The Crystal Vaya Unique

Absolutely Beautiful Place to stay , its situated on the edge of Obergurgl Village situated right at the bottom of the Gondolier. The hotel itself is very upmarket but had a comfortable feel about it . The Rooms are exceptional with plenty of storage space and decorated really nice . The rooms are Roasting hot couldn't work out how they are heated but it works well . You just melt into the Beds after a hard day on the slopes so comfy . The Spa is Huge with an outside jacuzzi , And 2 sauna areas make sure you get the right one as we walked in the wrong one and could have died i was so embarrassed lol . The Food OMG it was amazing its a la Carte which i don't mind ,But my 2 friends were like ewwww i don't fancy that, when i booked it.One is vegetarian and one just eats junk food , Well they both ate the plates clean and said that food was the best they have ever tasted . The Staff Were Brilliant couldn't help enough I would Like to say A Special Thank you Eleni .Who was or Waitress on our table , She was Amazing as soon as we sat down she was straight over making sure everything was to our Liking and new what drinks we wanted . I Must admit myself and my two friends did stick out in this Hotel As the way i look . But the Staff did not treat us any different to people WHO Thought they were better than us . Thank You for a Lovely stay at you Hotel

This hotel has the potential to be very good indeed but falls short on a few points that should be addressed: The good: - we had an amazing room in the renovated part of the hotel. Two separate bedrooms, nice living room, huge balcony (which we managed to use on sunny days despite the cold). The cleaning lady was amazing, she kept making hearts and animals out of towels and our daughters loved it. It was also pretty quiet. - location: great location connected directly to the ski hire shop and ski room and the ski shop is directly connected to the gondola. Could not have been better, on top of which the ski hire Scheiber were really friendly. - Food was nice altho we missed the omelette guys for 2 days - I guess no back up for his days off. Fish dishes were a bit too much focused on cream sauces. The bad (and sadly the bad really annoyed us): - Tap water is charged at EUR4.50/bottle, sparkling water over EUR6/bottle!! Unbelievable. That is basically abusing the thirst of people after skiing. All other drinks highly priced too so we ended up drinking far less than we would normally out of pure anger. Water fountain gets switched off in the evening so the only thing you can do is not drink or drink very little (or sneak in your own) - Service: the waiter service is a bit hit and miss - some were nice but some were pretty useless. The one we first had could not even open a bottle of wine and did not apologise for bringing a bottle with the wrong year. All Eastern European which I guess is a result off staff shortages. reception staff sent us to the wrong floor with our luggage so we had to look around for a while before finding our room one floor higher with another elevator - on check in I would have expected a person to accompany us and help with luggage - Spa: generally speaking very nice but when the hotel is fully booked, simply too small. Place is flooded with water, kids are jumping in and out of the outdoor pool with parents not paying attention. Anything but relaxing. Only time this was nice is before 4pm. - Bathroom: our shower really stank - something wrong with the drain. No conditioner was provided, only shampoo so had to go buy some. - There is a nice supermarket just outside the hotel - great for snacks (and water!!) All in all this could be a really nice hotel but simply fell short. We have had much better 4 star experiences elsewhere, also more personal, altho the room was one of the better ones. Overall I would say 3.5 star rating but rating it 3 would have been unfair so gave it a 4. With a few adjustments this place could be much improved. Review on Obergurgl as a resort posted separately

Wij komen al meer dan 10 jaar naar the Crystal tijdens de derde week van januari, vooral om te genieten van de prachtige kamer, de luxueuze wellness en het lekkere eten. Door de pandemie kon dit in 2021 niet, maar wij hebben onmiddellijk onze reservatie naar 2022 verplaatst. We keken er enorm naar uit. Anno 2022 blijkt Crystal echter een ander hotel geworden te zijn. De kamer en de wellness zijn nog steeds super, maar weg is de familiale en tegelijk professionele aanpak. En vooral: volledig weg is de culinaire ervaring. Een bloemlezing van de onbegrijpelijke wijzigingen: - De klassevolle en zeer vriendelijke service is verdwenen. De vakmensen van vroeger zijn vervangen door ongeschoolde werknemers, die elkaar in de weg lopen en duidelijk geen leiding krijgen. Deze mensen treft geen enkele schuld: zij worden aan hun lot overgelaten en krijgen alle klachten over het geserveerde eten. Het management schiet hier duidelijk te kort!!! - Het niveau van het eten is beschamend voor een dergelijk hotel. Het ontbijt haalt nog net een voldoende, maar is niet te vergelijken met vroeger. Veel beperktere keuze en kwaliteit, geen afwisseling. Het wordt pas echt erg bij het diner: de vroegere buffetten, die de renommee van Crystal maakten, zijn geëlimineerd. In plaats daarvan is er nu een heel minimale smakeloze slabar, die de helft van de tijd overigens leeg was. - De opgediende voor- en hoofdgerechten zijn heel beperkt qua portie en van inferieure kwaliteit. - voor een karaf kraantjeswater wordt 2 € gerekend! - de sommelier die vroeger de wijnkaart bracht en gepast advies gaf, lijkt verdwenen Kritiek wordt genegeerd en er is geen enkel spoor van verbetering zichtbaar. Een enorm verschil met de vroegere directie! Het is duidelijk dat hier op alles bespaard wordt en alles geld moet kosten - tot water uit de kraan toe. Is dit het gevolg van de overname door VAYA? Is dit de politiek van deze groep? Het is in ieder geval zeer pijnlijk voor de gasten die jaarlijks terug komen om te genieten van de vroegere Crystal! En zo waren er heel wat, leerde ik uit verschillende gesprekken. Ik hoop van ganser harte dat het opnieuw goed komt, maar ik vrees ervoor. Zoals het nu is, zal dit jammer genoeg ons laatste verblijf in Crystal geweest zijn…