After reading reviews here I was somewhat apprehensive on arrival but went with an open mind and was very pleasantly surprised by the Isba.

The Isba is fairly run down but seemed clean so unless you are bothered by dated décor this really is not a problem. Contrary to other reviews I also found staff to be very friendly and helpful. I asked one for directions to the ski hire shop I had booked with and although they didn't know they managed to find another staff member who did for me. They were also able to let me into my room with the spare key when my partner was still out with ours (note that there is shelf to leave keys within the door coded section of the hotel but we chose not to use this). Even on the morning after a very late night out with guests on an organised bar crawl they still managed to cheerfully serve a much needed breakfast despite clearly suffering from the night before as much as we were!

The rooms were more than adequate for what we paid compared with what I was expecting with enough storage space for the two of us to hang all our clothes and a fair sized bathroom with bath and over the bath shower, toilet, sink and bidet. We also found it to be warm enough with us actually needing to open the window on several occasions! This goes for the rest of the hotel too.

Our room was at the back of hotel on the 2nd floor and overlooked the opposite building but the 3rd floor rooms were high enough to have a nice view out of the window and all the rooms at the front of the hotel appeared to have a balcony overlooking the road and rather scenic church opposite. My only issue with our twin/double room was that the 2 twin beds that were pushed together were not the same height. Being at the back we did not have any problems with noise on the street but we were woken up some mornings by the dustbin lorry and during the night by other guests being noisy when returning home to their rooms - the walls were quite thin - but this is down to how considerate the other guests are rather than any fault of the hotel.

The location of the Isba is great, only 5 minutes walk from the centre of 1850 making for quick access to the lifts, much appreciated when carrying heavy ski gear!

Food was another major plus point in terms of quality and quantity. We found the ample food provided to be both tasty and filling. There was cooked breakfast most days in addition to the buffet, fresh cake for afternoon tea each day, plenty of hearty 3 course meals for dinner, just what you want at the end of the days skiing, best of all these were served with free wine that was more than drinkable. All meals came with baskets of fresh bread that got refilled so you could make sure you got your fill on that although the meals themselves were big enough to satisfy most appetites.

You could easily go a week on just the food provided but if you do want lunch as well you can book a very good value packed lunch which contained a large baguette with a choice of fillings, drink, piece of fruit and chocolate bar for just €5. We paid nearly this for just a sandwich from a local shop!

Due to the food and free wine (which we took full advantage of!) we hardly had to spend any extra money on food and less on drinks than we were expecting making it even better value. I think we spent more money on a meal out on the one night off the staff have from cooking dinner than we did on food for the rest of the week! The hotel bar prices were also fairly favourable compared with other bars although still expensive compared to prices at home (€4 a pint) and free WiFi was sometimes available, I imagine the helpful staff would turn it on for you if you asked to use it.


If you go expecting a high quality hotel you will be disappointed but if you go expecting value for money accommodation hopefully you will be as please as I was. I would be very happy to go back to the Isba.

The Warner family have returned from a skiing holiday at the Hotel Isba in Courchevel 1850 arranged by Ski-Val. Unfortunately what promised to be a wonderful holiday turned out to be sadly compromised by the Isba and the hotel staff.

Security.
The idea of having coded access to the hotel and areas within it seems like a good idea, provided the access code is kept secure and changed each week. Unfortunately the codes remained the same all season. I was told this by two different staff on separate occasions. The code was also known by people un-connected with the hotel. With recent child abduction cases still in the news, this could have led to a potentially dangerous situation especially for young children in the hotel.
With no night staff on duty and no contact details or staff room numbers published, the Hotel Isba is a disaster waiting to happen.

Safety.
The WC’s in the bathrooms are not fixed to the floor so any child climbing up on it to look in the mirror could cause the WC to topple over! This was the same in the rooms we had but I could not check all the rooms in the hotel.
Our room also had a loose electrical socket in the wall, this could be easily pulled out revealing the wires.
The carpets in the corridors were badly worn and in two places could have tripped you up.

The rooms.
I was told by the SkiVal reservation staff that all the rooms at the front of the hotel on the second floor had been recently refurbished. Looking at the rooms, I would guess that was about 10 years ago!
I am not complaining about the size of the rooms as we knew they would be small, but what I did not expect was the poor state they were in. The rooms might be just about acceptable in a youth hostel but not for a hotel charging nearly £700 per person per week.

The food.
This is about the only good thing about the Isba. The food was good and plentyful.

The Staff.
Most of the staff were friendly and helpful. The hotel manager was something different! Kim, who was about 25 years old, really could not care less. She had no control over her young staff who did their own thing. If there was a real emergency in the hotel, Kim and her staff would not be able to cope.

The Hotel.
The Isba is in a wonderful position and could, with some tlc, be a super hotel but over the years has been allowed to deteriorate. Next season will be the last for the Isba so nothing will be done in the way of refurbishments and maintenance. In the circumstances, it is probably a good thing that the end is in sight.

SkiVal.
Avoid them like the plague! The MD, Mrs. Harris, has the same ‘could not care less’ attitude as her hotel manager. I have issues over the moving of rooms. She took nearly a month to reply to my first letter. Her reply indicated that her operation was whiter than white and all the staff were perfect.

Under the circumstances, in my opinion, this is not a safe hotel to be in.

I have been sking in many other resort and stayed in some of the best hotels, i found this place great value for money the food and staff also the hotel manger where all 5 *.

The hotel needs alot of tlc, but apart from that it was one of the best sking hoildays i have had for a long time, and will be going back for more.

i would advise anyone to go if you are up for having fun and in one of the best resorts.

Well, what can I say - what a shame! The hotel, or rather hostel, has been left to go completely downhill and the majority of staff just couldn't have cared less. There was a major leak in the middle of the roof, so a selection of buckets decorated the entrance - with no attempt to mop up extra water on the floor. No attempt either to clean the place - empty cans/litter left lying around outside the hotel and inside for days on end. Our rooms were tidied only twice - the bins never emptied. The only upside was the food - the chef had broken his arm, so an assistant chef stepped up to the mark, and we got good, plentiful plates of nice food every night - except for the last night, when the choice of curry or curry did not go down too well. Also, for some obscure reason, no cooked breakfast on our last morning. Think all the staff were too pissed from the night before to do anything.

I know lots of other guests were more pissed off than we were with the state of the place and the attitude of the staff. I felt,for the price and where it was, in the middle of Courchevel, it was OK. However, I did feel that having a young manageress in charge was the main problem as she had no control over her staff and they all ran rings around her. A couple of them were fine and were quite embarrassed by it all I think. The handyman spent his day surfing the net lounging around the foyer as did most of the staff.