Crystal Ski Holidays Avis 451

We had a good week in hochsolden but your return airport transfer timings (arriving 1 hour before gate closure) are woefully inadequate for 3 massive queues -luggage check in, security and passport control - and caused us and dozens of other passengers high stress. You need to add an additional hour minimum.

Booked a ski holiday with Crystal a company that i have previously liked. However they now use the airline Tui. While this relationship continues i will avoid Crystal.

I flew into Verona. Just prior to take off a steward announced that they were going to spray the cabin and our overhead bags with an insecticide on the recommendation of the WHO. I did not consent to this procedure. I had no pre flight warning. On arrival at my ski hotel I asked the other residents that had flown from the UK that day if they too had been sprayed. They had not. So Tui chose to spray their customers when other airlines did not. The steward informed us that this was a requirement of the Italian authorities. Clearly it was not.

The spray used was ASD-40 an aerosol industrial insecticide. The doors were closed and the air conditioning switched off for 5 minutes. There was no way to not breathe this in and no way to avoid contamination. Please note that there were breastfeeding mothers on board when you read below.

According to the WHO guidance regarding the hold ‘Disinsection should be conducted before e small animals are loaded in the hold ‘ read that again. Animals that might harbour parasites shouldn’t be sprayed. Lets explore why not. ASD-40 contains permethrin/sumethrin. Wikipedia states

”Permethrin is moderately toxic if ingested, causing abdominal pain, sore throat, nausea and vomiting. If inhaled, permethrin may cause headache, respiratory irritation, difficulty breathing, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Inhalation is more likely from aerosols than from vapors from surfaces and clothing, as permethrin has a low vapor pressure and volatilizes slowly.[31]

Topical application of permethrin/d-phenothrin(sumithrin) / can cause mild skin irritation, burning and paresthesia.[31] Permethrin has little systemic absorption, and is considered safe for topical use in adults and children over the age of two months. The FDA has assigned it as pregnancy category B. Animal studies have suggested that it may cause endocrine disruption by interfering with estrogenic activity[31] and have shown no effects on fertility or teratogenicity, but studies in humans have not been performed. The excretion of permethrin in breastmilk is unknown, and it is recommended that breastfeeding be temporarily discontinued during treatment.[17] Skin reactions are uncommon.[32] Excessive exposure to permethrin can cause nausea, headache, muscle weakness, excessive salivation, shortness of breath, and seizures. Worker exposure to the chemical can be monitored by measurement of the urinary metabolites, while severe overdose may be confirmed by measurement of permethrin in serum or blood plasma.[33]
Permethrin does not present any notable genotoxicity or immunotoxicity in humans and farm animals, but is classified by the EPA as a likely human carcinogen when ingested, based on reproducible studies in which mice fed permethrin developed liver and lung tumors.[34] A 2018 review failed to link permethrin exposure in humans to cancer.”

I suggest Tui staff prepare to take up a class action lawsuit against their employers. The article below will be of interest to their lawyers. I will bet that TUI are not running checks on the stwawrs urinary metabolites as above.
"Exposure to the insecticides permethrin and malathion induces leukemia and lymphoma-associated gene aberrations in vitro" - PubMed
And according to AI “one study performed by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine linked sumithrin with breast cancer; the link made by its effect on increasing the expression of a gene responsible for mammary tissue proliferation”

I won’t be using Crystal while they use Tui airlines.

I thought it would be more convenient to book a package through Crystal Ski. Unfortunately the opposite is true. Our ski lessons are in the next town over even though there is a ski lift and many ski schools right beside the hotel. Crystal ski don't have partnerships with those so we have to pay the price by getting a bus over and back every day, with two young kids and all the skiing gear. No option of a refund because it was written in our welcome pack, which we got 2 days before we arrived when the holiday was fully paid. If I was booking it myself I never would have booked lessons so far away.

Another issue we experienced is that we chose the hotel because it has a pool but we have to pay extra to use the pool.

Appalling Customer Service
The hotel food was utterly gross...
Took an hour to get from the hotel to the ski slopes with no bus service (as promised) on winding roads with traffic
Emailed/called trying to look for assistance from Crystalski Ireland, NO JOY, RUDE & UNHELPFUL
NOT WORTH IT TO USE THIS BUDGET ORGANISATION!!!

We recently booked a ski holiday on the 26th November2025 on the crystal ski app. We looked at the weather forecast in sestriere and weather is warm and not showing no snow for the next 10 day . I booked on the app and and the snow promis is inside the SKI ESSENTIALS part of the app which is hidden and is not a ski essential it’s a SNOW PROMIS what should be in its own section or just before you pay. feel like we have been robbed and the staff we have spoken to online chat and a phone call made was no help basically just deal with it . You are basically hiding the SNOW PROMIS in a section what is not relivent to SNOW PROMIS and falsely selling holidays

If this box is was visible there is no way I would have booked this holiday without paying SNOW PROMIS PLUS at £25 per person

Booked the Holiday back in March only for them to cancel a ski holiday over Christmas at the beginning of December.

This should not be allowed. They have offered a full refund but this does not really cut it with Kids that have had their dreams shattered.

Shocking

I only can rate my booking experience since we are only going to ski this January.
Great price for the package of 4 people
Great attention to my needs , Beata spent a lot of time trying to find the deal I wanted.
So far so good

Ease of finding the exact holiday wanted.

simple, fast

It is not possible to book some of the party travelling from cork and some from Dublin.

At last rates for single travellers was provided. Easy to book and reasonable rates.

Everything is simple but done extremely well

From picking my holiday to paying for it. Everything was easy. Additional extras, renting equipement and buying ski passes, is simple. The app, is a must get. This details your holiday, and keeps you up to date. Oh! And i dont work for Crystal Ski. I'm just a happy customer.

Very easy to navigate booking.
This is my 3rd time using crystal ski..cannot fault them. From booking to getting on the mountain,everything is very easy.

Emailed straight after booking to make a room request- still haven’t heard back 8 days later.

Made our booking over email with Beata. Very prompt return of emails with all the important info made the booking process very easy.

Very helpful and courteous staff! Delighted to have ski trip booked with Crystal for 2026!