Grand Hotel Paradiso — Hotel in Comunità montana della valle Camonica

From the moment we stepped inside the hotel on December 16th until the day we left on the 23rd there were problems.

Now some of these issues can be pointed towards TUI and Crystal; such as them not informing the family about the hotels lack of accessibility for those in the wedding party that had additional needs etc (however I’m shocked at the hotels lack of understanding about disability and additional needs, the lift for example had to be asked each time for the door to be opened by staff before those who needed it could use it. The hotel advertises itself as ‘family friendly’ and yet they do not like pushchairs being used and seem to not understand that a lift is needed in order to get two young children in the pram up to the restaurant).

Staff were mostly friendly and smiling. The bar staff in particular were great with me. However, there was a general vibe given by some of the staff that made the wedding party in general and other guests that week feel unwelcome.

I have worked in the service industry for years, I can completely understand the hard work that goes into planning and managing a big party (20 of us) and how tiring that can be for staff. I tried my best to make sure the bar and other areas were tidied up after ourselves as did others in the party, I tried to make sure the staff weren’t having to do too much, however I constantly felt like we were a huge annoyance to them.

As for the rooms, they are not 5* quality unless you get put in the “nicer” part of building, our room had damp and the looks of black mould growing in the corner. The rooms were stuffy and very basic. That being said, the cleaning staff were very lovely, the room was cleaned well each day, bed made lovely and given fresh clean towels.

Whilst the food wasn’t awful, it also wasn’t great. The restaurant itself had all the tables squished together, meaning you constantly had other guests trying to squeeze past your chair and table, knocking things over and generally making dinner uncomfortable.

The free wines and drinks for the table was great, and some of the restaurant staff great whilst other quite rude.

The food most days however, was served cold, even if you arrived dead on 7pm when the doors opened. The options for vegetarians was awful and unfortunately had Parmesan in most of it, making it no longer veggie due to the rennet. The salad bar was not labelled and fish was left out in the warm air. The desert section was not labelled either.

I would not recommend this hotel for a party bigger than 5. They seem incapable of understanding simple requests- asking for 3 champagne flutes to be allowed in the brides room on the day of her wedding whilst she is getting ready for her big day, using the champagne they had bought from the hotel is not a ‘bizarre’ request. Nor at any time did guests ask to have a picnic in their room. They asked for some pastries to be sent up from the breakfast bar as one of the guests was too ill to leave her room.

Also I overheard a guest request that some food in the evening be sent up to her friend’s room after she had broken her arm on the slope and was resting in bed dosed up. The staff refused and seem confused someone would ask that? A five star hotel doesn’t understand that room service might sometimes be needed? At a ski resort where people hurt themselves all the time?

Frankly I would not come back here to ever stay again. The ski resort itself is wonderful, the ski instructor and school we went with was amazing, the mountains and scenery utterly breathtaking. The hotel however is definitely not 5 stars. This...

In my second week at the Grand Hotel Paradiso, I aim to provide constructive feedback rather than criticism. While my experience was not without its merits, it fell short of the standards set during my stay last year.

Despite the hotel's official 5-star rating, the service and overall experience did not align with such a distinction and the overall consensus of our party was that the standard had noticeably dropped. The dining area lacked a restaurant ambiance, resembling a bustling canteen. Our party often found fewer wine glasses and chairs than needed, requiring us to request more, on one occasion a member of staff rolled their eyes and questioned our request, asking ‘have you had 12 all week?’’. However some members of staff were efficient in clearing plates whilst displaying courtesy and kindness throughout

The disproportionate replacement key costs at €25 for a boot locker key and €10 for a room key, seemed arbitrary and took advantage of the likelihood of losing a boot key over a room key.

The spa, priced at €15 a day or €50 a week, offered amenities marred by a relaxed enforcement of rules in the so called "relaxation suite’’ although the complimentary tea was a small consolation, the limited opening times (2pm - 8:30pm) seemed impractical for guests not skiing daily or those with injuries. Additionally, three members of our party opted to use the spa on a day rate, and were disappointed to see that the sauna and steam room was not turned on upon their arrival whereby they had to ask the staff to turn it on and the response was ‘’sorry we forgot’’

In the room, the provision of English breakfast tea without milk led to an additional charge at reception of a €1 for half a cup which in reality only fills one cup of tea. Dustiness within the room, a leaking shower, and non-functional lightbulbs detracted further from a 5-star like hotel. Unlike the previous year, water bottles and shower gel were not replenished, contributing to an overall subpar experience. Conversely the cleaning staff maintained tidy rooms with neatly made beds and towels replaced promptly.

Furthermore, room allocation and boot/ski lockers seemed inconsistent, with our party of five rooms, receiving varied accommodations, some with balconies and some without, and the boot locker sizes were vastly different. With a room of three had a incredibly small locker where as a room of two had a large locker

The dominance of Crystal TUI clientele raised questions about the hotel's exclusivity. However, despite these concerns, the resort itself and the slopes are perfect for beginners and intermediates. The abundance of restaurants and bars added to the overall enjoyment of the resort.

Overall, whilst we had a fantastic week in the resort and enjoyed the fantastic slopes, the Grand Hotel Paradiso fell short of the previously rooted...

Stayed here for a week from 27 Jan 2018. We have stayed in the area before, but not with Crystal. The hotel itself is good...as long as you do not expect 5* like the Savoy, or any such similar city 5* hotel. Overall, probably more like an Italian Holiday inn built for italians. It also carries quite a number of odd rules which do not really suit the idea of customer service (e.g. paying for mineral water for children's dinners, the swim caps, flip flops, no ski gear in the bar etc). Staff are helpful and polite. The bedrooms are far too hot. Ours only dropped below 24C if we had the window open, which we had to have the whole time. The best way to describe the food would be as wide choice of really nice canteen fodder. The breakfast coffee really is a sin given this is Italy and the stuff from the bar is so much better.

We booked early, so were told we would get hotel credit for each paying guest. It transpires this did not mean fully paying children, so we got less. This could also not be used for the spa, meaning we would have to pay extra. It could also not be used for ski hire, even though this generated receipts with the hotel's name on them. When we raised this with the reps, we were shown fine print on an ipad in a "Computer says NO" scenario.

We feel that the Crystal Holidays descriptions were such as to purposefully deceive you as to what to expect and what would be included. The blonde hostess on the Manchester-Verona flight TOM2628 on 27 Jan holds the dubious honour of possibly the least helpful and rudest ever (and I have flown my share of Ryanair and eastern European airlines!). She labelled my 4 -year old a fire hazard because he wanted to spend 2 minutes looking out of an empty seat window mid-flight, stating that "he would get in the way if we needed to evacuate the plane", and oddly enough when I asked if that meant she thought he should be left on a burning plane, justifying it with an inane grin and "that's our policy".

The resort reps are personable and available many hours. If any issues arise, they are very efficient at whipping out the ipads and finding fine print with which to silence you rather than smooth issues. The childcare guys are really good - our kids did not want to spend time with us. There seems to be little comms between the reps and kids' ski school, so ours could not really tell us what the kids had done or even where they would be the next day if we wanted to see them.

Overall, Neilson provide far better customer service, do not try to deceive customers and actually seem to react to feedback. Crystal seem to have hidden detail in fine print and tailored all supposed extras (like hotel credit for early booking) so that it is as difficult to claim it as possible. We were happy with the hotel, but deeply disappointed with all things Crystal/TUI...