Powder White Avis 

Following hours on the phone, this company has refused to offer our group a refund following the cancellation of our trip due to Coronavirus. No services were provided and Powder White made no effort to work with us to allow us a refund for the actual expenses incurred (i.e. their staff). To profiteer off people who now need to worry about paying their own bills as they are furloughed or fired is completely immoral.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY IN THE FUTURE - their terms and conditions allow them to take your money and not refund you.

Very disappointed in Powder White. I would have thought they would take into consideration how this worldwide Convid 19 Virus has affected EVERYONE's financial situations and at least offer to postpone our stay or give a partial refund - ANYTHING. But unfortunately, they have decided to TAKE ALL of our money with no negotiation it feels like theft. I will never be using this company again and highly suggest you steer clear of them!

I would strongly advise against anybody using Powder White. They have flat out refused any goodwill gestures in light of their cancellation of our holiday in Val d'Isere. We were a group of 16 that paid them >GBP 12k in advance as well as EUR 790 for taxi transfers. They have not offered to refund a penny of any of these expenses.

I see them copy/pasting the same cookie cutter responses that they gave us to others who they have treated similarly. Things like "it's regrettable" that we haven't taken out insurance. In reality several of us had insurance and none of these companies are paying out for COVID-related virus cancellations, so I can only assume they are lying or using one off exceptions when telling us "Those who have taken out insurance are already being reimbursed for their loss and are very understanding of our situation."

Also, not sure I understand their comment that they can't issue any refunds as they'd be taking a "double hit" as our holiday has already been paid for. What does this even mean? We paid for our trip in full and received nothing in return. With this approach they are in a better situation than they were previously as they no longer need to purchase any food or drinks or have staff working the chalets for our stay. I also presume that they aren't still going to be arranging for a EUR 790 transfer to and from Geneva airport that they won't refund us for. The fact that they haven't offered even partial refunds or credits for future trips is a terrible way to treat customers.

Very shortsighted for Powder White to think that screwing its customers now will put them in a better position to survive through this crisis. And yet they are actively advertising for 2021 holiday bookings when claiming to us that they may struggle to survive as a business. As such I can only assume that they would be happy to screw those currently booking for 2021 as well. (And I'm sure if they do survive they will reach out to us to offer us a refund for 2020... I won't hold my breath).

Our skiing holiday has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus and that is unfortunate and not the fault of Powder White but their response has been appalling. Having paid In full almost £7000 and to be told very flippantly that no refunds will be made Go through your insurance is disgraceful. They literally do not care!! No formal email has been received or letter to confirm that they will not be giving refunds which we could present to our insurers. I do not believe they can’t recoup any costs I believe they are stealing our money. I have had wonderful responses from ESF ski schools refunding monies paid and apologies and refunds from airlines with similar messages.

Do not use this company or anyone associated with the company in future years they are a disgrace.

Lorraine S

Avoid this company at all costs! We booked with them during Christmas & New Year, 3 weeks we stayed in Val d’Isère and it was a complete disaster! The Chale staff was totally untrained and even stole our food!

I wrote a lengthy email complaining about our experience, the worst we ever had, spending an average of 7 weeks a year in Val d’Isère over the past 13 years! All I got was an excuse!! No refund, no nothing, just a apology email.

Unfortunately my wife had booked another holiday with them for Easter 2020, 3 weeks. They insisted we pay the full amount or we might lose out so she forked out 8.000£ already last year. Now the French closed their borders and they refuse to give us a refund?! Telling us to contact our travel insurance?! Which we don’t have, only when we go traveling..

We used PowderWhite in the past but their service has become increasingly unprofessional over the past years, we shall never ever book with this company again, that’s a promise.

I’ve been in the tourism industry for 3 decades, I run a luxury resort in Kenya, yet I’ve never come across a more unprofessional company such as PowderWhite. As for ourselves, we repaid each and every booking we had to cancel, did we need to do this; NO. But it was the right thing to do as we appreciate the loyalty of our customers.

So please heed my words, save your money and book with someone else, Powder White totally ruined our last skiing holiday.

We booked a whole chalet in St. Anton which has now been closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. This is obviously in no way the fault of Powder White, however, the way that they have handled the situation has been appalling.

They have refused to offer a refund or any sort of compensation, despite the fact that we have paid them in excess of £13k for accommodation that they are now unable to provide us, simply stating that "we are not giving refunds". How a company can justify choosing to keep such large sums of money from their customers is shocking. However, what is even more shocking is that they have provided no explanation as to why they feel justified in not refunding customers.

I have a similar chalet organised through a different tour / chalet operator in St Anton for the week before the trip with Powder White, and they got in touch immediately stating that they would be offering either a full refund or the chance to change resorts or move the booking until next year.

On top of all this, Powder White are still advertising ski holidays to other resorts on their site, which they must know are likely to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Tried, but failed, to book what I was looking for online, so I called the hotline. Victoria was very helpful, got on the case quickly, and helped me find what I was looking for. She called back within 15 minutes to confirm by booking. A nice, easy process. Thank you!

VICTORIA WAS VERY HELPFULL AND KIND
I ASKED HER 100 QUESTION HE ANSWERED ALL OF THEM VERY NICELY
SHE WORKED VERY HARD TO FIND ME OPTIONS

TAHNKS ALOT TO HER

Very helpful, fast response and very friendly staff! Thank you for such an easy booking process :)

Accommodation was lovely but it went down hill from there...
The chalet host was amazing but clearly undertrained, whilst they remained exceptionally professional you could tell they were out of their depth. The cooking of the food was ok but the menu for breakfast was minimal and main meals can only be described as terrible and very late for every meal (we ended up eating out a lot). Whoever built the menu needs to seriously rethink what they are expecting guests to eat. Hosts were running between chalets (four or five times every meal) asking to borrow utensils and food. There was no privacy due to the constant flow of traffic between the rooms. The management support of the hosts was just shocking, clearly undertrained as well.
Toddlers not catered for at all, no food, utensils or bedding and the swimming pool was open at odd times. The shuttle runs back in the afternoon were minimal and restricted so we ended up using a taxi or bus a lot.
It’s a shame as the facilities were great and the holiday was ruined by what are some quick fixes. We stayed in many chalets over the years and we just didn’t feel like we were on holiday.. It felt more like they were thinking about profit as the food was poor than us having a fabulous holiday... very disappointing.

thanks, a fab service

We stayed at Chalet Maroi, St anton. The chalet is generally good and well located. Four double bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and good space. Sparsely decorated. Skiing is superb of course in St. Anton. However the reason for the low rating was the quality of the catering which was not acceptable. Very slow even to get a cup of coffee in the morning and the quality of the cooking in the evening meal was just not up to an acceptable standard. Very disappointing. Powder White should be providing proper training to their staff pre season. This seemed to be a learn on the job and we were not impressed by this or the follow up by Powder White.

I booked a ski holiday with Powder White in Feb2011 and ordered a catered chalet in Val d'Isere. Firstly this was one of the very few websites I was able to get a quote on without having to call or wait for an e-mail reply and was able to book online immediately. The holiday went pretty well and I really enjoyed myself. The chalet hosts were great although I expected more from their cooking but the neighbouring chalet had a better cook so I ate there a few times. While I was there my chalet sprung a leak. What impressed me most was how the staff accommodated me and made the effort to fix the problem making me feel valued, it was funny to see the younger guys taking on the responsibility. So it was this I wanted to mention that although not perfect, the staff made me feel welcome and looked after which is something I expected and got. I just booked my ski hols for 2012 and look forward to staying with Powder White again.