SOWELL RESIDENCES Pierre Blanche

Wonderful
Traveller Type: Solo Traveler

Wonderful
Traveller Type: Solo Traveler

Good
Traveller Type: Traveling as Couple
  : Room size was massive and comfortable with everything we needed for our stay. Great location- ski in ski out. Staff were helpful and friendly. The centre of the village was easily accessible by lift. Ski hire shop in the hotel was very good value and lift pass station was practical. The ski resort itself was fantastic for all levels of skiers.
  : The hotel was very hard to get to at first. There is a lift from the centre of the village to the hotel but we were not told this before our arrival. It meant we ended up walking a long road route up the mountain to get there. The cleanliness of the room wasnt great- there is an option to pay a cleaning fee (which is expensive) or you can choose to clean the room yourself. I imagine most people clean themselves which is why it seemed fairly unclean given the hotel provided limited cleaning equipment.

Poor
Traveller Type: Solo Traveler
  : It's on a piste (although the size of the complex means that you are not necessarily near a ski locker). There was nothing else I liked at Residence Soleil Vacances.
  : This place was totally unacceptable in virtually every aspect: - The car park was full and I had to park on the road, in my case this was a good 280 metres away, partly down a hill (not nice when you have to lug skiing gear). - The studio had no bed, just a very creaky sofa bed, which I had to make myself. I ended up sleeping on the floor, because the sofa bed was so horrible. - You have to pay for the cleaning (55 euros in my case), or do it yourself; it says so in the small print, but it's still not fair when you compare the price to other places. - The complex is poorly maintained and everything about it shouts cheap and nasty (I have been to cheap places where an effort was made and they were pleasant, but this was not one of them). - The complex is a blot on this Alpine landscape and you can see it from miles away; I am surprised they got planning permission to build this abomination. - Only basic Wi-Fi was free, but you have to pay for streaming. Even the use of a shovel was not free of charge. - To add insult to injury, they call this a 4-star place (there must be some small print about that). - It was grotesquely overpriced for this level of quality and service.

Wonderful
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : Great location- ski in (as long as you find the correct piste - La Violettes - at the end of your day) and ski out. Easy access to Centre of Les Menuires (La Croisette).
  : Pointless pool (very small, dingy little room, and not warm enough to simply laze around in). Our kettles handle was broken and the kettle was not replaced throughout the entire week we were there, despite repeated assurances from the very friendly reception staff that it would be.

Poor
Traveller Type:
  : The location is on the top of the Les Menuires town hill. Possible to go down by elevator lift to city centre. Small shopping centre downstairs is convenient.
  : The rooms were dirty, with spider webs and dirty bed sheets/towels. Very bad cleanliness of the apartment. Kitchen cutlery wasn't washed properly and kettle broken. Probably some virus in the whole hotel, because we got stomach flu after 2 days staying there. Smelly corridors from neighbours cooking food.

Very Poor
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : Not much good to say. The bathroom was large for the size of the apartment (which was tiny). The view was good, but it is hard not to have a good view in Les Menuires. There is a pretty good (but pricy) grocery store located in the building. A couple of reasonable ski equipment rental shops located there as well.
  : My stay at Pierre et Vacances/Residence Soleil Vacances was exceptionally poor. An error was made on my booking. The class of room that I had booked was not available when I checked in (at ~15 minutes after the allowed start of check in), so we were shoved into a room with only a sofa bed, which was inadequate. The Soleil Vacances customer service response was incredibly poor. RSV acknowledged the 'insufficient services' in a letter to me and offered limited compensation of Euro240 (I believe I was to be charged the full rate for the bad room even though I would not have booked the room if I had had a choice). The limited compensation offered was subject to my agreeing to be bound by legal conditions to 'maintain the strictest confidentiality regarding this transaction, and in particular undertake irrevocably to publish on any site specializing in the rating of tourist establishments ... or social networks any comments regarding the establishment in which he (they) have stayed, and more generally none of the establishments operated by the group Soleil Vacances.' Had I agreed to the terms of the letter (which I did not), I would be subject to a fine of Euro 2000 if I did - almost 10x the amount of the compensation on offer. Wow!! I have a copy of the letter (sent to me via email from Client Relations at Soleil Vacances) if anyone is interested. The room itself was poor; the sofa bed very uncomfortable, the room dirty (someone else's toe nails scattered about - we did not notice within the notification period). The walls thin - we could hear the morning belch of the man next door. We were located was on the side of the hotel, so my child and I had to walk up metal stairs (with our ski boots on), across a parking lot and then back inside the building (or a long concrete steps/pathway) to get to the slopes. My son thought that the halls near the swimming pool smelled of sewage. Limited parking (though likely the busiest week of the year).

Poor
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : Perfect ski in and out
  : On arrival, there was only one lady at the front desk for a giant facility... to check in people arriving on a saturday to ski for a week ... not ok. Everyone is already annoyed and tired travelling by car to thos place and they have super slow check in. Than we got 2 rooms (grandma and 2 x12 year old girls and in the second room me and my husband). In the description of the hotel it said:" there is no kitchen towel", however there was literally none of the necessities in the room which we pain over 2000 each for... no toilet paper!!!! No bags in the toiletry bins, no shampoo ... no soap in the bathroom for God's sake... for a simple room, ours was room 1405, we paid over 2000 and didn't have anything in it. Also that room was terrible, since it was right by the exit and everyone coming in from skiing would stomp their snowy ski shoes... even at night (apre ski?).. we could ot open the window curtains all week because the room was literally at the road... at the entrance.

Fair
Traveller Type: Traveling as Couple
  : very bad sofa and in eoom was very very cold.

Pleasant
Traveller Type: