape kids (sad or what?) dont go on a ski holiday mate. My kids ran about the hotel, played on the excellent facilities provided for them inside and outside the hotel and had a whale of a time. I wasnt about to discipline them for that! As regards afernoon tea - they stopped supplying buns after an hour...is that not OK? Some peoples reviews as regards this hotel take me to the fair. Take your family to this hotel WITHOUT HESITATION! Its great!