Horrible Hotel Alex room in Zermatt

Author: Dylann
Date of Trip: October 2008

Horrible Hotel Alex room in Zermatt

We stayed three nights at the Hotel Alex in Zermatt, Switzerland, from October 01/08 to October 04/08, as part of the Globus Switzerland at Leisure Tour LZ0926.

Some couples in our tour were assigned luxurious accommodation including the top floor penthouse with full kitchen, dining and living room. Other couples were assigned one small, dark room with no toiletries and no space for their luggage. All of us had paid the same amount of money yet the accommodations assigned by Hotel Alex staff ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

For example, in our assigned room #219: – only one (1) drinking glass in the entire room. We asked the front desk for more. A staff member brought up one (1) additional glass. We borrowed two more from the bar; – no light in the hallway outside our room (the bulb had burned out and had not been replaced). We told front desk staff. The bulb was replaced on day three; – the on/off knobs were missing from the floor lamp; – the upper left corner of the coat rack mirror was cracked; – no soap, lotion or shampoo in the bathroom, only three plastic packets of liquid shower cleanser; – the soft foam twin bed mattresses had no support from underneath and needed boards added. Again, we called front desk staff. Two plywood boards were inserted under the foam on day two; – no fire escape instructions on the inside of the door and, in fact, room #219 was not even marked on the fire evacuation maps posted in some of the other rooms.

None of the photos of rooms at the Hotel Alex as shown on their website are indicative of the decrepit condition of room #219. While rooms may be “individually designed”, they are not “superior”. Rooms do not contain comparable amenities. We paid good money for a bad room and were told no room changes could be made during our stay.

Our stay in Zermatt was a negative experience when we returned each night to a dingy, hostel-type room at the Hotel Alex while others, who had paid the same amount of money, enjoyed much better accommodations at the same hotel. Hotel staff are in complete denial. There are never any problems at their hotel. When in Zermatt stay someplace else.