Hotel Lion Noir — Hotel in Gressan

In Summary||The Lion Noir could be a solid 3 star hotel. Unfortunately, our visit left much to be desired.||Spa Facilities||Accessed only via the boot room, the pool is large but tepid and somewhat chemically. The spa, in turn, is reached via an unwelcoming door from the pool area.||As others have noted, there is a new daily €10 surcharge to use the spa (not detailed at the time of booking). No robes or slippers are provided. A single towel is left for you near the sauna. On occasion our towels appeared to have been used. Hit-and-miss whether all the facilities were working.||A male staff-member skulked around to catch those unaware of the €10 charge. Note to spa-patrol: having an argument with a guest whilst holding the sauna door open and letting all the heat out is a bad idea.||The pool is free but there is an additional charge for towels.||Both spa and pool are closed 2 days out of 7 (not detailed at the time of booking). Guests were seen roaming the corridors in t-shirts and swimsuits when the pool was closed.||On the plus side, the facilities were largely empty.||Access||Ski-in, ski-out was not only poor but dangerous: glistening, uneven ice along a narrow track, easy to miss from the piste. No snow had been shovelled, nor ice broken up, to improve safety.||The driveway down from reception was so treacherous (black ice on tarmac) that guests were asked to come and go via the garage. Sadly, the road from the garage was little better. No effort had been made to improve the safety of either route.||Don’t expect air-heated boot racks; boots are stored in little metal cubby-holes. That said, they were almost dry by morning. You could check on them on your way to the pool.||Dinner||The hotel caters for large parties. During our stay, tables were arranged to suit a single group of 40. Noise levels were problematic, especially with group-cheers encouraged by staff.||To be fair, our food arrived in reasonable time. The wait-staff were friendly and efficient, but the maître d' did little to hide his disdain when we ordered water, rather than wine.||Meals were just the right side of bland. I enjoyed the buffet, but was likely in the minority. There is a daily charge for bottled tap water.||Breakfast||Two, slow coffee machines dispensed awful coffee and created a bottleneck into the dining area. To avoid the worst of the mêlée, guests resorted to queuing ten minutes before breakfast started.||Bad planning is one thing. Bad coffee in Italy is, surely, inexcusable.||Rooms||Rooms were a good size and clean. Reasonable hanging space. Beds rather small. Sheets rather thin. You have to use a special, fiddly, key to activate the room’s electricity. Patchy Wifi consisted of several overlapping, fragile networks which required...

Extremely basic accommodation, urgently in need of a revamp. Bed linen is obviously in short supply as we had a duvet cover for the first three days but when the beds were changed, there was only a sheet separating us from a rather grey looking duvet and the pillow cases were thin to the point of threadbare. The central heating was not working properly in our room, to the extent that it was off when we returned from the pieste & freezing in the morning when we woke. Despite bringing the matter to the attention of the reception staff on 4 occasions, nothing was done about it. The hotel boasts an indoor pool, which is warm and free to access, but you need to buy a cap & pay for a towel. Likewise there's a small spa, which is the only modern feature of the hotel, but it can only usefully fit a few people at a time, and it costs €20 per person, per day to use. Not something that's highlighted on booking. As for the food, whilst plentiful, it often involved bizarre combinations not exactly inviting or palatable and certainly not very Italian or worthy of note. It served to keep body and soul together, nothing more, some courses being difficult to eat, at least to me. The dining room is gloomy and rather depressing. It could so easily be spruced up to make it a welcoming venue. We did not enjoy being hurried through our meals, and it is never relaxing to have the plates of your fellow diners whipped away whilst you are still eating. The choice at breakfast was good, if continental style fare or a bolied egg is what you want before a full day on the slopes. That said, the waiting and bar staff were efficient and pleasant and did their best to look after us. The other positive is the location, which affords easy access to the lifts. Pila has a good micro climate, and the piestes are very well maintained. We would ski here again as the runs are long with a degree of challenge, but unless and until there is a decent hotel with good food and modern, comfortable accommodation, we...

don't normally write negative reviews, but on balance, it was a 2/5.||location is ok, but it's not really ski in , ski out. Yes, there is a narrow, very icy path from one of the red pistes, but we felt unable to use it. Given how icy it was, hotel management could have broken up the ice and shovelled some fresh snow at the start, by the piste - but they didnt.||food was a bit hit and miss. I go to Italy every year and stay in similar hotels, so I don't have unrealistic expectations. Breakfast was the wrong side of basic, just one type of roll, very limited hot food, dreadful coffee from poorly located coffee machines. Bad coffee in Italy? yes, it turns out that it is possible. Dinner was variable. some nights were disappointing, others ok. ||staff don't speak a lot of english||but the biggest bugbear was the Sauna. When we booked it (back in August) there was no mention of a charge to use the Sauna, nor was it mentioned on the hotel website. But when we got there, it was 10 euro a go and the Sauna was shut 2 days a week. The hotel didn't charge last season so this was a new development. Yes, I understand that it costs a lot of money to fire up the Sauna and it not to be used, but where we went last year, they simply asked you to book it - no charge, and open 7 days a week. I've been to Italy every year for the last 10 years (except 2021) and never been asked to pay for a sauna. AND there was one tour operator who had cut a side deal with the hotel and their clients didn't have to pay. ||so, overall it's a 2/5. check out my previous reviews of Italian ski hotels, usually they're 4 or 5 rated, (apart from a dreadful place in Passo Tonale) so it's not just a miserable whinger writing their...