Hôtel Le Palace des Neiges

Having been disappointed when we went in Jan/Feb 2023, we returned in December 2023. Happily, we saw a great improvement across the board! Yannick and the team in the restaurant did a great job and the half board menu was so much better than the previous time. We ate very well for the whole week. The rooms all worked well without any of the heating issues we had last time, and the ski room and aprés-ski crepes and vin chaud were excellent, backed up by wonderful staff throughout. The music in the lounge was still a bit disappointing as the piano continues to be ignored in favour of a nightly DJ, but the music selection seemed better and less intrusive to conversation. The hotel has been purchased though and will be closed for at least two years for a complete refurbishment/rebuild. Having been coming here on and off since the 80s, we’re happy that our final time at the Palace was a happy one. Good luck and thank you to all the staff for making our last stay a memorable one.

We had a great time in this hotel. The staff is very responsive, all our needs were taken care of. The location is very quiet but also very close to the activities by 5 min free shuttle. The breakfast is amazing. We also had a dinner in the hotel one time, it was very good. I highly recommend this hotel

This is a hotel we’ve been coming to since the 80s when it was still Byblos. Even when it became Palace Des Neiges, it was excellent until 2020, which was the previous time we had come. Since then it has been taken over by a new group and standards have plummeted. Service: previously, as annual visitors booking multiple rooms, we were welcomed warmly. This time, check-in was terrible. We had always requested and received a particular room and this time they had no record of it. Each room now required a €1400 security hold, but did not accept Amex. After going to our rooms, we found several did not have working heating and needed to change. We were told going to other rooms would be extra, despite the fact that basics like heating weren’t working at all. Rooms: as stated above, we needed to change rooms for some of our party due to heating not functioning, or the rooms being much smaller than we had previously stayed in. Once in our rooms, some of us found that the showers would change temperature dramatically, and we’d suddenly be blasted with cold or hot water. In two rooms, the baths were missing plugs and this took a while to resolve. For those that tried to use the TVs, some found that they simply couldn’t get any channels in the evening. We had to report these concerns each time and the response times were slow. Restaurant: what used to be a highlight of staying here has become its weakest point. Staying on half board, there is only one dish included in the evening, or else dishes chosen from the menu usually require a supplement payable. None of this would necessarily be a problem except the quality of the food is now very low. One evening, the included dish was a salmon dish, but we were given the option of chicken. Some of us took salmon, the others, the chicken. The dishes were identical, including the unpleasant sauce, except for the protein. Lounge: what used to be a comfortable, warm, refined place to stay in the evening has lost all its charm due to the club music they now insist on playing loudly (another review has also mentioned this). The piano that used to be a wonderful accompaniment to some pre-dinner drinks is now just a table for the DJ’s decks. Additionally, the fireplace’s smoke blows back into the lounge making everything smoky. The smoking room is also poorly ventilated and usually too cold. With all the changes that have been made, there are a couple of good points: The ski-room is much improved, and the staff there are friendly and helpful (but I believe this is run separately to the hotel). The post-ski tea is nice, although you have to endure the club music. The rooms are cleaned and maintained very well. Emmanuel at the front desk was particularly friendly and helpful. Overall, this trip and all the changes/cost-cutting that have happened have soured our image of what used to be a highlight of our year. We will be looking at other places for next year.

This hotel is conveniently situated on the Jardin Alpin and was our first return trip to Courchevel since 2020. We hadn't stayed here before but they were prepared to take 3 of us for a long weekend. Our Prestige room was spacious and comfortable and had a pleasant but not far reaching view from the balcony. Our daughter's single room was relatively small but comfortably appointed. Disappointingly there were 3 non working light bulbs in our room which made the lobby area very dark. We reported the one in the lobby to reception but it wasn't dealt with during our stay. The concierge desk were helpful and efficient booking our taxi transfers from and to Geneva airport and sorting out ski passes. The ski room was excellent with really helpful, friendly staff and very good equipment. The hotel had a great swimming pool as well as steam room and saunas. The breakfast buffet with an eggs and crepe bar was one of the best we have had in a hotel in Courchevel. We had dinner in the restaurant every night and the food was excellent especially the fondues. The service was very also very good. Our only major complaint was the bar where the music was so loud it was virtually impossible to have a conversation. Given the average age of the clientele in the hotel the choice of music was rather surprising. Even our daughter complained about the volume of the music. We could hear the beat from this music in our bedroom 3 floors higher up. There was no quiet area for those of us that didn't want to listen to night club type music. This is the one thing that would make us look elsewhere for our next trip.

The music they insist on playing is a slow torture. A DJ plonks his laptop on top of a perfectly good looking piano and plays never ending dross. The bass filters into the rooms upstairs. We talked to one of the few other groups in the hotel and they also hated the music. We asked the DJ, reception and the manager to stop the music as we were the only people in the bar area. They refused, with the only concession to turn it down slightly. Who do they think they are playing the music for? The only person who might be enjoying it is the DJ who could listen to it on his headphones without annoying others.

We were looking to spend 5 nights in Courchevel during the Festive season and did not have any flexibility with our dates. Moreover, we made these plans late October. To our dismay every upscale hotel was fully booked and they also had a 7 nights stay requirement. Le Palace des Neiges was the only hotel available and they allowed a 5 night stay. We looked at the pictures and reviews and saw that the hotel was dated. But we went ahead anyway. Here is our experience. This hotel has the best location in courchevel. Truly skin-in and ski-out and literally the Jardin Alpin lift is a few hundred feet away. You can also ski in 5 minutes to the center of Courchevel 1850 to catch the other gondolas. It s a SHAME the owners do not invest to update it. The hotel is totally dated. They could not control the heat, and it was a furnace. We had to sleep with the windows open! The food was just ok. Breakfast buffet was nice but sooooo disorganized. It was a miracle when we got our coffee order. Some days, we were done with breakfast and they never brought us our our coffee and tea. The rooms are good size and the housekeeping staff does a great job with cleaning. Valet and shuttle crew as well as the concierge were very helpful and friendly. They delivered excellent service. The front desk crew however was not friendly and also super disorganized. The ski rental shop in the hotel (they rent the space) is excellent. Highly recommend dealing with them for all your ski needs if staying at the hotel.