I provide this to give context for my review about the Cervo compared to this peer group of highly rated hotel’s.
Executive Summary…details below.
We stayed 3 nights.
This is not a 5-star hotel in terms of accommodation and service level. It is 3 stars or 3.5 at best. When compared to the other places we stayed at this place it is dead last for room quality and service level.
This place is perfect for TikTok
- very superficial, not practical. Nice for a short form video or a selfie, but dark, cramped, and uncomfortable.
It seems like the resort hired some designer that fell in love with the Expedition Everest line décor at Disney World. Except there is no cool ride at the end.
Location: 3 Stars. It is a little removed from the village. The Hotel makes it seem like all you must do is take the elevator down and boom you’re in the village. Not really, you still must walk a little over 15 -20 minutes, depending on where you’re going in the village.
It’s very close to the lift to take you up the mountain to hike or ski in winter, which was convenient. That was a plus and I can see that as a plus in the winter.
Room: 3 Stars- dark, small, minibar warm, no doors to a cramped bath with one sink, did I mention cramped, chairs in room too big for room size and uncomfortable. Deck furniture again is too big for size of deck. Disappointing. We asked for another room but was told none were available. We also found out that pets allow, because there was a beautiful gold retriever in the room next to us barking at everything and anything. See below.
Décor: 3 Star- Lara Croft school of design ;-). It looks good but uncomfortable. In Bazaar sofa’s and chairs are too low; tables look nice but pedestal like bases leaving no room for legs. Ferdinand we though décor was nice.
Service: Ferdinand 2.5-Star underwhelmed with service, Bazaar nighttime 1 Star- dark and terrible service. See below. Bazaar for breakfast at 4 star. We didn’t eat at the other restaurant based on our experience at Ferdinand and Bazaar at night.
Front Desk: 3 Star: I got the impression they thought this would be a quiet off week and they were not ready for so many guests. They were knowledgeable about hiking and excursions around the village.
Bellman: 5 Star-very helpful.
Communication: 3 Star- They communicated to us to coordinate pick up on What’s App we didn’t know that. Only hotel that communicated this way. So, I didn’t check WA. I called the front desk while on the train to arrange pick up. They sent a Taxi which we had a hard time finding.
Resort: 3 Star -multiple buildings reached by stairs, ramps, and elevators. Maze-like. Not a big deal, until you get to the underwhelming room.
Conclusion: A 5-star hotel this is not, especially compared to the other 5-stars we stayed at. We are coming back to Zermatt but will stay elsewhere. I can’t even compare this place to the other 5-star hotels, especially in terms of service in the restaurants. You want to do a tik tok this is your place. If you want a comfortable real life stay find another place. Disappointed.
Details:
First impression-
We arrived in the early evening after a long day that started with a tough 3-hour hike in Grindelwald that morning then spent 3 hours traveling by train which included 3 transfers to Zermatt.
We were exhausted by the time we arrived. We were looking forward to getting to our room to unpack, clean up and relax.
Our expectation for our room was: a decent-sized room with a nicely sized bathroom and hopefully a decent view of the Matterhorn.
We got none of these.
When we were shown to our room, we were so disappointed. It was dark and tight. Any view of the Matterhorn was obscured by trees so that was disappointing as well. Compared to the other hotels we stayed at the rooms and view was by far the worst.
We were too tired to say anything at the outset but after about 15 minutes I decided to call down and see if they had any other rooms available- bigger and with a better view.
The front desk said they only had one other room and they offered to show it to me. This room had a spectacular view of the Matterhorn however it was less private and even smaller than the room we were in, inexplicably it has a bed in the very center of the room and then a folding door opening to the bathtub. This made the room feel even smaller. So, that was a no go.
I didn't think to look at the availability of rooms online because I was tired. I did check that out the next day and did see there was a larger room at roof level available, however no one from the front desk bothered to offer it to us even though I asked them to keep us posted if something larger became available. We decided to make the best of it. A first world problem I know.
I'm not sure if staff assumed I wanted a free upgrade, but I was ready and willing to pay for a bigger room with a better view. Bigger and brighter would have been ok. I really didn’t need the view. Anywhere you look in Zermatt you get an awesome view of the Matterhorn. Except for our room.
Location:
It is a little removed from the village. The Hotel makes it seem like all you must do is take the elevator down and boom your in the village. Not really, you still must walk a little over 15 -20 minutes, depending on where you’re going in the village.
Also, it would have been nice to know you need your room key to open the tunnel door after 5 or 6 to get to the resort via the elevator. The resort did not let us know that, so we were stuck out there until another guest came by. They were in the same predicament the day before but figured it out.
The village is cool, though.
Resort:
It has multiple buildings and stairs which is not a big deal.
This place is perfect for TikTok- very superficial, not practical. Nice for a short form video or a selfie, but dark, cramped, and uncomfortable.
It seems like the resort hired some designer that fell in love with the décor of the Expedition Everest line at Disney World. Except there is no cool ride at the end.
Again, it looks cool until you realize people have big luggage, don’t usually have head lamps, like privacy between bath and bedroom.
Room: Wed stayed in room 202. The rooms are extremely tight and small. The room is dark. In fact, I regretted not having my hiking headlamp which would have come in handy because the room was so dark. To find things in my suitcase and see what was in the mini-bar I used a pen flashlight, which I fortunately had.
We were on a long trip, so we had big suitcases. Which made the room feel even smaller.
The chairs are oversized and too big for the room and the deck. There is only one sink in the bathroom. The bathroom was small/tight with no door to the main living area and an open shower stall; there was a bathtub but that took up a lot of space. No Bidet and the WC had a sliding door which is not really the best for a WC if you know what I am getting at.
The bath also had a door that went to the outside to nowhere and had a long step down, again to nowhere. I do not know why it was there, maybe it's a fire code.
The mini bar refrigerator did not work we discovered on the second night. The items in it were warm. We did not bother bringing that to the attention of the resort.
Finally, we found out the hotel allows pets. In the room next to us there was a beautiful golden retriever, I could see him through the window when I leaned over the deck, barking at anything and everything he could see through the window that afternoon because they left the blinds open in the room.
View was underwhelming, the only place in Zermatt without a view of the Matterhorn was our room, which is what we really like when staying at a scenic place.
Service:
In both Ferdinand and the Bazaar service was poor and very disappointing. For a supposed 5-star hotel this is unheard of.
The first night we decided to stay at the hotel and eat at Ferdinand. We had a nice two top table. This place is decorated nicely, and we liked the ambiance. We got a raclette which was nothing to write home about.
Service was very disappointing, we felt neglected. In fact, when our waitress did check in on us, my wife ordered another glass of wine. Which she never got. The waitress came back after quite some time and said, “oh you didn't get your wine”. Is this supposed to be a five-star experience?
We did ask for the dessert menu. It took so long for her to come back to see if we wanted to get something that we had changed our mind on whether we should order two or three times: yes, let's get dessert, no let's not get dessert, yes let's get dessert and finally no we didn't get dessert.
It gets worse….
Second Night: We ate in the village the second night. We did come back to Bazaar to have dessert later in the evening. No one greeted us when we walked in. We sat ourselves under the glass ceiling. We were ignored for quite some time despite trying to get the servers’ attention.
I had had enough and went to the bartender and ordered dessert and drinks for us.
We decided to move to a table because the couch area was extremely dark and very uncomfortable. The bartender delivered our order. The server then made contact and seemed annoyed that we placed our order with the bartender. She promptly ignored us for most of the time we were there not making eye contact even when we tried to get her attention to order something else.
Terrible experience.
The good:
Breakfast at Bazaar was good, the menu was decent, and the presentation and food were also good. The staff was friendly and attentive. However, compared to the other hotels we stayed at our least favorite.
They also have a Breakfast Alcove where they have a buffet that's decorated again like it's out of a Lara Croft video. It's very dark, it has lots of bread and cheese, but the fruit offered was limited to just apples. Again, it looked cool but...
For our third day there we avoided the hotel as much as we could.
5 Star this is not.
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