Trip Report W/C 10th Mar 2006

Here's a summary of our visit to Arc1950:

We flew into Turin with British Airways (flights £115 return) on the evening of Friday 10th March, picked up a Hertz rental car and drove into Turin for a 3 night stay at the magnificent Golden Palace Hotel (booked through expedia for £140 p.n). Two days sightseeing is just right for Turin. The Egyptian Museum and the Royal Palace are worth a visit. A bit of retail therapy on the main street is also recommended.
The drive from Turin to Arc1950 takes just under 4 hours on a Monday.  Follow the signs to Frejus and you can't go wrong. The roads have tolls of approx 50 euro each way or if you are returning within one week, the 7 day return ticket through the Frejus tunnel is 38 Euro instead of 31 Euro one-way. So for a one week return, roughly 75 Euro in tolls. The drive is relatively unremarkable but good motorway roads the whole way.

This was our first visit to the resort and when Arc1950 came into view, it impressed us. I know it's a strange comment, but the car park is also very good. Plenty of room to park the car and lots of light. We were staying in our apartment in the Refuge du Montagnard and as luck would have it, the entrance to our room was 5 metres from the door in the car park. The 2 metre entrance foyer between the car park and the Refuge corridors is strangely in the dark. Coming in from the bright lights of the car park, I couldn't find any light switch and stumbled in the dark (grumble). There should be an automatic sensor on this area to turn on the light.

Coming into the dark and stale smelling corridor there was no obvious reception area. There was however a tacky laminated sign sellotaped wonkily on the lift doors pointing to reception on the 5th floor. There was no mention of what floor we were on. Given the comments from other HMC owners, I was beginning to feel that HMC don't understand the hotel business (hmmm).
Aside: Meeting with Norbert (HMC owners on-site representative) later on, I suggested that any signage should be in frames and cheap, tacky laminated signs should be removed.

The lift itself was knocked around with scratches and splintered wood (double hmmm). Not much maintenance going on. We went up to the reception area on the 5th floor to find it empty. A beautiful fireplace was unused and the general feeling in the lobby area was of neglect and cost-cutting. It also stank of stale smoke. There was no sign on the reception desk (or anywhere else) suggesting what to do if the reception was empty, but as I knew HMC ran the Hameau as well I had a plan B.
After discussion with reception staff, I found out that my apartment had been renumbered by HMC. The 3rd floor had become the 4th floor and the room number had also changed.

On checking into our room, my first impression was a big let down. The cheap Spanish style plastering to the walls and the big cracks between the ceiling and the coving was a big turn off. Definitely no maintenance going on. Also, I couldn't believe there wasn't a shower, there was a shower head and a long hose but no fitting on the wall. However, with a bit of ingenuity, we rigged up a shower over the rail with the use of the dish scourer and a suitcase tie (simply quality!  and we have a photo we can post on the website). There was a cigarette burn to the carpet (we should ban smoking in the rooms).

The build quality of the rooms is very bad. It's strange, the external architecture and build quality of the buildings is very good, but the interiors are poor. Gaps in the grouting, carpentry by an unskilled worker. It really is amazing that anyone approved the work. On the positive side, the furniture in the lounge was very good and better than that in the Jardins or Auberge Jerome.

The bed had the cheapest mattress available. At the very least, this type of mattress needs to be turned over every time a guest checks out. No springs means a deep impression in the mattress and a sore back after a night sleeping (definitely 2 star beds). Much to our pleasure, we had a good view out of our windows with the tip of Mont-Blanc visible. However throughout our stay, my eye kept being drawn back to the shoddy workmanship of the interior. This is 2/3 star.

After 1.5 metres of snow two days before we arrived, the skiing conditions were excellent. The facilities on the slopes are less than perfect. How can a nation that builds the world’s biggest gondola (Viennoise Express, that takes 200 people) not operate a single toilet? All of the toilets are "Ferme" on the slopes. It's as if they can't be bothered to clean them. Thank goodness for the great restaurant just above Arc 2000 on the slopes. The skiing (or in our case snowboarding) was excellent. Blue skies every day for a week and it didn't snow again until the day we left. No problems with the coverage, given the 1.5 metres of snow that had fallen. 

The Refuge and Hameau for that matter are superbly located with ski-in facilities. The ski lockers in the Refuge are good, but I don't understand why the air drier in the lockers blows cold air. To dry your boots in needs to be a touch warmer. The staff appear to have a dining room beside the lockers and the chefs smoke in the hallways (not a good image).

We dined in the Pizzeria and East. The pizzeria has a very good ambience although the pizzas are not very good. The base is like cardboard. It's not putting off the customers and there is a good steady flow. The prices are cheap, 8 euro for a large pizza. We had the Mongolian barbecue at East. The food was very good when it arrived, but they are understaffed and drinks and food took a long time to arrive. We were caught up in conversation and it wasn't too bad, but for some, I imagine, it would be a big problem.

A friend of mine has apartments in the Jardins and the Auberge Jerome and we visited these properties. The reception of the Jardins is also unattended. The HMC staff told us that the fireplaces in the Jardins and the Refuge are not put on as there is no staff in the lobby. They could not answer why the lobbies are not staffed. Norbert admitted later that HMC is understaffing its properties. The only day a staff member is at reception in the Refuge and Jardins is on a Saturday. All of the other days, the property is neglected and people walk in the corridors with their ski-boots on and carry their skis to their room as there is no-one to tell them not to do this. Also no-one walks down the corridors and checks the basics like lights hanging off the walls or bulbs that have blown out. I nicknamed it the "Hall of Broken Lights" and mentioned it to Norbert and Nigel.

In comparison, the SAS Radisson reception and common areas are beautiful (wow). The staff have smart uniforms (no ill fitting HMC cheap black suits here) and give you the genuine feeling that you are welcome (I wish I had bought in this property). The workmanship in the Auberge is also excellent (what happened in the Refuge) and the quality of the fittings (especially the bathrooms with glass shower screens and of course, a shower) is far better. That said, the lounge suite and chairs are cheap in the Auberge. There was someone clearing snow from the balconies (fat chance of that in HMC).

You may have read my other posting, regarding that we were not allowed to use our other apartment, due to a block booking from a group. This turned out to be a lie from Florence Servais from HMC. The maintenance man and is wife were staying in our apartment. How ironic is that? The Refuge suffers from lack of maintenance and yet the maintenance man lives in our apartment. 

Sometimes it’s the small things that annoy, the worn out lift button on the 5th floor reception area.  For those of you who are undecided as to HMC's operation. Take a wander around the corridors of a HMC building and then enter the SAS run Auberge. Intrawest has failed us HMC owners. We may have bought at a lower price, but that was for buying risk of a new product, not for a shabby product.

I like the skiing, I like the exterior architecture of Arc 1950, I love the SAS Radisson and I feel let down by HMC and in particular Intrawest. In finality, will HMC improve? As per Norbert, "we are understaffed, and we have 10/11 of the owner’s rooms being occupied by our staff". How many rooms do they need to occupy to get it right? The whole resort, I can't help think...

We were quite proud of our achievement. In my opinion it has a good chance of being the 2006 winner of the HMC Blue Peter Maintenance award.