Club Med Arcs Panorama - French Alps — Hotel in Albertville

Stranded in france away from my kids and no response form Club med management and no ability to speak to anyone other than the reception who say it is not their responsibility and no one I can speak to. Here is a summary of events: Due to be going home Sunday 26th March on Saturday 25th march I enquire at reception desk about transfer - they say they can see my package includes a transfer but it is not booked. they say come back in an hour and they will book return later and told pick up will be at 12.45 for my 6.25 fight from Lyon on sunday I arrive for pick up a little early no one comes at expected time I keep asking club med reception and they say wait when 1 hour late: I ask to speak to manager - told there is no manager they can contact I ask if they can call transfer company repeatedly and keep being will be a few min when 90min late: again keep being told there is no one I can speak to other than reception staff I inform them it is not possible to make Lyon flight and there are no more flights from lyon so can they transfer to Geneva and book a flight from there: told they can not do this and only the transfers team can - but I can not speak to them told only option is going to lyon and if I miss my flight then to talk to club med desk at the airport (assured that such a desk exists - but it does not) Pick up arrives 2 hours late: We tell desk that cant make flight so no point going - they call transfer team and tell us no - we must leave and go to Lyon - we were essentially checked out into the snow The pick up is parked 300m away and have to carry all luggae there: They say they could not get car up hill in the snow, but all other cars and buses are fine going up I can see out transport has no snow chains and it looks to me like the wrong tyres to handle snow During the walk I fell once and one other person in same situation fell twice Arrive at Lyon and hours too late for flight no club med desk at Lyon there is an independent contractor who says he was told we may be on an easy jet flight not a BA flight and realises he can not help us the independent contractor keeps calling club med but we can not speak to anyone: told either we find our own accommodation and make own way home or they take us back to club med and get informed from there what flights we can have - we opt for option 2 as in a foreign country with a lot of luggage Taken to a different club med We are on their system for a room for 1 might BUT they have no info on what has happened or any information on what will happen from here told their responsibility if just giving us accommodation for 1 night and it is a central club med agency who will handle all else but they have no info and we can not contact them told only option is to wait for next morning The next morning I ask reception and again no one knows about the situation and told I just have to wait until I get an email update I have no clean cloths I am away from my 2 very young children and have to organise emergency child care but have no plan on when I will get back so hard to plan I can not work and can not even give my work a plan of when I will get back as no transparency over updates

This situation is ridiculous and to provide no transparency over what to even expect is...

Visited this resort as a group of 2 families with young children aged 3 and 6.

Arrival Easy check in even when we arrived slightly earlier than usual. Our rooms were allocated and the staff gave us our bracelets which allowed us to access the room. A welcome drink and quick introduction of the resort was also given.

Food & drink No shortage of f&b here. Breakfast starts from 7am - 10am, lunch from 12-2 and dinner from 645pm. In between are midday apres ski, snack times and aperitifs at the bar. Premium alcohol is chargeable. Resort is cashless so any spend is charged to your account and settled at the end of the stay. Highlights of f&b include: oysters, tartiflette, scallop starter. Unlimited cheeses and bread, high quality ice cream . Vegan option is available. Fish dishes were generally acceptable but not great. Inconsistent standard of cooking for the meats.

Other than the buffet restaurant, there is an ala carte restaurant at level 11. Reservations are necessary for dinner and I recommend the cheese fondue.

Ski program Instruction was provided by ESF. High quality. Both kids improved their skiing. Resort is ski in ski out. Lift passes included in club med stay. Ski rentals need to be arranged either through club med or 3rd party vendor. Possible to rent and pick up from 1600 but the town is not within walking distance from club med. Children will participate in a ski graduation ceremony at the end of the week.

Kids club My 3 year old enjoyed the petite clubmed and have been asking to go back after returning from our holiday. The teachers know him by name and he loves them. Petite clubmed is chargeable and does not include ski lessons. We topped up for ski lessons at €190 for the week. Ski gear is included. For mini club, ski lessons are included in the morning and afternoon. Child has option to skip ski lessons and stay indoors to play. No naptime for mini club. There is a performance that the children will practise for at the end of the week.

Other activities there is a waddling pool which was great. Parents can supervise from the side without needing to enter the pool. yoga/TRX class. Location was wrong on the app so class started late. What we thought would be a 45 min class was only 25 minutes long and instructor seemed a bit flustered. there were quizzes / shows running throughout the day. Shows tend to start after 8 which was late for our toddler. We kept him up for the magic show on Monday and he enjoyed it. every morning there was a mascot welcoming / saying bye outside the breakfast restaurant. The kids enjoyed this.

Nearby We visited the villages of 1600, 1800 and bourg saint Maurice (via the funicular, €5 roundtrip). Recommend bsm if you have some...

This is my first winter holiday at a ski resort and I anticipated it very much before our arrival given the price we've paid and all that was included in our holiday package. However, this hotel turns out to be quite a disappointment for a good number of reasons.

Cleanliness at the canteen and the quality of the food. My partner got sick to an extent that he could only stay in the bathroom because he was vomiting for 5 hours in a row. Our friend got food poisoning even twice here, last year as well as this year. Based on other people's feedback this situation is pretty frequent and people constantly get sick, yet sadly this is not actioned upon by the hotel's management to fix the situation. I could barely find a clean cup to make tea. The majority of them are very dirty with coffee stains. The same applies to dishes and glasses. When my partner could barely breathe because of being so sick at night, he went to the reception to ask for at least some basic medication to relieve his sufferings. But there was no emergency kit at the reception at all which means that if something happens outside of the nurses's working hours, first aid can't be delivered. Fitness and yoga classes. The classes do not have a clear structure and flow, they are very short and made for beginners who have never done a workout in their life. What's more, I know for the record that some instructors are beginners themselves having gotten some online instructor certification a week or so before getting down to running classes at the hotel. Other friends of mine got an awfully smelling room upon arrival at the hotel. It smelled literally like sewage which made it impossible to stay in such a room. They were denied their request to change the room, and the only solution the hotel offered was to send hotel staff with some air spray to spray it in the bathroom where the nasty smell was stemming from which, obviously, didn't resolve the issue.

Not to be too grim, I must admit the rooms were cleaned every day which is good. The staff is always friendly and ready to help (on one condition though, if they speak English which is not always the case).

I do hope my comments which are fair and absolutely unbiased will be taken on board by the hotel's management and things will start getting better. At the end of the day, we are coming to your hotel to enjoy our holidays, relax and have fun, but instead of that we have to deal with a handful of unpleasant situations that not only ruin our holiday plans but also leave us wondering what we paid our money...