We had a room on the 4th floor, directly next to the elevator, which was no problem at all. As it was "Semana Blanca" in France, they hotel was packed, and we did hear the kids running around in the morning and evening. Problems: - Room in the attic tends to get very hot throughout the day. You need to air it out once you get back from the slopes to be able to breathe. - There are no hooks whatsoever for your gear to hang up, other than bathroom radiator, which we made heavy use of. - The shower was...how to say this...very badly designed, with no thoughts of the guests in mind (White shower curtain too long, dirty yellow because it hung in the water all the time, shower hose stretched/broken, therefore constantly leaking). Because of the design flaws (seriously, the architect should be executed for that), there was NO way to take a shower without flooding the bathroom floor. - Kitchen very poorly appointed (tiny pot, no pan, exhaust did not work/was NOT installed), refrigerator dirty upon arrival, 2 plates only) - As you have to pre-book the advertised sauna (30 min), it would be private but I strongly suggest to not go. We picked up the key at the front desk, walked down to the basement (careful, no light on the stairwell!) and entered the cave. Again, for the design of the sauna (HUUUUUUUUGE washbasin, but no recliners of any kind to relax between the sessions), the architect responsible should be made to live in it for a month! There are no lockers, but plenty of stools to drop your clothing on...if you want to do that...all of them were dirty. The sauna itself is tiny, to fit more than two people is impossible, and smells dirty and moldy as soon as you open the door to the sauna room. There are two benches, one higher than the other. However, the lower bench is not made for sitting or reclining. It is waaaaayyyyy to narrow even for me to sit on, let alone lie on (I am a size 2). The water provided for the session seemed to be a mix of stale water and old herbs, we did use it once and then decided not to try again. The temperature (about 90 º C) was pretty good, however, the noise the heating system made was somehow not healthy...we felt like the entire thing would explode any second. First session, we headed for the adjoining shower to wash off and discovered that the formerly white shower curtain (now yellow and moldy) was not only a problem of our room....it seems to be a theme for the hotel. As there are no recliners or benches to relax on, we draped our towels over the dingy stools to air out and relax. I then used the WC and wished I hadn´t. Feces smeared across the wall is something that I do not want to see anywhere, least of all in a sauna. Mind you, we let the reception know a day ahead that we´d use the sauna on that day. It wasn´t like they didn´t expect us to be there. We then had a look around and discovered that directly on the opposite site of our section, there was an identical section, which makes for weird encounters if you are not careful. In this section, we found a pair of antique sneakers with the according "odor" - awesome! We decided to forgo another sauna session due to the dirty floor and the unsanitary conditions and made for the door to the stairwell. Between the exit and the stairwell was another pretty large room with three doors, all three open and with WC signs on them. We opened the doors and were amazed to find a mattress storage of sorts in one of them, with mattresses crammed in and draped over the toilet bowl. People, please, are you kidding me? If you store the mattresses your guests sleep on in a damp room, at least lock the room. I did not want to know that! - Coming back from a long day of skiing, me and a French family of 5 were waiting in front of the two lifts. The 3 kids were obviously and understandably tired and cranky. It was about 5 PM. While it normally took no more than a minute to get either one of the two lifts, we were standing for probably 5-7 minutes, watching the elevator doors like hawks. Then both doors opened at the same time, revealing the laundry trolly in one, the trash trolley of the maids in the other. Seconds after, one of the maids came around the corner, grinned at all of us, said "Disculpa", pressed the button for 4th floor in one, then in the other elevator, slipped into the one less cramped, waved ....and was gone. I am seriously easy-going so I took the unlit staircase. The French family was apparently on the 4th floor as well. When i got to the top (4th floor), I was amazed to see that the maid had pulled both trolleys halfway out of the elevator, thereby effectively blocking them from being used. Call me nit-picky, call me bitchy, but that topped off the entire trip. I am an easy-going person, live by the 3-second-rule (if you don´t know: anything edible that falls on the floor, given the right circumstances, is still considered edible if you pick it up within 3 seconds :-). Needless to say that the French family took the stairs (I heard the kids wailing) and was as surprised as I was to see the blocking of the elevator and not too pleased about it. There are certain things that a hotel management needs to be aware of: cleanliness (or the lack thereof), guest service (if you see a family in ski gear with three infants that are obviously cranky at 5 PM, YOU as staff take the next elevator) and the lack of knowledge of the area (please tell me that the pharmacies in Vielha are closed between 14:00 and 16:30 or look it up on Google or....something....) I am aware that during la semaine blanche (ski vacation in France ), the resort is flooded with French people that do not always treat staff with respect. I am also aware that working in a budget hotel might not be your dream job. I have worked in hotels and restaurants myself, at the reception, as a maid, and I DO know that fish stinks from the head downwards. I told all these impressions to the lady at the reception when we checked out (thank you again for letting us use the ski locker for our luggage for the afternoon!!!!) in a very diplomatic and polite manner - not a criticism, but as a suggestion. The answer was: "We already know these things, but will inform the management once again". Need I say more?…