Totem, Friendly Hotel & Spa

Stayed at the Totem Friendly Hotel for a skiing holiday in February. The staff were extremely helpful and friendly. The food was delicious apart from a couple of times main course dishes were cold, but it was easy to find a delicious alternative. The location was brilliant for access to pistes and lifts. The room was very small but it was clean and comfortable. Plenty of hot water for a shower or bath. The bar and lounge areas and outside terrace were all very comfortable and once again amazing friendly staff. I can absolutely recommend this hotel .

Public areas Clean and tidy. The Reception was well organised, and even though we were slightly late in, they were ready for us. All our details were available to the staff and we were invited straight into dinner after a day’s travel. The same floor has the reception, a small ski shop, dining area and bar lounge. Rooms These are modestly sized but clean and well set up. Kettle, tea making, glasses, towels and dressing gown, clean bedding made up daily. Quiet, well heated and ventilated. Good storage and tidy working bathroom. We had rooms facing onto the Forum, but the double glazing keeps the noise down. Ski locker On the ground floor level behind keypad lock. Clean and tidy, warm but without boot heater spikes. Each room has a dedicated locker. It's only just ski out and flat to the bottom of the Forum, and we never found the ski in, but its only 100m flat walk from the main bowl bottom to the shops and this hotel. Staff Numerous, uniformed, helpful, ready to fulfil any requests, cheerful and competent. Multi lingual. Food Plentiful and good. Breakfast every day is fruit, salami and continental sausage, salad, full English hot breakfast, cereals, pastries, bread and cakes, fruit juice, coffees, teas. Dinner always had four choices of main course, with varied vegetables. Unlimited varied salad and sliced sausage and cheese offered with every kind of dressing. Multiple delicious desserts on offer always a dozen with widely varied fruit. Overall the starter and entree were a bit meat or fish focused and we don’t know what the vegetarian options would be. Wine and drinks other than tap water is chargeable. A pleasure

The positives first: very stylish hotel, great location, generally well meaning staff. The so so stuff: basic gym, adequate breakfast. The negatives: primarily the beds….small and ridiculously uncomfortable - at this price of hotel it’s astonishing that the mattresses can’t support the weight of a bantam weight 75 kilo person….pocket sprung in your dreams, nightmares actually. I’m a good sleeper but here I tossed and turned all night. Also the staff are well meaning but very junior and seemingly with no senior management or training. Despite the price this is not one of those French hotels where the staff have been to a hôtellerie college. In conclusion, a stylish interior is insufficient to justify the price - the essentials - decent bedding and management - are sadly missing.

Great hotel for our ski trip ideally located very close to the lifts and slopes. Attention to detail throughout the hotel. Friendly staff who areery helpful, great standard of food in the buffet service restaurant. We used the Spa once and it was of a good standard, with a gym, saunas and outdoor jacuzzi. We had a nice room with a balcony overlooking the ski runs. The bathroom was modern with a good hot shower.

The hotel is excellently located near the shopping and lifts. The decor is quirky and appropriate for the resort. The staff really are very friendly and accommodating. The one downside was that the main courses were occasionally slow to be replenished which meant that the food was often cold. We were there at a very busy time and I think that they were somewhat overwhelmed by the volume. As you can come to supper at any time, guests often arrived at the same time which was hard for the kitchen to manage. But there was a good selection of vegetables at every meal. Overall, a very good stay and we would return.

We stayed over Christmas as a family of four and had two balcony club rooms. As a three star hotel this is excellent but at over €500 euro per night per room I had high expectations. The positives are that the staff were very friendly and nothing was too much trouble. The breakfasts were excellent and ski room and location are superb. Rooms are spacious and well appointed. We did feel that there was a lack of towels and although I can’t stand unnecessary toiletries, in one room there was just shampoo, the other room had conditioner and shower gel. The lack of bath robes is odd when there is a spa downstairs. The spa / wellness room is 10euro per person each day which seems a little steep if you want to do a quick run each morning. The UK tv channels were ITV2, channel 4 and film 4 with no other English speaking news channel which was somewhat odd. From the 26th the hotel became very busy and during evening meals the food ran out. On the 27th we got to supper a little later (8:45pm) and the food had run out apart from starters. Saying all of the above the hotel had just opened for the start of the season so perhaps this a little harsh. Overall this is a good hotel and i hope this feedback is useful.