Trip to Verbier, Switzerland - March 2011
Review of Hotel La Rotonde

We decided to go to Verbier in Switzerland at the last minute and it turned out to be quite a challenge to find a hotel in this little town. When we checked on Verbier.com and hotels directly it seemed like every hotel was fully occupied but when we checked on booking.com we were able to get a room at Hotel La Rotonde for 270 Swiss Franc per day (300 USD) – quite expensive if you ask me. We arranged for transfer from the Geneva airport and we arrived quite late at night in Verbier. We were assigned to room 38 and the room resembled me of a Norwegian cabin – lots of wood :-). The room was not that big but it did contain what seemed to be a big bed (actually just two beds pushed together), a small night table on each side of the bed, a small desk and a couple of chairs and a wardrobe. The TV must be the tiniest TV I have seen in a hotel room in a long time but hey; you are not in Verbier to watch TV right? Talking about the TV…at least it did have some international channels so that we could keep up to date what was happening in the world. The bed was actually not bad – it was on the softer side and that’s how I like it. The temperature seemed to go a bit up and down and it was not that easy to control the large radiator on the wall that was heating the room.

The bathroom was quite tiny but it looked nice with decent tiling and with a corner shower, a sink and a toilet. There were no amenities in the bathroom apart from a liquid soap dispenser at the sink and a similar one in the shower - I have to admit that I prefer the bottles where you can get a seperate one for shampoing and one with shower gel. The water was excellent for drinking – very good taste and very cold. When taking a shower the temperature did vary a bit but that was not a huge problem - but a greater danger was turning around in the shower as it was easy to knock into the handle the controlled both pressure and temperature.

When we woke up the first morning it was great fun looking out the window...the view can take your breath away. From our window we were looking out at the roundabout in “downtown Verbier” and we could see the valley below and majestic snow-clad mountains in the background. But as we were facing the street it also means a bit of party noise at night – but there was also a shutter in front of the window and door so it was actually not a problem as we first feared it would be. There was a balcony with a small table and two chairs but due to the cold weather at night we did not use it during our stay.

The breakfast was served on the lobby level and it was a simple breakfast was you had option of some eggs, bread/toast, cereal, a bit of fruit etc. Nothing fancy in others words but enough to get you started before skiing. There was also a free Wi-Fi in the hotel and it worked pretty well in the lobby area but the signal was quite weak in the rooms. In the breakfast area there was a large Nespresso machine with a small selection of coffee varieties. The hotel also had a small “lounge” or living room with a larger TV and a couple of sofas were you could relax in the lobby area and also this contained a Nespresso machine that we could use free of charge.

There was a handy storage room for skis and equipment by the entrance were each room also had a locker in order to put away the skis – very clever.

Location of the hotel is great – only a couple of hundred meters away from the Medran gondola lift station. From here you could take the gondola up to wonderful ski areas. The hotel was also located in the middle of where it was happening so it was easy to find bars and restaurants within a minute walk from the hotel entrance. There are also places to rent skis and snowboards right around the corner so to speak.

Conclusion
The hotel is quite expensive compared to what I’m normally used to and you certainly don’t get that much for the money in my opinio. As background info I should mention that I travel a bit for business and I go to Asia quite a lot so I have been spoiled by using nice hotels in places like Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Bangkok (Thailand), Hong Kong etc and I use them as reference hotels when I travel around the world. But as I said, Hotel La Rotonde is expensive but this is Switzerland and I guess this is what you have to pay during the high season here. The room was basic but the bed was comfy enough and the breakfast had what is needed to get some energy before you hit the slopes. But the best is maybe the location of the hotel – located near the Medran ski lift station and located near bars and restaurants it has an ideal location to enjoy both the slopes during the day time and the nightlife later on in the day.