CGH Residences & Spas le Cristal de l'Alpe

Just got back from a great weeks sking. Accommodation is in a great location, warm apartments, everything we needed and with great ski lockers. WiFi not brilliant and pillows are very small and thin. They inspected our apartment before we left and we were refunded the 400€.

We stayed here 4 years ago and loved it. Nice pool, jacuzzi, etc. and felt quite exclusive. Spoilt this time by large groups of youngsters who took over the hotel, intimidating families in the pool area with loud boisterous behaviour. Lots of drunken shouting and loud music til 5am. Hardly got any sleep some nights. Don't think we'd stay again.

We travelled to alpe d’huez with Cristal Ski as a family of 5 in first week of April. The apartment is in a good location. c500m from the nursery slope from which there is a short ski to main lifts. Rental shop behind building is convenient. There is a supermarket integrated into the building which is convenient but does give a feel of living above a shop. The apartment was spacious / boot lockers slightly inconvenient down stairs in basement. The furnishings are basic, sofas hard foam and uncomfortable to sit on, no cushions and certainly not luxury. My bedside light did not work and pillows were very very basic. The swimming pool is advertised as heated but was verging on cold so few guests spent much time in it. The ‘hot’ tubs were temp the pool should have been at. Biggest problem was being ripped off at end of holiday which left bad taste in mouth. At no point were we told the apartment should be left in state we found it (why would we? No one goes on holiday to clean an apartment to a state for the next guests). We spent a couple of hours tidying up and left it in good order. Staff weren’t around to ‘inspect’ apparently which was their problem not ours. Was shocked to be told we’d been charged EUR 100 because of some crumbs on a surface and we hadn’t emptied some small bedroom bins. Apparently we hadn’t cleared the kitchen when we actually left some unused food we thought someone might want. Basically they ripped us off so be aware. They have ignored all correspondence. I wouldn’t go again, avoid

The location is very convenient and close to everything you need , BUT the WiFi NEVER worked, I was there for 7 days and I never had internet, this was a huge problem because of the many things I have to do on my laptop. The spa is not good at all and the beds were extremely uncomfortable.

Great hotel, rooms where good but they need to clean air vents and top of shelfs. Especially in the bedroom. Lack of sound proofing so we kept getting security on the Door after 10pm during just low talk and even when brushing teeths. Pool/spa area is Great, jacuzzi could have been a little bit hotter. Staff is Great and friendly, even the security. Great management, good location and Great kitchen in rooms, even tough we fought with the oven a bit to get it working.

horrible experience. rooms were tiny with hardly any storage space. hot water, oven and coffee machine didn't work. apartment looked like it wasn't cleaned properly, showers were rubbish. we were told to call 9 for reception when our room didn't even have a phone... worst of all the hotel staff were rude and do not care about any of their guests. we were blamed for not paying city tax when that is their responsibility. when our towel was stolen from the spa we were told to be more 'responsible' and were reluctantly given a replacement. we had to fill out an inventory form on arrival which should be their job. hotel staff are sooo slow i've honestly seen glaciers move faster. on checkout we had to deep clean the entire flat and empty all the bins - hire some cleaners you utter cheapskates. we were told that our deposit would be returned in 7 days and they couldn't guarantee they won't take some money off because the fridge was 'a bit dirty'. honestly embarrassing.

As others have mentioned: PROS: - Big, spacious apartment (worth upgrading for 8 bed for 6 people so you all get a double bed and don't have to use the sofa bed). - Large socialising area, tables/chairs. Pretty much every utensil you could think of - salad strainer/coffee machine/hand blender etc! - Good enough location, near restaurants/bars. Bit of a walk to the slopes/cage to get to the lifts. - Friendly staff on reception - people complained about staff on their reviews but the only gentleman we met (looked like a manager) was very friendly and helpful. The two ladies who spoke good english were so friendly and sweet. We did have to check out at 6am so didn't experience the kitchen 'inspection' that others mention - hope we get our deposit back! - Let us check in earlier than 5pm, think it was around 3pm. - Comfy beds. - Ensuite and family bathroom a plus for 6 people. - Ski lockers aka rooms were huge, like a storage unit, really handy. Boot heaters definitely not on - trying to save money probably! CONS: - AWFUL pillows!! Have found this on most French ski holidays.. do French people not care about their necks!? One small square pillow each, flat as a pancake. Have to fold into 4s/use towels etc underneath. Why can't they just give normal pillows!? - TEDIOUS inventory you have to do for every single spoon/pot/pan on arrival - took us a good 15 mins to find everything and some things aren't clear english translation. Have to give report to reception then they check it on checkout. I broke a bowl so had to pay 7 euros but some fines were ridiculous! - 400 euro deposit on credit card on arrival, still haven't had it cleared yet days later. - You have to clean the kitchen but nowhere else?? So odd, cleaners have from 10am-5pm yet they make you do that and inspect it/fine you if it isn't sufficient. As I said we checked out very early when no staff were there so god knows whether we will get deposit back. - My husband and I shared the double room beside living room and morning 1 we had water dripping on us in the night/morning! Not sure if snow was melting on the roof. Had to stuff beams with tissue. Luckily stopped after day 1 so didn't mention it. - As others have mentioned - hot tub was cold! They are definitely trying to save energy, would rather they just charged us a bit more. Pool cold too so didn't go in it. Only hot thing was sauna/steam room so didn't really use it much. Good to have on site though. - Bit odd that the side door wasn't always locked so people could walk in off the street and get into bedrooms if you forgot to lock it (easily done as need to manually lock with key every time even if inside). - Oven took ages to heat up so wasn't very practical for cooking meals.

Just got back from a week at these apartments and thought I'd write a review before I forget the details. We had a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment (sleeps 8) and it was a decent size, well equipped & with plenty of storage. I'm not sure it would have been as pleasurable if there had been 8 of us though (2 on the sofa bed in the lounge) because one of the bathrooms was ensuite, so that would have sort of meant there was only one bathroom between 6 people! There are only 2 devices per apartment for the wifi, unless you pay for the upgrade, which did seem a bit odd for an 8 person apartment! They are in a great location, only a few minutes walk to the lift, a small supermarket right next door and a couple of bars/creperies just 2 mins walk away for a pre or post ski snack or coffee. We only used the pool once and it was warm & pleasant. One of the reception staff, Christophe, was particularly friendly & helpful and sorted out a couple of small issues for us, no problem. My only gripe would be that on the day of our departure, we were being picked up at 6.30am but the lobby/reception was unstaffed & locked, which meant that we had to exit the building via the side door, drag out cases along a path, through the snow and wait outside in the freezing cold for our coach to arrive. I think that for this standard of accomodation, they should pay for a member of staff to start work a couple of hours earlier on change over day, to enable guests to wait inside the apartment lobby for the coach to arrive. Ours was 15 minutes late, which felt like much longer standing out it the dark & cold at 6.30am!!!

Let me start with the pros: 1. Excellent location for skiing. Right by the slopes. Got dedicated ski lockers. Super convienient both heading to skiing and return from skiing. 2. Place is pretty clean and cozy, although a little small. Kitchen very well stocked. 3. Most staffs are very friendly. Except the guy who spoke good English (with a mildly good British accent) was quite rude when they checked on our room at checkout. Cons: There're just so many things that are not really a big deal by itself, but gets rather irritating when they add up. 1. The hottub was not functioning during my visit; the water was only warm. A hot tub is very very important for me on ski trips, it's very essential that it works. I told the staff 3rd day of my stay just to realized that they didn't realize it's even a problem. 2. Only 2 keys per unit. We had 6 people in the unit, 2 keys are merely not enough, and we had to coordinate how we ski and where and whom to wait for. It was such a hassle 3. There's no phone in the unit, which basically means that we have to call the reception for anything with our phone. this is particularly frustrating when you don't have a local phone. 4. All the places I've been to that provide a full kitchen always comes with basic salt and oil. This place does not. 5. Wi-fi is only 2 device per the whole unit. We had 6 people..... like.. just how are we supposed to share? 6. Reception does not open until 4PM and is not 24/7 So if you need anything between 12-4PM. You're screwed. 7. One of the rooms has a slanted ceiling, and basically only half of the room is standable. I hit my head to ceiling a couple times. 8. It seems like they are quite reluctant to give you more things (e.g. towels, pillows) than originally provided. The staffs seem to be surprised when I requested more pillows. 9. This is the craziest point that I've never experienced in my life. This hotel has a "check-out appointment", which basically means that even though your contract states that check out time is at 10AM, you have to schedule an appointment before 10AM to let them come in and look at the apartment. 10. You're required to do the dishes, throw out all the trash, and clean the kitchen, and pull out all linens and put them in the bathroom when you check out. The crazy part is they have a person to come check on your job. There's a card that clearly lists out how much money they'll charge if you don't do the dishes or do the trash. It just adds stress to the whole experience. The person who came in literally shook his head and told us "This is not clean", and we have wipe the place in front of him at check out. What a shame. Hotels should either charge everyone for dish washing and throwing out trash, or you ask people to do it without checking the quality of their cleaning. But having someone to come check out, and shaking your head when your guests don't do a good enough job cleaning for you is in my opinion a horrendous experience staying at your hotel. This itse