Ski Power www.skipower.co.uk

I thought I would share our story in case anyone else gets involved with these guys. We had booked a week in February in a catered chalet in La Tania through Ski Power. They went ahead and took all our payments including a very recent final payment for the total amount which was £ 5,232. A couple of days ago we discovered they had gone into administration and with them all our money which we had no way of reclaiming as we had paid by bank transfer.

We then discovered (though local sources) that the owners of Ski Power set up a new company on 20th January and the new web domains on 16th January so it was clearly all part of a plan which is scandalous. Even their ATOL bond was apparently supposedly false.

They have also completely abandoned their staff in France (one of the customers who has rebooked with another company has his 18 year old daughter out there on her own running a chalet for them) – they were promised just 40€ to get a flight and have not been paid any salary at all since the start of the season. Not even the 40€ was forthcoming and they have been evicted from their accommodation – these guys are just kids!!

Our case is now in the hands of the legal team who are representing these guys but it is very unlikely we will ever get any money back… I’m not sure in what the name the new company is registered in but just be on your guard before booking.

I have always been with Ski power to their chalets in the 3 Valleys..

All in really good locations - I have stayed in Chalet Jonquille and James and am staying in Chalet Doran this season.

All well run, yummy food (especially in Jonquille as a higher grade chalet) and nothing is too much trouble!

I hear that the adviser is returning to La Tania as resort manager so know it will be good..

Their Hotel business was a seperate arm of their business and they are no longer doing hotels so are focusing purely on chalets ! yay !!

We are a french family from Lyon (near the french Alp), and we lived a terrible experience in hotel Farandole of Skipower company.....

dirty hotel, dangerous equipments, very non qualifed personnel and desagreable.........I can add a lot of more bads qualificatives but you understand that NOBODY can leave this very bad experience !!!

I understood why ski power.co.uk always have chalets even when none else has it. Because everybody avoids them and you should too.

They just want the most money they can have. For instance - if you don't book ski passes with them - they will later charge you 20 pounds per person, if you don't book skis with them - another 20 pounds fine. BUT!!! The prices on their site are bigger then they are at the resort. So when you are there - you can have ski passes minus 20 euro, you can also have 20-30% discount on skis, so just don't take skis through their site!!!

There are much more things to talk about, but I get too angry.

Ive used Ski Power 3 times over the past 7 years, but standards slipped to a level that means I never use them again. We stayed in a chalet in La Tania, its was dirty and had clearly not been cleaned all winter (we stayed in Mid march) The staff had worked out how to do as little as possible while making the most of their own ski time. On three days we returned back to the chalet to find it cold and with no tea or cakes as was promised on Ski Powers web site. We had problems with flights and transfer staff were frankly useless.

When I complained we had a response from the MD called Craig saying that we didn't have anything to complain about and that other guests who had stayed had not complained.... So Craig.... I see others on this site don't think much of your ski holidays either....

We travelled to the Hotel Farandole with Skipower and it was one of the worst holidays we have ever been on

On arrival at the resort we were dropped 200m from the hotel and told we would have to walk with all our bags etc and no offer of help from hotel staff.

Long wait for room allocation and check in.

We were them told by the manager that the hotel had a Norovirus outbreak the week before. They assured us that it had been cleared up and the hotel had been deep cleaned between guests.

This wasn't the case as people soon started dropping like flies. A high percentage of guests in our party an at the hotel contracted the virus.

The hygenie precautions put in place were inadequate. Didn't even shut the pool and jacuzzi which are obviously breeding grounds for this kind of virus. One man cleaning all rooms in the hotel. Didn't even clean down toilets every day.

Food was average and very much like school dinners. Breakfast is a disgrace with stale croissants and bread.

Staff tried hard but weren't well trained enough.

Might be cheap but value for money it isn't. Need another holiday to get over this nightmare.

Have tried to contact company to voice concerns and make sure improvements are made but have been ignored.

We stayed in chalet James in jan 2012 and were very dissatisfied with the level of service we received as repeat guests ( our third year travelling as a part of an extended family of 12) We noticed a very obvious drop in the standard of service and food compared to previous years for example, frozen bread, no hot breakfasts, no logs for the fire.

We were unfortunate to have a leaking boiler during our stay resulting in no hot water or heating in the chalet periodially. Both the resort manager and head office were very unhelpful. We were given excuse after excuse, mislead and lied too by the resort manager and head office, although our chalet hosts were lovely, hard working and clearly embarrassed by our treatment.

Head office were aggressive and defensive, they were more concerned that we had none skiers in our party (age 1 and 70) who didn't want to hire ski equipment or buy passes from them and insisted on applying ridiculous penalty charges on our party because of this. We were actually called from head office and told that if we didn't pay immediately then we would have to leave the chalet , the charge was small but the threat was very disturbing.

I have written to the company, called them and emailed them and they have never responded!

I have never had cause to write a bad review until now!

We shall not be booking with Ski Power again as they overall they are a providing an extremely sub-standard service run on a very low budget to maximise their profit at the cost of customer satisfaction. Reading many previous reviews on Ski Power after our holiday it is obvious this is the general opinion of many customers. Ski powers responses always seem to blame the customer for everything and this was echoed by our experience of the hotel manager at the hotel Farandole. My advice to Ski power as a business owner myself in the tourist industry is to take stock of what is being said in the reviews and tackle them in a business-like and positive manner.

The skiing in the resort of Les Deux Alpes for a week was really great, however the ski area is quite small and more than a week maybe enough for some. Great town and ski resort and can’t fault it. A comment I noticed made was that it is all about the Skiing and not really about the stay. Ski power did not provide any skiing only provided the equipment and Ski passes and of course the hotel and transfer.

The Hotel Farandole is a really nice hotel with a nice location and from previous reviews was run by another operator. It is now run by Ski Power and Ski Power are a poorly run company that are unwilling to provide a quality service. Instead everything is provided on the cheapest budget they can possibly get away with and this seriously impacts the guests experiences and quality of the stay. The pool and spa facilities were really good though, although towels are an extra charge.

The staff were great but inexperienced in running a hotel and are not well supported by Ski Power. They are very willing and able and just needed direction and overall they were great. The exception being the manager who seemed to not take any responsibility for any mistakes or complaints.

We had a nice family room with two bedrooms, small hallway, separate toilet and bathroom/shower room. A super view of the mountains, with a balcony and the overall appearance was a slightly tired room but comfortable and the beds are comfortable. The rooms were not serviced or cleaned every day or even at all as the brochure said and we had to ask for loo role twice. We had to use the same towels all week and if you want them changed it was 2.50 Euro per towel. The hotel is boasting three stars but a three star should service rooms. I rate the hotel less than a two star in terms of service. The shower also leaked badly and we used all our hand towels to mop the water of the floor daily and this resulted in no hand towels.

The breakfast was awful with a choice of the same cheap own brand processed ham and cheese. A fruit platter with one melon and pineapple and some chopped apples. Yogurt was available in limited numbers. If you get there at 08:30 there was no fruit or yogurt left. Croissants were nearly always burnt but OK. There was a limited choice of cereals and stale bread. We got very bored of the breakfast and if you wanted anything else it was an extra charge. In fact most basic things seemed to an extra charge.

The evening meals were also tinned and frozen ingredients and limited vegetables. At the start of the week we were given full bread baskets mid-week these were even trimmed right down. The food was very poor. Every night the chef seemed to be unable to cope no matter what time we arrived for dinner we were always told to come back later. The menu was a choice of two starters one always being soup and the other salad based and choice of two mains all pre-cooked. When being told they could not handle any more orders I noticed only about thirty in the dining room.

One night arriving at 8 for dinner because 7 seemed to not be working we were told to come back at 8:30 so we did. We were served the starter and order the Pork for the main meal and were then forgotten until 9:30 in which we were served raw pork. My 7 year old went to bed with no dinner that night. The manager’s response was that the pork was fine and he had many years’ experience as a chef and we were basically wrong. No apology was offered. Having considerable catering experience myself the Pork was equal to a blue steak. It is very risky to eat raw pork in any country. The manager made jokes about the fact it is a good thing tape worms are not a problem anymore. What about Hepatitis E? The children’s menu was limited to one choice of main only.

The transfers resulted in our arrival at 09:20 at Grenoble and we got on the transfer bus and waited for three hours for all three planes to arrive that had now been consolidated to one bus. The reverse transfer was a 4:45 start to catch our flight. We wanted to change to the 06:15 bus but were told it was only 25 seater and already full. However at the airport we asked the other guests what the bus was like and it was a 61 seater bus with only 25 people on board. We were also told we would have to carry our own luggage 300 metres to the bus from the hotel and the manager said it was not his fault.

Over all the cost per night was to me was around 271 GBP for a family of four when I subtracted the free transfers and ski passes. We did not receive 20% of this value in service and quality. As a regular traveller even the most basic hotels provide better value for money.

We stayed in Chalet James in La Tania this year. Ski Power are OK we hired our skis and got our passes through them so all of the conditional discounts applied. It was the last weak of the season so stuff runs out… so what. Don't forget the idea is to Ski. They are not a luxury chalet outfit in fact they are sensibly priced (for most of the season) and if you are nice to the staff they are nice to you. Simple.

We have stayed with Ski Power four times now and each time the holiday is different and yes you can find things wrong if you look really hard but come on its still worth it. But just a comment on some of the other reviews. If you are going to take very small children… self cater. We did and that way you won't have problems with food, timing, cleaning.

Anyway we will probably Stay with them again…. sometimes you just have to go with it.

Staff on the whole friendly but badly managed and definitely there to look after themselves first. Could give plently of examples, but to name a few - took 48 hrs for maintenance man to turn down our radiator - 2 min job with the right equiptment. Getting woken between 2 and 3.30am by staff returning p****d and making lots of noise etc. On their night off using the pool room to get drunk and throw up in buckets etc etc...Badly managed - manager joining in- at times felt we were a necessary inconvenience and interruption to them haing a good time.