Village Club MMV les Mélèzes

I went with my son for a week during UK school Feb half term, Half Board booking with Crystal Ski. Mostly a very good experience. Son loved it, I thought it was very good. We're both hoping to go back to Les Arcs and would stay again! Lots of good stuff.. - We arrived late, around 10pm there was still some hot and cold food available from the buffet - Staff were all friendly. Both restaurant and reception. - Breakfast was excellent. We filled both filled up for the day and mostly just had snacks on the slopes. - View from the restaurant was fantastic, every morning looking out toward Mont Blanc. - Asked a few resort questions at reception, all well answered and friendly - Location is excellent. Just a couple of mins from slopes and about 5 mins from Ski school - Rooms were clean an tidy - Evening meals excellent considering it's almost all buffet. The free wine was a a very nice surprise. Meat (lamb and steak) served very rare, I like mine medium or well done. This was a me problem not a restaurant problem though. When in Rome, etc. - Our twin room was at the back of the hotel so probably one of less attractive views, but still very good to look out over the Lanchettes lift and Aguille Rouge. No balcony but didn't expect one. - Some good, enthusiastic kids entertainment in the bar - Place to leave baggage and have a shower if staying for a bit after checkout on last day. - Restaurant was busy but breakfast and dinner but very well run and we never had a problem with wait times for being seated or accessing food The ok - Room was basic but a decent size. - Shower had decent hot water and was powerful - No kettle. Not sure why I expected one to be there but there wasn't. - I saw a few reviews saying lifts were a problem. All fine for us. - I found the bed uncomfortable, son thought his was great - Ski locker room was OK but a bit small for the number of people The small niggles - Couldn't get the towel rail to work. I think it was faulty but there was always a chance it was my own stupidity. Reported twice to reception but nothing seemed to happen. Didn't really affect us. Towels were changed a couple of time during the week. - Only a couple of coat hangers were available on the rail - Room did have quite a 'lived in' smell. I expect it's all the sweaty ski socks, etc. Overall, if you don't expect luxury I think it's great. Main impression I got was it has a very good, family friendly feel. Very homely for a big hotel.

Generally really nice hotel. Lovely staff, very helpful. Food good and loads of choice, always salads and a few choices for main courses plus veggie options. You could come down anytime and there was always plenty. Would be great if there wasnt cream or cheese in so many dishes but hey i guess thats just France! (Im dairy intolerant!!). If you go all inclusive lunch was great too. Wine very drinkable you can have as much as you want with lunch and dinner. If you wanted a pack up you can request a box each day and make your own sandwiches or salad from the sandwich bar each day. Afternoon tea cakes also available. We got in late at 10 and there was a buffet laid out for late arrivals which was lovely. We went as a family group (no kids) Rooms good and warm, a couple of the mattresses were not straight making sleeping uncomfortable for a couple of my family ie collapsed to the side or in the middle but other than, basic but nice and clean. Would have liked either a kettle or access to hot water as there was nothing the rest of the day once breakfast closed, only buying tea or coffee in the bar! Spa nice, you get free access a few evenings and daytimes if you want, book in advance but we always got in. Sauna, steam and jacuzzi available. Ignore other reviews re lifts as there are 3 and all were fine, not crowded at all plus there are stairs available if you want them! If you've got children there was entertainment every evening for them plus stuff like ice creams available with meals. (For adults too). Would definitely visit here again. Thanks for a great stay.

** I take no pleasure in writing this but you need to know ** On arrival I locked my noise-cancelling headphones, passport and house keys in the room safe, setting a new pin code. 2 days into our holiday I went to get my headphones, found the safe door to be unlocked but pushed closed with only my passport and house keys. When I notified the reception team of the theft and noted their disappearance from a locked safe, they dismissed my claim as “impossible” as only the manager has the administrator code. I was so aghast by the lack of empathy I almost started to think it might have been something I’d done, did I / didn’t I lock the safe; I absolutely know I did lock it btw…. With hindsight I wished I’d asked how often the manager code is changed and later one of our party researched the type of safe and noted there is audit trail for lock/unlock actions that I should have asked to view. Their follow-up odd advice was to re-check the room and “…maybe they reappear somewhere in the next days”; they never did. To support my insurance claim, I asked for help to submit a police report; they were not interested in helping and gave conflicting (and incorrect information) regarding the local arc2000 police with me finally told to visit arc1600. I used the free shuttle (good to know if wanting to visit the other resorts by foot) but the reception team neglected to tell me thefts can only be reported between 3pm and 5pm to the Gendarmerie with no exceptions. This resulted in a wasted morning when I could/should have been skiing; I was on holiday after all. I eventually filed my theft with the Gendarme who also believed my claim to be improbable from a locked safe, wanted me to sign their ‘deposition’ without having read it first and then concluded with “are you sure about this? I hope for you, this information is correct or there may be problems”. I put (some of) this down the language barrier but I wasted a full day skiing, was made to feel like I was lying and left for home feeling quite upset by the experience and total lack of support. All I know is I locked things in the safe when I arrived but expensive things were missing when I checked later and the safe had been unlocked. A room safe is supposed to offer increased security but in my case it didn’t. To make matters worse the hotel staff were completely disinterested, seemed indifferent to there having been a room theft and refused to believe there might be a security issue in the hotel.