TH Corvara - Greif Hotel

I've never written a negative hotel review on TripAdvisor or any other site but I can't stay silent about the expensive Greif Hotel, which is poor value for money. It is part of the TH Group and I suspect the group is trying to maximise profits by cutting costs to the detriment of quality. We booked as part of a package through Crystal Ski Holidays, and I estimate that a three star hotel for perhaps £400 per person less would have been much more enjoyable. Firstly, the things about the hotel that are worth four stars. The swimming pool and indoor/outdoor hot tub are great. There is a beauty spa, a small gym with three running/cycling machines, a dedicated children's play room, an underground parking garage and a ski equipment rental shop. On the other hand, I didn't need or use any of those. There was an extensive wine list of local wines with reasonably priced "house wine" options. Varied, free bar snacks were provided with each drinks order in the early evening. The New Year's Eve reception and gala dinner was excellent, and many of the Italian guests wore evening wear. The food provided at the reception before dinner was excellent in contrast to the general quality in the restaurant. Next, the things that are almost worth four stars. The "superior" room was a good size with a balcony, but, oddly, not much drawer or shelf space for all of the extra skiing clothes. The bathroom was a good size, with a heated floor, reasonably large shower, bidet and bath robes. However, soap and shampoo, etc. was from dispensers fixed to the wall, that was a bit two star but this was upgraded before our last night to more upmarket "Rituals..." versions. There were always staff available to welcome us and some of the staff worked extremely hard (others did seem to be employed to stand about). Three stars. Breakfast was a typical alpine hotel buffet, with a varied selection but nothing to distinguish it from a three star hotel. There is a bar lounge area, that is quite small for the size of the hotel. I would have expected a quiet area or snug in addition to the main bar, but there isn't one. That meant that after dinner, the "live" music was compulsory; this consisted of the same guy each night singing along to backing tracks whilst pretending to play keyboards. He wasn't terrible. Like most other big hotels in Corvara, the Greif runs a shuttle bus service to and from the Boè gondola (and the Col Alt gondola on request), however unlike the others, there is a much reduced service over lunch at three specific times and you have to call the hotel to request it for one of those times. Two stars: the dinner service. TL;DR version: mediocre, cold food. This is a weird hybrid of a world buffet (or perhaps self-service random tapas) and traditional (a Tavola) table service. Typically, a three star alpine hotel in Italy or Austria might offer four or five courses and that might be a buffet starter and perhaps desert with table service for the others. Here one or two courses of table service are optional but could arrive while you are still eating a starter from the buffet, because the two different approaches are not joined up. The table service consisted of two choices for each of a first and second course, one vegetarian and one not. Plain pasta or risotto in a wine or tomato sauce was an option in place of the first course. For New Year's eve, there was a fixed menu with (very) rare steak for the second course. The dining room consists of a large open "canteen" space with some adjoining smaller rooms. Large areas of unbroken vertical surface at varying angles reflect sound around the main room making it noisy, exacerbated by the number of people moving around the buffet. The first table we were given was adjacent to the salad buffet and the service was perfunctory: two different first courses arrive 10 minutes apart and the first of these was placed on the table without a word, and certainly not asking who it was for. The second course was a further 20 minutes late. We complained via Crystal and were given a table in one of the quieter rooms, and service for the remainder of the week was very good (bar the timing problem I mentioned above). The food itself was generally disappointing: not as palatable as any of the three star hotels we have chosen in Italy or Austria over many years. Much of the food on the menu (buffet or table service) was shipped in frozen and reheated: EU legislation requires that the hotel declare this for each item. Worse, nothing was served hot. The best we got was a reasonably warm risotto (after our complaint) or a pasta dish. Once, we were served almost frozen dumplings. And finally, we had to leave at 6.30am to catch a flight. Like other hotels, the Greif offers a "breakfast bags" service. Unlike other hotels, this is awful: a bottle of water (OK), a small carton of cold lemon tea, a small pre-packaged chocolate croissant and a wrinkled apple that was several weeks old (see photo). The Crystal representative told us that the hotel has had complaints about this before but claim that they cannot do any more. They could simply make up a breakfast the night before and store it in a fridge but they choose not to. With hindsight, we should have gone to the supermarket and done this ourselves. Given that the breakfast bag was our final interaction with the Greif Hotel, it almost seemed as if they were provoking us into writing a bad review, so I did. At least it kept me occupied on the flight home.

Location was very good. And the view from the breakfast was insane. Room was big enough

For any reason the allocated us in a a room very far away a from everything. I was Traveling with my daughter, so it was difficult to walk all the way from the entrance and take 2 elevators just to get to the reception. Also from the car park was a long distance to walk to the room. Also the hotel it feels a bit old..

Wspaniała obsługa. Skibus na stok. Pyszne jedzenie. Ogromny wybór wina.

In this hotel i didnt find children menu, it is very sad! Not all kids can eat your doing food from menu.

Great location and shuttle for skiing great!

Breakfast was really basic. A lot of stuff is changed extra, we ware 3 in the room only two bath rope ware in the price of the room. They require swimming cap in the pool they have to pay extra. You get a towel for the Spa but they didn’t tell us we have to keep it because if you change you pay extra. The facilities are not renovated is visible that they are old