We had a tour group organized by the manager or owner of this hotel, who took their money and never paid the company who supplied the services...nearly US$10,000. Buyers Beware.

We have been to Le Portillo for 3 years.For the amount of money it now charges Le Portillo is not looking like good value for money. Whilst some of the apartments have been refurbished (long overdue) in the past year some remain very shabby. We had an apartment for 8 that suffered from a substantial drainage leak that flooded the bathroom floor every time you took a shower. We asked on numerous occasions for it to be fixed but to no avail, the management were absolutely not interested (other than giving us a sponge to mop up the flood every day) and refused any reduction in the weeks rent other than perhaps a discount if we book again next year. There are other apartments in Val Thorens that offer better value and better service. Not impressed this year.

Location was fabulous but some of the staff were rude in the face of no provocation. Our particular gripes were:

When checking in not enough cash was available for the tourist tax, we went away and got the 1 Euro required. Upon return, we were instructed to hand over 600 Euros cash as a deposit: why the necessity for cash wasn't made clear when the expedition was made to get the tourist tax money none of us could understand.

When checking out an attempt was made to keep our deposit with a shrug. The money was only given back after we had insisted that they come and see the apartment.

Would love to go to Val Thorens again but not to stay at this hotel.

We chose the Portillo because of its location in the resort and we were not dissapointed. You can ski straight out of the residence and the shopping centre which has a supermarket and ski hire shops is just opposite - very handy when you are self catering!
The apartment itself was spacious enough for a week's holiday and was better quality than other apartments we have stayed in in France. We cooked most nights and found that we had everything we needed - except a bottle opener which we got from the guy at reception!
On the nights that we ate out we had some really nice meals and found the restaurants to be better value than other resorts we have been to in France. The best thing was that nowhere was more then a couple of minutes walk from the apartment.
We didn't really sample the bars/nightclubs as we were so exhausted from skiing all day and went to bed quite early.
Overall we had an excellent holiday in Val Thorens and would definitely recommend the residence and the resort.