Gran ski-in/ski-out, pero muchas... - Hotel Le Kaila

Dear Mr "Gadir80",

We would like to give you some insights so you may understand our opinion as we receive your point of view.

First of all, we would like to express the fact that we are truly surprised to read these comments as you did not do any complaint during your stay, if so we would have taken actions to resolve these issues.

You will find below a detailed description of our answers to your comments between the quotation marks:

Gadir80 : “We originally booked a prestige room with a piste view. The room had no view at all. It faced an internal concrete courtyard just underneath the ski run. We then asked to see other rooms and were surprised that most rooms facing the piste basically have no view at all due to how the hotel is positioned right on the slope.”

You actually & originally did not book a “Prestige room”, you booked a “Privilege room” of 36 m², this category is not sold with a piste view. The description of the room you booked is available on our website as well as on the website of the agency you made the reservation with. While creating the reservation, it was never mentioned to us that you were specially looking for a view on the slopes. We have rooms facing the ski run, others the mountain, some the village…all with a different view, depending on what you are actually looking for. If we had known this prior to your arrival, we would have suggested another offer.

Gadir80 : “We eventually agreed to pay a supplement and were upgraded to a junior suite facing the front road but at least we could see mountains and ski runs”

When you shared this information with us we did our best to satisfy your wishes, suggesting the Junior Suite Prestige was the best and only option with a Mountain view.

Gadir80 : “This was better but difficult to have windows open at night as there are late night drunks shouting after leaving the night club opposite the hotel, rubbish collection, early morning food delivery and road clearance when snowing. So it is certainly not quiet or peaceful.”

Méribel is a family resort, renowned for its calm atmosphere. But as we are located in the center of the village we might have some small noises as in every village but this is also why we have double glazing windows with acoustic insulation. As our property is located in a winter resort we suppose and suggest our guests to sleep with the window closed, if so there is little likelihood to be disturbed.

Gadir80 : “Overall this is not a hotel we would not come back to or recommend to others. This is driven from many parts but the two key items being location within Meribel (i.e. micro location described above)”

We are actually very proud of the “micro-location” of the property, we are located in the center of Méribel, most of the shops and restaurants are in our street, the Olympic center is in front of us and offers lots of services such a bowling, an ice-rink, and so on…This very same location, 200 meters away from “La Chaudanne” is clearly the best in town if you came to ski as it is the center of ski lifts departures, from there you can reach Courchevel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Méribel Mottaret and so on…And you don’t even have to walk these 200 meters, you can ski directly from the hotel.
To combine the fact of being a ski-in/ski-out property while being located in the center of Méribel is surely a unique combination of added values.

Gadir80 : “and extra charges for everything. This hotel costs per night very similar to Le K2 in Courchevel but Le K2 offers far better facilities and value for money. Everything in La Kaila is extra charge. A 250ml bottle of Evian in the pool is €7… At Le K2 they are stacked in an ice bucket for free. A cappuccino in the room during breakfast time is €11 a cup…. for what is a very poor petrol station machine cappuccino. At Le K2 it is free during breakfast even if you ask for it more then once. Breakfast in the room one morning was €77 the other €55 - this is because anything that is not continental gets charged for. I.e. eggs, Salmon, meat etc… at Le K2 there is a single €15 delivery charge and thats it. You can have whatever you want.”

You did a wonderful price to price comparison between our property and another one located in Courchevel which is actually a Palace category as we are a 5 star property. We are not working on the same model as we mostly suggest “a la carte” offers, so you actually pay only for what you request. Palaces mostly work with included offers, meaning that room prices will cover most of amenities and “small services”. In a same environment, room prices of a Palace are greater than the ones of a five star hotel, price parity nor contrary is unlikely. You might wish to conduct your analysis more into details for a future stay within different properties.

Gadir80 : “We needed documents printed (and fine it was 90 pages) but we were charged €90. Granted this is not a business hotel and there is no business centre but when you have the type of clients that pay this money per night one could expect a guest could need some printing.”

If you very well remember or look closely to your final bill we printed for you 206 pages for a “deal” that you needed to close urgently and we charged an amount on the same “a la carte” basis. If you may wish to remember you also needed a “witness”, someone to sign these documents so you could close your deal on time and I surprisingly happened to be there. We were not bound to help you this far as it is an “non-ordinary” request, but I decided to be the “witness” you needed as we always do our best for our clients.

Gadir80 : “The half board is a rip off… The included restaurant Le Ekrin is so gastronomic that one could only eat there on two nights and it is very easy to fall foul with the menu and end up having to pay supplements of €90 or €105 per head respectively.”

Our Restaurant "L’Ekrin” is a one Michelin Starred restaurant, it has to be gastronomic in a way as our guests are looking forward to it. Anyway, we want to provide as much as choices as possible so everyone will find the perfect match. This is why you have the choice to choose our daily menu as you can also choose dishes from our “à la carte” menu. Not taking into account the daily menu, 14 dishes are available to the half-board choice, out of these 14 dishes only 3 of them require a supplement. The average price of the included starters being of 49, plus the average price of the main dishes of 62, plus the average price of the desserts of 27, a total of euro 138,- We may not call a “rip-off” when the price of the half board is euro 90,-. We may call it a financial profit of approximately Euro 50,- for your party.

Gadir80 : “Add to that drinks, wine etc and an inclusive dinner is €400… Much lighter and better options elsewhere. Their alternative restaurant in the nearby hotel, Le 80, is a bit more simple and tasty and falls within the half board but it is a real struggle to get them to apply it.”

Drinking wine is not a requirement to have the chance to taste the marvelous food creations of our Chef Laurent Azoulay…Choosing the half board is not a requirement neither if you wish to stay in our property. Eating in L’Ekrin is not a requirement neither if you preferred to book your accommodation with half-board, you also have the ability to enjoy your half-board in our lounge with a different choice offer than suggested in “L’Ekrin” as a credit with no supplements. For more privacy you may wish to decide to have diner in your room, use your half board as a credit with another menu with other dishes offers… Another option we suggest is to enjoy your halfboard in the Brasserie restaurant of Hotel La Chaudanne 4* which happen to be our adjoining sister property. You have been eating at Le 80 three times out of the eight nights you spent at the hotel and we suggest this option to every guest. We are very pleased to suggest the possibility of using the services of our adjoining property as it enlarges our offer to our guest.

Gadir80 : “They have a 3% charge on the ski pass and ski hire if you pay using your card. All the other hotels don’t carry such a charge.”

We have fees for bank transfers when guests wish us to pay external enterprises for them, as well as fees for delivering ski passes in our Conciergerie. All these services are not mandatory, it is upon your decision only. If you wish to avoid these 3% you have the possibility to pay directly the ski shop as well as the possibility to buy your ski pass at the main ski lift office. For your information, most properties in Courchevel charge 5% for the same service.

Gadir80 : “In the room only one bottle of Evian is given in the evening. Any other bottle of water from the minibar is €9 each… So no complimentary water. There is a Nespresso machine but no milk and no tea provided… Two tiny espresso cups and thats it.”

As you wrote, we offer complimentary water in the evening. Some of our guest want to enjoy all-inclusive offers and have full credit in house, we can suggest these options if wished. We provide on request a kettle and teas with mugs and creams with no extra charges.

Gadir80 : “Regardless of the above there are staff failures and rudeness which is unnecessary, the spa treatments while the treatments are very good the spa area is not inviting, there aren’t any little touches to make the spa experience, the rooms and beds are cold, the rooms are noisy and not insulated from the corridor and the therapists whilst very good have an issue with body odur that masks the whole room and an issue that in one treatment the two of them were giggling all the time.”

We are very surprised as the largest part of the comments we receive is that we are helpful, listening, nice, proactive, forward looking but surely not rude. The perfume that we use in the all spa including the rooms is "Nuxe", our therapists wear the same perfume as well.

Gadir80 : “The first room we stayed in ‘ The prestige room’ regardless of the view it is poorly designed and not functional.”

We have 11 different room categories to cover all types of needs and wishes, let us please help you to identify yours while booking. It is indeed a very important part of your booking as it will determinate the room you will be spending the rest of your holidays in.

Gadir80 : “You don’t feel like anyone goes out of their way for you, food choice is limited, and the bar staff at times rude and unhelpful.”

We have lots of talents in house, we can basically do anything you may wish, our specialty is “tailor-made”, maybe not “Unlimited” but we will have the honesty to tell you if we can or not, we might suggest, you might accept.

Gadir80 : “This is certainly not somewhere will stay again. We feel the K Collection continues to offer far superior value for money and service where this hotel pretends to be more low key but actually charges through the nose everywhere else.”

Tastes, colors and feelings are so subjective that we cannot force you to enjoy our property and we are sorry for this.

We wish you amazing futures stays everywhere.

Kindest regards,