Hôtel les Bains d'Ovronnaz

We took advantage of a voucher to stay here and use the “spa”. We should have done better research. It’s awful. Worn out, dated and poorly maintained. Worse than this, the new owner just doesn’t seem to care. The location is pleasant enough, but the positives stop there. The hotel and spa are being allowed to decay, whilst the new owner, Mr Marc Farshidi, appears to sit and watch whilst all around him crumbles. Perhaps he should stick to trading caviar. I get the impression he has perhaps bought Les Bains with the intention of running it into the ground with no investment, and limited staffing. Our bedroom, although very dated, was at least clean. But the whole place felt and smelt more like a municipal 1980s swimming pool, than a relaxing spa break experience. WiFi didn’t work. Anywhere. Lights in public areas were often broken or switched off. Customer service was almost entirely missing. The bar manager (who also operates the very strange shop) grunted at us when we asked for two glasses of wine whilst we waited for our room to be ready. There had apparently been a lot of checkouts the night before which I find very difficult to believe as the whole place was half deserted. A relic of a bygone edge. The shop was curiously stocked with almost nothing of any use! Very poor quality bottles of wine cost around 30CHF!! But there were plenty of dreadful souvenirs to buy. Would anyone really want a souvenir of THIS?!! The baths themselves were average although very poorly maintained with tiles falling off. There was a very strange photographer lurking round the pools. We only saw him take one photograph and he seemed to be spending more time chatting with other members of staff than actually working. The spa area itself (more modern than the rest of the complex) was only half working. No steam room, no jacuzzi, broken foot baths. No maintenance. Lousy, dirty and very disappointing. Oh, and of course a spa bath really needs animatronic dinosaurs to play on!! With limited options nearby, we decided to dine in the on site restaurant in the evening. Another mistake. No ambience and next to no service. We waited well over 30 minutes to get even one (extremely overpriced) bottle of wine and another 30 minutes to get two (equally overpriced and very average) pizzas. We elected to get an early night with nothing else to do, and woke early so we could leave this dreadful place and rescue some of our weekend. Breakfast was equally dismal. Poor quality ingredients, all swarming with flies. Again, coffee machines were broken, and the entire experience was depressing. I could only bring myself to eat a banana as I felt at least this was sealed and safe. We checked out just as soon as we could. Never to return. Without investment, and there’d need to be a lot and everywhere, I see this place closing very soon. A wrecking ball would be a welcome addition. AWFUL!!!