GSI by Foncia - Agence de Méribel Mottaret — Hotel in Albertville

Let me start by saying that I’ve traveled extensively around the world and have snowboarded on most continents, so I speak from a place of experience. We booked accommodation directly in Les 3 Vallées, not realizing it was managed by an agency called GSI in Méribel Mottaret. In all my travels, this has been the worst rental agency I have ever dealt with. The experience was absolutely terrible. Their customer service is non-existent, and the entire operation seems geared toward squeezing as much money as possible from tourists with minimal effort or accountability. But even that isn’t the worst part. From the start, we dealt with a young man at the front office who was rude, unhelpful, and—when he couldn’t answer basic questions—became aggressive and threatening. I don’t have the time to list every instance of his unprofessional behavior, so I’ll focus on just one incident that illustrates the kind of tactics they use: Upon check-in, we were told a €500 deposit was required. We agreed to a credit card hold, and I thought that was the end of it. The next day, I received an email from the same staff member stating he had accidentally charged the amount instead of placing a hold, and that he needed my bank account details to issue a refund. I was confused and emailed back, suggesting he simply cancel the charge and redo the transaction correctly as a hold. Instead, he repeated his request for my account information. Assuming he meant my credit card, I replied that I would stop by in person the next day to provide it. When I visited the office, I was shocked to find that he was actually demanding my checking account information to process a refund. I immediately refused and told him he should reverse the charge and process the hold correctly using the card—exactly as we’d originally agreed. At this point, he started yelling, insisting that a refund was impossible. I calmly reminded him that the mistake was his, and that of course a business could issue refunds for erroneous transactions. He then became aggressive and threatening, saying we would not get our deposit back unless we provided our bank details. Feeling intimidated, we left the office. We left France without our deposit being returned. I initially assumed it would come through in a few days, but after two weeks with no refund, I emailed twice—both messages were ignored. In the end, I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company to get my money back. And that’s just one example of what it was like dealing with this agency. To make matters worse, the apartment was dirty, in poor condition, and clearly not maintained. Their office smelled like an old gym bag, and frankly, I don’t understand how they continue operating this way. TRAVELERS: AVOID THIS AGENCY AT ALL COSTS. APARTMENT OWNERS: Do not entrust your property to them. They are unprofessional, dishonest, and just out to...

Location is superb. We had a little difficulty with the booking in the beginning (wanted to push our booking into another building) but was able to square it out. Also, sold parking for us for ~$100 in a garage when we find out later street parking was free front of the building. Advertised dishwasher was not in the unit, washing/drying machine was super small, and the dryer function is almost useless. The accommodation was decent, nice log cabin vibe, great views, cozy. However, the automated heating system was a nightmare making a restful sleep almost impossible. Despite turning the radiator off, it still turned on automatically waking up everybody in the middle of the night because of the heat. This fluctuation of cool and extreme hot temperatures at night got all of us sick (night sweat and then cold is not the best combination). Other than that, the proximity to the slopes, bars, and restaurants, the ease of access, the extra ski lockers, the huge balcony, elevator, and the great community in the building made the...

Together with a group of friends we booked through this agency. The location of our apartment was great. However.. after travelling many hours we expected a clean apartment with the usual facilities such as washing up liquid, toilet paper and wifi. First of all providing this requires very little effort and gives a good first impression. Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite. We arrived at a dirty apartment with beds and sheets covered in hair. Even the bathroom sink and floor were covered, which can be seen in the pictures. As it was so dirty we ended up having to clean the apartment ourselves. We also had to do our own beds, which isn't a big issue. However, providing this would have gone a long way. On the last day we cleaned the apartment and left it in a much better state than how we received it. Despite this, we were charged for cleaning services. Quite frankly, any small tasks or service that could've been provided was lacking. Which is why I...