We spent four nights at the Hotel Carlina with two teenage children. The hotel was comfortable and all of the staff very helpful and kind. Our rooms were nice, not very spacious but then we did not spend much time in them. The views were great, we could see the pistebashers going all night ! The ski in/ski out was fantastic, the ski/boot room spacious with plenty of heated boot racks and easy accessibility. The spa area was nice and the hot-tub and steam room lovely. The food was good, but not quite up to the chefs expectations ! Beautifully presented - chef had a thing about large garnishes. There was a set menu, fine for non-fussy eaters like us although I understand they would offer alternatives. Breakfast was good, continental style only with boiled eggs available, but a good range of food and the fresh orange juice was lovely. The bar was nice, and the staff delightful, but it was never busy.
Would we recommend the hotel ? Definitely, if you are after great skiing and are less interested in lively atmosphere and home comforts. The hotel is a few minutes walk from Belle Plagne, making going out difficult, though the children did stop at the Spar Supermarket on the way back from skiing for emergency supplies and skied back with them ! However, in our view the location made up for this. Also, the hotel offer ski hire from their 'partner', ELPRO sport, who will pick you up from the hotel and take you to the shop, and then collect your skis from the hotel at the end of your stay. Convenient, but EXPENSIVE, and I feel we could have got a much better deal either online or by phoning other shops, and for the cost of a taxi up to the ski shop still would have saved quite a bit.
And as someone else has commented - no tea upon return from the slopes, and no kettle in the room (though that is entirely normal in France) - so take a travel kettle if you have room. Another mild complaint we had was that the bedrooms were really hot and the public areas not warm enough - we did comment on this but nothing much changed.
Would I go back - YES.

Having been a skier twice a year for 12 years I was disappointed with the value for money of La Carlina at £400 per night for a family room over Christmas week. The food was in my view poor quality (the chef was actually trying to hard but getting it wrong!) with little choice if you did not like the main menu. Childrens meals were also very limited. The hotel is ski-in ski out but the location of the hotel is a good ten minute walk up the mountain to get to the main belle plagne area. This is a problem if you have young children, and as the bar has zero atmosphere (maybe because of the prices!) your options are restricted.
The room (family room) was very small for 4 people given the tarif.
There was very little effort made in terms of recognising that it was Christmas, with only a small tree being put up on Christmas Eve.
On return from a days skiing, there was no complimentary coffee or tea or cakes, which is fairly traditional in my experience.
The other main problem with La Carlina is that you have no facilities to make yourselves any drinks (IE tea or coffee), so if you are like us with young children who get up at the crack of dawn you will have to wait until 7.30am before you can get a drink! Getting a tea or coffee on return from skiing or in the evening will cost you about £3. I think at £400 per night a kettle in the room would be a reasonable expectation, especially if there is no room service.
If you have a car, La Carlina will charge you £70 for the week for the pleasure of parking it in their garage so you can stay at the hotel!
On the positive side the staff were very friendly and helpful,and because of the location they are quite happy to take you in a minibus up to the ski school area in the morning. They also arranged all the ski school and ski passes. Make sure you understand clearly the times that the minibus is leaving as the Carlina has a tendancy to not be very forthcoming with clear information.
The hotel is tidy, well decorated and the Spa is handy at the end of the day. The hotel tends to cater more for the French visitor than the English.
Although we did not dislike the hotel, I am unsure how it commands such a price, when compared to the Champs Fleuris say in Morzine, there is no competition in terms of location, quality and atmosphere.

We stayed at the Carlina in March 2009 and found it to be the perfect hotel for a ski holiday. From the moment we entered the hotel we felt very comfortable and there was not a single aspect of the hotel that disappointed us.

Our bedroom, which overlooked the slopes, was clean, comfortable and (for a French ski hotel) had plenty of storage. The bathroom was well maintained and had a lovely hot towel rail, ideal for drying ski socks overnight.

We stayed on a half board basis and found it very good value (particularly with the weak pound making everything expensive on the mountain). The buffet breakfast was plentiful with a wide selection of cereals, cold meats, cheese, fruit and pastries, and in the evening there was a very good four course dinner. Whilst the dinner was a set menu, the staff were very happy to provide an alternative if there was something that we did not like.

All the hotel staff were very friendly and whilst some of them did not speak English, we found we could easily get by with a bit of school French and a smile.

For a skier, the location could not be better. The hotel is directly on the piste just above Plagne Bellecote so it is genuinely ski in / ski out.

We will definitely return.

Being a family of 3 with a 10 year old son we booked into a standard family room. Our room was a bit smaller than we had hoped (room 34) but our son had a large twin room to himself. The clothes storage was a bit tight but we made full use of all the space available in our son's twin. The biggest annoyance of the holiday was the very intermittent wifi service that my husband needed for work but that was all we could really complain about.

The half board menu appeared to be a fixed 4 course menu but as we occasionally didn't fancy some of the food on offer (snails??!!) we were offered alternatives without any fuss. One word of warning - our 10 year old did struggle with some of the food and the constant offer of chicken nuggets & chips as an alternative but some will not have this problem., however the food was of excellent quality but very French so a bit scary for some of us! If you are going for B&B only - the breakfasts are marvellous and will keep you going until the evening.

You can buy the ski passes via the hotel so they were waiting for us at reception AND - a big plus - they have an arrangement with a local ski shop which offers a 10% discount. The beauty of this was that we were collected from the hotel - taken to the shop and fitted out and then brought back to the hotel in the mini bus with our gear. So much more dignified than queueing with everyone else in a large group getting hot and sticky and having to wait for ages!

All of the staff are wonderful - no complaints there at all. They have a new swimming pool and spa area - all luvy jubly although I didn't try out any of the treatment. The hot tub was great after a long day skiing.

Literally a ski in and out hotel but they could do with a bench in the ski room and not every room has a locker but this isn't a big deal.

Unless you are an avid skier - DON'T buy the full Paradiski ski pass as this is VERY expensive - especially with the Euro to GBP at the moment. Stick to the La Plagne pass and up grade for a day if you really want to travel around. There are tons of slopes - mostly difficult blues to mid reds. If you want a private ski lesson go for the lunchtime deal where 2 for the price of 1 get an hour and a half for about £50.

Have to say that eating out there is now very expensive due to the current exchange rate. On top of that the local prices are quite high. Beer in the hotel circa ten Euros. Twix on the mountain 2.40 Euros!!! So go well stocked up with chocolate and duty free.

Hope you will find this an honest review. The hotel is delightful. If you are arranging a direct booking fly into Chambrey as Geneva is soooooo far away. But have a lovely time.