Club Med Saint-Moritz - Swiss Alps — Hotel in Sankt Moritz

My family had a week of ski vacation at this Club Med during the high season in early March. The experiences weren’t safisfying , this review is long but I tried to organize them in four parts. My family have been Club Med members for more than 10 years. This was the first time we visited Club Med in Europe. We already lowered our expectations before our arrival, but still the impact was huge. Since it's the high season, all guests can only check-in and check-out on Sunday for a whole week stay, meaning Sunday afternoon would be a bit chaotic. We arrived earlier than 15:00 so the situation wasn’t too bad. However, instructions were not clear, and we had to find out so many things by ourselves (the official opening speech by the Chef was at night). And due to this restriction of Sunday check-in check-out, all the ski classes were also restricted within a whole week structure, problems mentioned below. The ski school was outsourced to a local company, not like Japan CM, where all the ski coaches are also G.O.s and stay in the village. The problem however is the same, not enough coaches for many guests. And this is worse when all the guests start the lesson at the same time. All ski guests go to group class on Monday morning and it’s critical to survive after Monday. Since the ski school wanted to arrange guests to different ski areas of St. Moritz (which is a thoughtful approach for guests with big hearts) such as Corviglia, Corvatch, Diavolezza and Sia all in 5 days (up level 3) . On Monday there were hardly any instructions of ski skills above level 3 (not mentioning one coach to 10 more guests) , it was like a test, to see if you are qualified to go to other areas in the following days. Because this is not a ski-in ski-out village, if you do not join the ski class, then you can only take a bus (3 CHF each time) to Corvatsch. The Signalbahn for Corviglia area is also not just 3 minutes walk distance like the hotel said, 8 minutes with the ski on is minimum and on Monday it took the whole group 15 minutes to get there. Moreover, it’s difficult to quit the class in the middle of the day. Because if you are not good enough to ski all the way back from Corviglia Club Med , you’re tired or you are taken to Corvatsch, you have to find transportation (bus or taxi) back to Hotel by yourselves or wait on the mountain until others finish their courses. My family members are at different levels and one of them made it with 5 days courses and was exhausted. I strongly suggest taking some CHF at hand, in case you need to go back to the hotel earlier than the group. Food and drink are not especially good and can not be mentioned as gourmet. But for skiers coming back and just want to relax, the bar and the restaurants’ buffet are good enough. We saw the same people working in the restaurant almost everyday from breakfast to dinner. They are definitely the most hard working ones in this village. 4.We always thought ski with Club Med is the easiest and most valuable way. However, the most unbearable thing of my stay was the hotel service. Hotel is old, but as long as it’s well functioned and kept clean. I can live with it. The hairdryer in the room was old style fixed on the wall. But once you hold it more than 5 minutes, it becomes super hot and we have to hold it with a towel. Housekeepers have big issues. When our towels were too wet and we’d like new ones, I put them on the floor and housekeepers just hung them back and did not change. The floor was not clean after housekeeping. During day time people just come into your room after two quick knocks on the door but without time for you to answer, then directly open the door. My daughter and I were frightened. On the day of check-out, the housekeeper even directly opened the door before 10:00 AM (check-out time), without knocking on the door! (also no sorry being said) We have never had such bad hotel experiences, no matter in Asia or in Germany. And we just can’t believe this happened in...

What you should find at Club Med, RoiSolei

Smelly dirty rooms, if you are on a low floor you are guaranteed cigarette smoke until after midnight. The housekeeping fails to do its job and although one of my two rooms recieved turndown, the other didn’t which means the slothful useless housekeeping is skipping rooms intentionally. The twin rooms have ABSOLUTELY NO space to set a luggage or duffel down and have no bath. The beds have been changed since the last time I visited in 2013 and are a major improvement.

DO NOT EXPECT any special treatment from the cowardly rude staff (for the most part). The staff will do anything they can to get whether it’s in person or over a phone call, to getthemselves out of helping the customer. From the restaurant servers to the reception, the dry home runaways don’t try to hide their unwillingness to satisfy the customer. Besides the miniclub and ski school staff, you will want to avoid contact with the staff I am not going to get into details but do not believe the people who say “kind staff” .

You will find a piece of green meat guaranteed, and you will find strawberry in your lemon ice cream or caramel in your coconut which completely disregards food allergy policy. If your family of four stays at two twin rooms which are both worth 1300 dollars, deducting other prices the food costs $96 per person per day which definitely does not match up to it’s value. We ate outside the hotel 3/7 of the nights, resorts are like cages and they can be good or bad, luckily we were able to escape for some time.

If you rent Skis either the night of the first day or the morning of the second day you will wait a minimum 1 hour line standing waiting for people to put their boots on themselves since the staff feels like standing around and watching is more productive. When I tried to ask for help with my boot he walked away to the person in the front of the line to take his information and sizes. The shuttle service to Corviglia is only for the miniclub (which wasn’t a major problem for us, the walk there is OK, but for return when your tired and cold, the city bus is ideal) the problem was that we weren’t allowed to board a club med shuttle for return from Corvatsh because we weren’t coming in the ski school or a private instructor.

THIS HOTEL IS ABSOLUTELY NOT IDEAL FOR BUSINESS OWNERS OR PEOPLE WHO NEED ACCESS TO INTERNET. When they keep saying “free WiFi ooh what a nice hotel” they mean “up to 200 kps speed” and ooh guess, you can buy premium WiFi for 5 frank a day that is up to 1 MB’s!!!! I didn’t have access to any sort of internet until my family convinced me to buy the WiFi premium which still didn’t give me access to office servers and I was off the hook for the whole week.

One positive thing is that the entertainment is not as good, but not bad compared to 2013. They did cut the daily shows but they did three shows this week and they took care of the kids very well. The entertainment makes the Roi Solei much more fun for a child than for a working adult however my children do admit they had much more fun last visit. I hope they can maintain the entertainment standards and raise them.

Overall, the hotel has gone through a major decline regarding mostly food, Ski service and entertainment. It used to be awesome in all of these fields. The hotel has improved its rooms and even though they are no luxury, they fit a ski motels standards. I recall, Last time I visited the service was just as bad and the service will never Be Mediocre ever ever ever , no matter when you are reading this review, the hotel will always treat customers like garbage always. Whenever I enter through the front door of the hotel I always see somebody complaining , it’s not just me and I’m not that picky.

⭐️do yourself a favor and stay at kempinski or badrut palace for nearly the same prices and better skiing (both are ski in-ski out)⭐️

100%...

Excellent stay in St Moritz during January 2021.

Positives;

Larger than usual rooms Great choice of food Large communal bar area Friendly and helpful staff everywhere Roomy boot room Great Ski guide - Fabritzio, so positive and helpful Dated but adequate gym - Great life guard - Joe, super friendly and helpful Stretching classes every night with Barbara who is just so lovely and calm and patient Club Med restaurant on the mountain

Only two negatives which overall I can live with as everything else was so good,

Transfer from Zurich was around 3.5hrs but on a comfy modern coach. 15 minute walk to and from the first lift or a bus journey. Again I can life with this but if you are unfit or elderly it's worth knowing.

This is our 5th stay at a Club Med ski resort and have to say this is the best value way to ski. Everything is included in the price which seems expensive initially but when broken down is fabulous value for money. The food is a good standard and plentiful. Good choice and variety of drinks. Wine is not the best but acceptable. Having a ski guide who knows minute to minute the best area to ski in, in terms of weather and snow conditions is massive. We had Fabritzio who spoke excellent English and created a whatsapp group for us which he updated with weather conditions, ski videos and general inforamtion. The hotel is reasonably modern, the rooms are a good size ( bigger that Val D'iser and Aim La Plagne rooms and more modern). Lots of seating area in the bar and tables cleared regularly.

There is a stretching class at 5.30 every evening which was run by Barbara and was really well attended. Fully recomended after a day skiing particularly as Barbara is so calm and positive. Also a large pool and gym with weights, running machines, bikes and area to stretch. This is where Joe the life guard resides when not found on one of the evening group walks. Again top marks for his enthusiasm and the joy he spreads.

I would return to this resort despite the long transfer and lack of ski in and ski out and I would have no hesitation in recommending both Club Med Ski holidays...