Hang up the phones when you have a problem, refuse to help, don’t reply to emails, their competitors are offering solutions and changing holidays when skiing can’t be fulfilled, Crystal ski are forcing people to go and hiking their prices!!

The new Crystal website is awful - impossible to search for a particular hotel in a resort. Unworkable unless you want to scroll through scores or even hundreds of options to find your preference. After many years of travelling with Crystal I've now moved to Inghams for all our skiing holidays.

A family of 4, children 3 and 5yrs old. The resort is good for beginners and second timers and children. More advanced skiing is limited. We stayed at Delle Alpi which was great provided you got used to its lay out. The lifts in the hotel go to different floors so need to get head around that. Old part is fine but the newer part is really nice. Wellness suite was fantastic with such views, and kiddie friendly with time limits. Also the complementary kiddie club was great for us. Ours preferred it to skiing! Ski school is in middle of village and the hotel is at one end. Use the bus.....which we didn't know about beforehand! The nearest lift and slope (blue) and ski hire are within 3 mins of the back of the hotel. There are a couple of nice Reds running onto the blue behind the hotel. We also went onto the glacier in the cable cars with the kiddies just to show them what it was like. We didnt get to the neighbouring village which is linked by cable car and looks really pretty but will do next time. Biggest moan is lack of a briefing and general information flow. Although the rep was great and we made a point to find her and ask our questions you sometimes don't know what you don't know...e.g. bus service stopping outside the hotel. Others in the hotel did mention this as an issue.

Changed our accommodation 3 days before travel meaning we could not be together as planned, no apology or compensation, rude customer service. Then they cancelled our holiday the day before we travelled and blamed me for cancelling! Just about managed to get it reinstated. Avoid avoid avoid!

We decided to book a ‘package holiday’ (we normally book independently)for several reasons this year. Never again with Crystal. We decided on Wengen, a resort we had been to before and were, fortunately as it turned out, familiar with. The booking process was painful, took a full 3 days for our travel agent to be able to speak to anyone. So long in fact that the contingent of our group that was flying from a different airport booked with Inghams … and what a better experience all round they had! Vouchers for pre paid lift passes, travel passes, train tickets and ski lessons had to be chased by ourselves, and then the information was sketchy. We were travelling on a Saturday and received a train timetable for Tuesday. We weren’t told that the ski pass voucher needed printing, otherwise the ski pass wouldn’t be issued (big thanks to skiset shop in Wengen for printing this out) On arrival in Geneva we were told we could ‘if we wanted to ‘go see the travel rep on the way out of the airport to the train station. We did so, thinking she may be interested to hear we’d arrived safely and beable to give us some info on best trains to get. She seemed a bit surprised to see us, spouted a lot of platform numbers to us (there are 4 train changes to get to Wengen) and left us to get on with it. I have to add that the flight time from Manchester means there’s little room for late luggage or flight arrivals to allow you to catch the last connecting trains to Wengen. If you were unfamiliar with train travel or the Swiss train system this would be a very stressful experience. Fortunately we have done the journey several times. I must add, I can’t fault the hotel (Wengenhof) at all - they were fab and even fed us at 10pm. The rest of our party had travelled with Inghams and had a ‘Welcome’ pack full of useful information Nothing for Crystal holidaymakers!! No direction as to where to go to find out what day, time and meeting place for ski lessons, no telling us the ski pass voucher needed to be printed, no direction to ski hire shop or opening times. What a shambles. I really can’t imagine how stressful this would be if you were unfamiliar with the resort, or, even worse, if you were unfamiliar with the whole ski holiday experience/organisation/ how to do it. Departure day …. Inghams guests had a note to suggest the best time train to get - nothing for Crystal … no surprise there. Really struggling by now to see what the ‘package’ bit of this holiday is. We really would have been more informed, more organised , less stressed and spent less money if we’d have gone independently. There was no ‘package’ at all - just commission to crystal for putting all the various add ins through their system. Geneva airport was a nightmare. Maybe not directly Crystals fault, but as they use EasyJet and EasyJet use Geneva they have to take some ownership of the issues. We queued , snaking in and out of the building, with no seats and no drink for a full 3 hours (we’ve done some travelling in our lives, and this was a record). On asking what the issue was , to 2 separate staff members, we were told it’s always like this on a Saturday - too many passengers and not enough staff. How can this be, the airline and airport were fully aware we were all travelling that day, to my knowledge no one woke up that morning and said “Let’s just pop to Geneva for a flight today” - we’d all booked weeks/months in advance! After 3 exhausting hours of queueing (thank goodness we don’t have young children) we were rushed through security and hustled to the plane- no time to grab a drink or snack. Another hour of standing and, at long last, after 4 hours of standing in line we get on the plane. Our worst airport experience in 35 years , and , bearing in mind one of us used to travel weekly for business meetings to various parts of the world, that’s quite a lot of experience to draw on. We can categorically say never again will we use Crystal and will avoid Geneva airport whenever possible. Inghams and independent travel are the only way.

Never again will I book through Crystal Ski. Rebooked us into a different resort and lower grade hotel with no notification until an email 36 hours before departure. No apology offered, just £100 compensation for a ruined week with is insulting. The other ski operators I have used have all been signficantly better ( and often cheaper)

I wouldn't ever use Crystal ski again. Less than 10 days before our holiday Crystal ski sent a booking change confirmation. We didn't notice that on page three they had changed our resort and booked us unto lower quality accommodation. There was no notice, no explanation, no consultation no apology (and no refundof the difference in price). When we phoned, we waited nearly an hour for a rude and unhelpful service. No acknowledgement of the distress they caused. It looks like they haven't even managed to sort out the refund correctly. Appalling. Book elsewhere.

Crystal Reps' involvement (namely two people both looking after Sestriere resort, one was Spanish and one was Greek) made everything more difficult, from trying to retrieve lost items to getting them to honour equipment hire that'd already been paid for. A litany of excuses, none of which match up meant we and other guests wasted a good chunk of time trying to hold them accountable, and when that failed, just doing their jobs. Return coach was an hour late, but guests were none the wiser and our rep (whose number I only got because of having tried to get them to solve issues - this was never provided) mobile phone went straight to voicemail. Lots of unnecessary stress and can't really see the value in booking with Crystal at all.

The nightmare started after I paid my money to Crystal for a skiing holiday in Andorra from 9th -16th January 2022. I was totally unable to check-in on line or get through to Crystal for advice. My E-tickets, TUI shop and a text from TUI all confirmed that we flying to Andorra via Toulouse. So I had to spend £200 to get the PQR test (staying overnight in London)required by the French authorities. When I arrived at the check-in I was told we were going via Barcelona. Only by chance had I had the foresight to fill in Spanish entry requirements. We had no Rep on the transfer bus. We were dumped in a snow storm in the middle of Pas de la Casa with no Rep and no way of knowing how to get to our hotel. When we found it, it was all locked up, with no one in reception. When eventually we found a staff member I had to haul my luggage up 5 flights of steep stairs - the lift was broken. The Hotel was dire. Not the romantic sounding one advertised by Crystal but more a basic hostel. My room was a tiny cell with just enough room for a double bed. The base was a warped. wooden-slat one and the mattress a battered sprung one. Meals were dire. I was moved to another hotel owned by the same people and although the bed was comfortable, there were innumerable frustrations and difficulties and the meals were poor, especially given what I had paid for the holiday.

Firstly - look at Trustpilot reviews and that will convince you to stay well away from this Company. They advertise that you can cancel up to 14 days before you travel but you can't get in touch with them to do this so don't believe it. For 2 weeks I have been trying to get in touch with them to discuss the options of cancelling a holiday in a couple of weeks time. I tried to telephone (many many times - there is only one number), but recorded message said that I had dialed the wrong number (which I had not). Today it actually rang but after waiting over 2 hours listening to music I had to give up. A couple of weeks ago, I emailed Crystal Ski 'after travel', 'pre travel' addresses and the general email address and asked that somebody call me urgently a - but no response.. Putting aside the issue of cancellation, when I entered my booking details in ‘manage your booking’ it says “ Sorry, we can't find a booking with these details" so I couldn't even check in, enter passenger info etc. or even find out if my booking existed. I have now, by chance noticed that they had changed the booking reference (without telling me). What a shower!!! If you can find a holiday with somebody else then I strongly suggest that you do so as I have zero confidence that this shower would be there to help or support if something goes wrong whilst away.

I am writing in response to our ski package in February. We contacted Ski Swift/Crystal Ski in October to book for February break. I told the representative we were an American family of six with kids ages 15, 14, 12, and 10. We asked for ski in/ ski out, a pool, nice restaurant and evening activities. We were very dissatisfied with our resort (Niege et Ciel) upon arrival. We didn’t get any of these things with Niege et Ciel. First, when we arrived there was no one from Ski Swift or Crystal Ski(no one ever explained this relationship to us) to meet us. The check-in person merely handed us our keys and some bracelets and said goodnight. We received no information as to what the bracelets were actually for. She didn’t tell us where anything was located or about any of the services of the hotel. No one explained to us that the numbers on our keys also correlated to the lockers for skis. No one told us where the ski lockers were or how the meals worked. The rooms were tiny and depressing. My husband and I had to walk sideways to get by one another. We are a family of 6!!! The hotel bed and bedding were hard and stained. There was no shampoo or soap provided. We paid a fortune for this vacation and we didn’t even get soap in any of our 3 rooms! The meals were boring, tasteless and repetitive. Breakfast was the same every single day. If you show up after 8:45, they don’t put more food out even though breakfast is over at 9:30. The kitchen staff actually start setting up for lunch while you eat breakfast. If you sit anywhere near the kitchen during dinner, the inadequately vented kitchen will make you nauseous with the smell of grease. Dinner was crowded and some parties would put their names on tables and show up close to 21:00. The kitchen staff allowed this behaviour. You would often have to wait awhile for the kitchen staff to clean our plates. This resort is for YOUNG families not ones with teenagers. There were toddlers screaming at all hours in every room. I consistently observed small children grabbing food with their hands or touching all of the utensils. No one stopped them. Why were we matched with this property? Furthermore, everyone and every activity at this resort was in French. We could not participate in anything. There was nothing for our teenagers to do after skiing. No pool. No spa. TV only had French channels. I hurt myself falling at the airport and I had to spend the week in this dismal hotel. The Crystal Ski representative even admitted that the place needed a makeover and was not the appropriate one for us. However, we could not find that representative during her scheduled hours for the rest of the week. The hotel employees didn’t even know where she was. We never got a message about our pickup for our return. We had to call twice and were given the incorrect time and location for pickup. We were then crammed into a van to drive less than 5 minutes to be dropped off in a lot to wait for the bus. My family had to separate into two vans and my 10 year old had to sit in the front of the van which is not allowed in the USA. We then had to ride in a hot bus in which the driver never asked us about our comfort. I will never book a ski vacation through your company again and I will encourage others to look elsewhere. You are only interested in making a quick buck and not customer service or satisfaction. I also contacted then via phone and email about our dissatisfaction and never got a response.

After using Crystal Ski for over 7 Years I have no choice in sharing my experience. What an absolute Poor Customer. We are a party of 9 friends that do 2-3 or sometimes 4 trips per season. 4 of us live in Manchester & 5 live in Brighton so we always have to call into crystal to sort out the odd man booking. This is our second trip this season & I have to say that Crystal Ski have truly ruined our this for us. We were emailed days ago by Crystal saying that they have changed the size of the plane & that we could NOT take any Ski Carriage. Crystal tried to palm us off with £60 to arrange Hire gear in resort which we said NO WAY. ( We are all experienced riders & have ALL our own gear, so being told we couldn't take it was a big problem. Due to the fact that we had to have 3 separate booking, 2 from Gatwick & 1 from Manchester the only flights affected were from Gatwick. So, because Crystal were not willing to provide adequate compensation we were forced to cancel. Now that the bookings have been cancelled Crystal ski would NOT allow the 3rd booking from Manchester to be refunded as our flight isn't affected, we are now a party of 3 rather than 9. Considering we do multiple trips per season this amounts to £40-£45k that we spend with Crystal. Given that I have been on the phone to them directly to explain the effects of there silliness to NOT refund ALL 9 Persons I can see that they have no problem in ruining the trip for ALL 9 persons, I find this totally unacceptable. If you are about to book with this company I would 1000% NEVER recommend them to any group of people, as they don't care 1 bit about what the knock on affect is to there customers. We are under 10 days before we are due to leave but our party is 3 NOT 9. I would say to Crystal Ski that considering the circumstances that was explained to them in detail about the booking and the group, we will NEVER be booking with them again & I will NEVER recommend them to anyone I know & to the people I do know that use them I will be informing them of the Diabolical Service we have received & for completely ruining our Trip. GIVE CRYSTAL SKI A WIDE BERTH, THEY ARE ALL ABOUT THE £££ NOT THE CUSTOMER. EXTREMELY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Our seats on plane deliberately allocated apart when we went to check in online. When I tried to move our 2 seats together they wanted to charge us more money! Rep service more or less non existent. No reps on coach either way. Multiple stops on coach, some people missed their stop as driver spoke minimal English. 40 min late picked up on way back, no communication to inform of us of delay, chaos and confusion on bus as no rep..further delayed en route due to lack of ability of driver to communicate with guests who were unclear whether they were on right bus.. and we almost missed our flight. Lots of reps hanging around chatting at airport..didn't offer to help unload coach or even tell us where to check in. Didn't appear to care less. Very stressful end to our holiday as we only just made our flight due to their incompetence.

Having written twice to Crystal since February half term we have no response to our complaint and so I felt that customers need to understand how little Crystal care about them once the holiday is over. We had read one bad review about the apartment we were booked in during half term week in Val D'Isere which stated that on no account should customers book on the first floor because of the pounding music from the night club below. We requested rooms high and at the back of the block. On arrival we were given the exact room we asked not to have. The first three nights were fine and then the nightclub opened on the Tuesday and continued all week. Sleep was impossible from midnight until 3.00am and we were exhausted especially as skiing is very important to us and we get the first lifts when ever possible. Whats more there was no Crystal rep on the bus transfer from the airport and we had to inform the driver he was on his way to Les Arcs by mistake instead of Val D'Isere. Once in Val we were able to tell the driver where our apartment was but the other customers on board had no idea and neither did the driver. The rep was dismissive and frankly rude and left it until the last minute to tell us about the early morning transfer details out of the resort. We have been Crystal customers for years but I am afraid this time the service was extremely poor.

Phoned up recently with money to spend and willing to spend it on a Crystal ski holiday. Very poor customer service from an extremely distinterested and unhelpful member of staff who quite clearly wanted me off the phone and not bothering him. Therefore - no money coming your way crystal ski, your loss as I took my business to a competitor who had customer service staff who actually valued me and my hard earned money,Shame on you crystal - get your staff sorted out. Official complaint been made.

They just don't care. Take your money and then ignore you when it goes wrong. Lie about everything.

On previous ski holidays with crystal the rep would meet with each group on arrival and transfer between the airport and resort to discuss items such as activities/ski hire/ski lessons etc. This was the first time, and very much to my surprise, that the rep didn’t introduce themselves to us on the bus. Our first interaction was when we arrived at our chalet apartment. He dumped us at the reception which was closed, we had to figure where to go which ended up being a mission as we had to get a lift in reception to the walkway, walk across the road on the walkway take another lift from the walkway level to the ground level, we then had to walk into our chalet section and get another lift to floor 3. This ordeal took about an hour to figure out and finally get to our beds, this wasn’t easy with a 6 year old in tow. The next day, when we got familiar with our surroundings we figured that the rep should have brought us directly across the road to the chalet entrance which would have simplified everything. We hit the slopes and everything was good, my son’s ski school was great. Our next interaction with the rep was on the Thursday, he knocked on the door and asked for us to give him a good rating in feedback, im not sure for what, he then was going on about heading to a staff party night out, in passing he said that there was night skiing and fireworks in les menuires, on recollection I think this is the only time he actively told us about an event occurring in the area. My son heard about the fireworks and was really excited to see them, unfortunately and to my bemusement this event was occurring while he was talking to us so by the time we had ventured out it was over. We had to deal with a disappointed son. This brings us to the complete farce of getting back to Dublin. Ive never been in a similar situation where a group of people are debased and treated like livestock. My only conclusion from the ordeal was that TUI wanted that aeroplane to be in Dublin for next day journeys by any means necessary, in fulfilling this they displayed complete disregard to their customers who all, like myself, had spent thousands on their ski holiday. We got up on Saturday packed and had breakfast, we waited in reception at 2pm, as instructed, for the airport transfer. We got a call saying that the bus will be apprx 10 mins late. We stayed in the reception. After an hour of waiting I rang the rep back, he stated that the bus should be there in 10 mins but they were having trouble contacting the driver. Finally the bus arrived apprx 3 hours late. We had spent this time couped up in reception not willing to go anywhere or order lunch having been wrongly told the bus would be there imminently. When the bus arrived we immediately gathered our stuff and proceeded to the bus I had to do two trips to ensure we had all our belongings. On boarding the bus the rep accused us of being late???? Once on the bus there were certain rumours that we would be going from Chambery onto Lyon. This was coming from updates on the crystal ski website. However, nobody from crystal ski confirmed this, indeed no rep was on the bus from les menuires which I thought was poor given the already long delays. My son was playing with his I pad near to Chambery my wife and I heard a thud which was his Ipad falling onto the ground (we didn’t realise at the time) it was dark with poor lighting and we weren’t able to see what had fallen. We arrived to pure chaos in Chambery, there were reps running around no-one knew what was going on. My wife and I immediately recognised that my son had left his Ipad on the bus we went to the rep and he said not to worry as all the busses are parked in the car park. He then turned his back on me to count traveller numbers. He was ignoring me I asked what parking doc the bus was on, he walkie talkied someone and gave me to a girl rep who was complaining that she needs to get home, she tried to walkie talkie someone realised it had gone and gave me back to the guy so she could leave, he then rang the driver but couldn’t talk to the driver as he had no French??? I stated that I can speak French to the driver but he refused and stated he would get another rep to do so, he then disappeared 30 mins later another person (I think the head rep) stated that it would be returned to the bus depot and posted to me. That Ipad was 100% on that bus, if the driver said it isn’t there, he has either stolen it, someone in the depot stole it or a rep has stolen it. This would have been avoided if the rep responded to my initial request appropriately rang the driver whilst he was in proximity, the ipad hasn't been returned. In Chambery we received a bottle of water and a packet of crisps. We then transferred onto another coach to Lyon. On route to Lyon the bus driver had no English and the two reps on the bus had no French (Im amazed how nearly all the Reps I encountered have no French), the driver had a n issue with parking at the airport and I had to translate what he was saying for your reps. In Lyon there was nothing open in the airport no food. Crystal stated that they requested airport management to open restaurants and there would be food the far side of security, this was another mistruth (lie). Amazingly one of the reps stated that she was starving but that their manager had organised for someone to drive into town to get them McDonalds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, this shows where their priorities lie. Crystal stated that the airplane would be arriving shorty and be turned around this however was another lie as sky scanner stated that the plane hadn’t left Dublin. Eventually we boarded the plane around 2.30am. Amazingly the plane had no catering so yet again there was no food!!!!! On arrival to Dublin I nearly fell asleep at the wheel driving back to Galway, we had to pull over and try to sleep in the car eventually arriving home at 11 am Sunday morning. There was no prioritisation of families with kids, there was no communication, there was deliberate miscommunication or silence, there was no options given in regards to providing airport accommodation and the whole scenario was extremely stressfull. in terms of the reps, I felt that we were a convenience to assist in bankrolling their holiday in the Alps- not the other way around. I understand the conditions were bad but I have had previous experiences with Crystal, prior to the TUI takeover, of transferring from Strasburg to an airport in Germany, that experience was completely different and we were treated rightly as clients of the company.

Crystal Ski staff didn't provide any useful information during the course of the holiday in the French Alps. Even with the 7 hours delay on the way back, they proved to be useless and not providing the basics - food, drinks and information. And they were constantly rude and inconsistent in their version of the truth. Avoid them if possible.

I have just returned from one of the worst holidays of my life! Basically a skiing holiday in Alpe D'Huez, turned into a nightmare when first my 10 year old daughter and then I, fell ill. Therefore, instead of skiing, we both spent the entire week in our hotel room, the only trips being to the local doctors surgery ! To be clear, I have no reason to believe our illness had anything to do with Crystal, the hotel or the resort. However, the manner in which our difficult situation was handled was deplorable. It started with a refusal to take my sick daughter, when we were unable to secure a cab, just 500 metres in a company vehicle, to the local doctors surgery. This apparently contravenes company policy. I was then told to put her on a bus ! Subsequently, when I asked about the potential to seek refunds on our unused ski hire, one rep told me that similar refunds had been provided in the past, the other telling me that no refunds could be provided and I would need to go through my insurer ? However, it was my request for a private taxi to Chambery Airport, needed as we were both still feeling unwell at the end of the holiday, that was nothing short of shambolic. Over a period of 48 hours, the booking went from arranged to not guaranteed to confirmed, the suggested price quoted more than doubled and I was initially informed that I would need to pay in cash for what was supposed to be a company booking? However when I complained about this cash requirement, within half an hour, I was told I could pay by credit card? I found the rep to be ill informed, keen to blame others and occasionally rude. She certainly gave insufficient consideration to the difficult situation in which we found ourselves. Following the notification that Crystal could not guarantee the taxi transfer, I immediately arranged a taxi transfer through my travel insurers. Needless to say this was promptly confirmed, without delay or any requirement for up front cash payments. Upon my return to the UK, I wrote a polite e-mail to Crystal Customer Services, requesting the company consider, in these unfortunate circumstances, providing a refund for the unused ski hire, lessons and passes or preferably a discount on another Crystal Ski Holiday booking, to make up for my daughters ruined first ski experience. I was only hoping for a 10%, or possibly a 15% gesture of goodwill. The response was short and to the point, "As a Tour Operator we do not offer compensation / refunds in the event of illness or injury". Nice touch !!! Needless to say, I will not be placing my custom with Crystal Ski Holidays again in the future !