Heidi - warning

[Heidinono]

A really, really unfortunate experience with Heidi which was incredibly frustrating.

Essentially, Heidi had made 2 mistakes in their listing. The first - the hotel was a 3.8 on Trip Advisor, not a 4.3 as shown on their website. I never book a hotel lower than a 4 because of past experiences. In retrospect I should have checked Trip Advisor where this is made really clear by other reviews but unfortunately I didn’t do this until 7 days before the holiday.

Secondly, their hotel info was incorrect. I filtered by ‘pool’. All hotels had a pool. They failed to mention that this pool was not available to children other than at ridiculously restrictive times (10-12, when ski school is on) and for 2 hours on a Wednesday afternoon. They also failed to mention that the pool was part of the spa which incurred an extra cost of €25 each.

They refused to let me change holidays (I realised all this 7 days before we were due to leave) and a back and forth process, which lasted the entirety of my holiday eventually ended in just 20% of the holiday being refunded.

In addition, even after I had pointed these two things out to them and they said they had been rectified, they hadn’t and I had to tell them AGAIN what the actual state of affairs was at their hotel.

There were others at the hotel gutted about this, with kids desperate to use the pool after a days skiing. It totally ruined the nature of the holiday.

In addition their transfer driver was abusive and rude at Geneva airport after our flight made us late, leaving me stranded with a crying, tired 9 year old at 10pm. The customer service then from Heidi was great but please avoid any transfers that involve Aravis.

In essence - please double check ANYTHING when booking with Heidi, in particular the pool, spa and ratings.

As a small business owner myself I’d have been devastated to not be able to offer what I promised and I would have provided a full refund or exchange as soon as I found out. The same service was certainly not on offer at Heidi. Infact I had to spend my holiday negotiating for any kind of acceptable compensation.

Gosh that’s awful. Your kids must have been so disappointed! I’m sorry you had that experience.

It is so frustrating. I once booked (not with Heidi) a place with pool, sauna, gym etc. DC were 12 and 13 but when we arrived, it turned out no one under 16 was allowed to use any of it. This was mentioned nowhere in the booking info. There were family suites and it was marketed as a spa break. WTF were the children supposed to do? I sneaked them in a couple of times when it was empty. But they went for a swim without me and got turfed out, which upset them.

Reading this with a Heidi-booked ski trip coming up next week! Thanks for the heads up. Would you mind me asking where this was?

Is it possible the TA rating had dropped since the details went on the website, potentially due the same issues you faced? What were recent reviews like?

It was La Clusaz at the Odalys Mahdi Alde

Nope, Heidi showing 4.3, Trip Advisor 3.8. They admitted it was their fault and said it was a tech problem.

To be honest, we had a great time overall but there was a lot of having to keep things upbeat from me whilst having to deal with emails from Heidi whilst actually on the holiday. Also traipsing to a pretty shit municipal pool down the road. Paying for this was Heidi’s initial offer which was hilarious.

Pretty standard IME for kids to not be allowed in Spa areas in ski resorts.

I’ve been with Heidi, prior to that we always went Crystal. Our hotel wasn’t to the standard I was used to either, the instructions for getting the lift pass were a nightmare, even the locals and the hotel were confused. The transfer man rocked up an hour late and we were just stood at an empty desk, he didn’t answer the phone and Heidi didn’t answer their WhatsApp for two days.

I liked the convenience of a short ski break, but the cost wasn’t far off a full week and it was far less organised than Crystal.

I would check both TA and the hotel website before spending £1000’s.

I don’t think it is very surprising that children can’t use spa facilities including a pool at all hours.

Reading and comprehension not your strong point?

Yes, IME too. Which is why I booked a hotel with a separate pool and spa area. If you reread my post - this was the issue.

I understood. You didn’t check TA or the hotel website before you spent £1,000’s. Your choice. Maybe next time you will and your holiday won’t be ruined. It’s a lesson for you, not for anyone else.

No - you didn’t read the post properly. Up to you.