Grandes Rousses Hotel & Spa

“A very fantastic resort”

A beautiful hotel perfectly located in the heart of Alpe d’Huez. The service is excellent and the team is always helpful and friendly. The spa is a perfect place to relax with an incredible view of the Alps. The breakfast is varied and very generous. A great place to stay in the mountains. Rooms ar… more

A beautiful hotel perfectly located in the heart of Alpe d’Huez. The service is excellent and the team is always helpful and friendly. The spa is a perfect place to relax with an incredible view of the Alps. The breakfast is varied and very generous. A great place to stay in the mountains. Rooms are very clean and cosy Stafs very friendly and attentive to your demands.

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“Great location”

This hotel is in a great location - first impressions were good and reception staff are lovely. Our room was lovely and apart from it being very hot with noisy radiators we loved it. The negatives sadly were the kids menu - very expensive and literally not child friendly at all - breakfast aft to… more

This hotel is in a great location - first impressions were good and reception staff are lovely. Our room was lovely and apart from it being very hot with noisy radiators we loved it. The negatives sadly were the kids menu - very expensive and literally not child friendly at all - breakfast aft too expensive for the quality - I would eat out rather than pay to eat there. The wine list was the biggest disappointment - extremely expensive and barely any availability of the wine that they did advertise - it was a shame as it should be lovely but quite a few things let it down.

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“Nice room, awful service.”

This is a fine hotel, but it is certainly not five star luxury so do not set your expectations too high. My family had a large loft room. Upon arriving, the transfer asked for payment of the £800 of transfers in cash and told me the hotel could not put it on the bill (despite the hotel organising… more

This is a fine hotel, but it is certainly not five star luxury so do not set your expectations too high. My family had a large loft room. Upon arriving, the transfer asked for payment of the £800 of transfers in cash and told me the hotel could not put it on the bill (despite the hotel organising it). After some arguing at reception, they eventually agreed to put it on my bill. Why they do not have that relationship with their service providers already I don't know, especially when their transfers are more than double the price of normal taxis. Upon checking in, no one showed me to my room. They told me some directions (which involved going to another building and taking two different lifts), but did not show me how to get there (even with one of the more expensive rooms in the hotel). Once I got to my room, I waited 45 minutes and my luggage had still not arrived. I called reception to chase it, and it came about an hour after I had checked in (so could not change my clothes etc). Before I arrived at the hotel, I had filled in their form about my preferences including drinks I wanted in the mini-bar. It was a complete waste of my time as the mini bar was empty. I walked back down to reception and asked that they reviewed my preferences and put the drinks in there (I am diabetic, so wanted some drinks with sugar in case of low blood sugar). They did not put the drinks in the fridge that I had spent time requesting on the sheet, but just a random selection. Skipping ahead, when checking out, they tried to charge me for all the drinks as if I had ordered them as room service, even though I had not drunk them. This was nearly €40 for drinks I had not touched. One evening at the bar, I sat down to do some work before dinner. I was sat at the table near the bar/reception for an hour and not once did anyone offer me a drink or snacks (despite me trying to catch the glimpse of a staff member). Eventually I left and told reception that I could not wait more than an hour for a coffee or glass of water at the very least, so went out to a bar nearby instead. The breakfast service is especially bad. They supposedly have cooked egg options but not once over our stay did they come and ask for our order. We were left there waiting. I once asked for butter (it is not next to the toast and bread), and the waitress just told me where to go and get it. As a five star hotel, you can go and get me a packet of butter whilst I am with my wife and baby. On the last day, I left to go to my room and told the reception staff that my family had been waiting for 45 minutes and no one had taken our order. She apologised but my wife and baby still waited another 20 minutes before anyone took their order (although someone did bring them a coffee which they had not ordered in the meantime). The service is just as bad in the evening - they were clearly having issues as at one point the chef came out to the moan at the waiters. Not once did they come and ask how the food was or offer more drinks. Every time you have to flag them down and hope they don't forget you (even just to clear the plates). They just don't care and everything is so slow. There is a ski rental shop in the basement, but the hotel don't have any ability to charge the skis to the room, so that's another extra hassle for guests. The same is true off ski passes, they make you pay separately rather than putting everything on the room. The spa is just a small pool/jacuzzi with a sauna and steam room. It would be fine as a normal spa for a little hotel, but at Grandes Rousses guests have to pre-book a one hour slot then pay extra to use it. It is not very relaxing having to keep one eye on the clock lest be kicked-out. I have never seen anything like it. Also, the keypads on the lockers were broken so I could not lock my belongings which is annoying when the spa is open to the public. The loft room itself is quite nice with a comfortable bed and nice sitting area, and a decent bath and shower. This was our third ski trip of the winter and the Grandes Rousses is by far the worst hotel of the season. If you want a nice room and basic service in a good location, this is absolutely fine. If you want a proper five star hotel, go elsewhere.

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“Very disappointing for a 5* Hotel”

I was the leader of a group of 5 friends looking forward to staying at The Grande Rousses 5* Hotel in Alpe d’Huez. Sadly we were let down on virtually every level from rooms, to food, to bar, to service and health &safety. Our room (123)was relatively small with two single beds squeezed together a … more

I was the leader of a group of 5 friends looking forward to staying at The Grande Rousses 5* Hotel in Alpe d’Huez. Sadly we were let down on virtually every level from rooms, to food, to bar, to service and health &safety. Our room (123)was relatively small with two single beds squeezed together a little room on one side to climb in. We were right above the bar where an excellent solo singer/guitarist was playing so an early night was off the cards as the noise drifted up to our room. Another group member had no safe and when requested took 3 days to arrive. The Esperance Restaurant was a beautiful venue and offered breakfast and an ALaCarte evening menu . Breakfast offerings were pretty limited in comparison with other ski resorts we have stayed in and service was inconsistent in regard to bread/jams on tables , chipped crockery and specialty drinks offered or not offered. Coffee tea flasks were small and often found to be empty. The scrambled eggs on one morning were a strange blue/green colour so were unappealing to say the least. Waiting staff were appearing at both breakfast and dinner with trays of food obviously unsure as to which tables they were for. There was a general sense of mild chaos and panic within the venue so there are apparently training issues to be solved.Being with Crystal Ski we were on a set menu with only two choices per course. Warning signs flashed up on the first few nights as ingredients were being repeated from starter to main and from main to desserts. Our first dinner included a tasty duck breast main, however two days later the identical dish appeared again. It was at this point that I arranged a meeting with the Restaurant Manager who agreed that these issues should not be happening. As a gesture of goodwill we were offered the choice of going A La Carte the next evening and were given a complimentary bottle of wine. This meal was certainly an improvement but there were still issues with certain dishes. We were back on the set menu the next evening and started with an excellent seared tuna dish but unfortunately matters went seriously downhill with the main courses as we were all served chicken which wasn’t cooked through and had to send them back to the kitchen. Another meal experience spoiled and a potential case of food poisoning avoided. On our final night we were back on the A La Carte with another bottle of complimentary wine and thankfully this evening went without a hitch. The lounge bar was part of the reception/ foyer area and provided a well decorated and relaxing place to hang out for pre dinner drinks. Rarely busy however it was let down by inattentive bar staff who seemed more interested in chatting rather than serving virtually the only guests in the area. On our final night we had delicious cocktails then went to dinner for around two and a half hours only to find our empty glasses still on the table where we had intended taking after dinner coffees. On a final note on health and safety the resort had experienced heavy snowfall in the week prior to our arrival . As a consequence there were two areas which we considered were dangerous and should have been cordoned off rather than having exposing guests to icy and slippery surfaces. These were the third floor spa and the rear entrance to the ski rental/ storage shop. Finally the quality of any establishment can be judged by how they deal with legitimate complaints . The Grand Rousses Management judging by their responses to Trip Advisor reviews appear to think that by offering free drinks that all is done and dusted ,no other compensation should be forthcoming and clients will return home happy. Sadly not this reviewer who will follow up our terrible experiences with our Tour Company in the hope of getting satisfaction and appropriate recompense. In closing I sincerely hope that The GR Team will review their practices put additional training where required and as a consequence truly live up to their 5* status.

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