Powder White Avis 

Took our money then told us a week before departure in February 2024 half term that they hadn’t paid for our accommodation as they were going into liquidation. Checks on companies house reveal a number of interlinked companies, some with slight differences in the names and other details of directors, suggesting an attempt to hide the fact they’re linked. Suspect they’re lining up a pre-pack liquidation whereby they simply buy back the assets of the company for a token price, devoid of any debt leaving many families out of pocket. Still living in their big house in SW London though. Parasites and scumbags, I’ll be keeping a close eye on developments for any newco which emerges, to make sure any potential new customer is aware of the directors past history and form for ripping people off.

Ref Closure of Powder White
I booked and paid for all of our equipment hire with them on 25th Jan for our trip on 25th Feb 24. I got a receipt but no booking confirmation or voucher. Assuming they have not paid this over to Ski Set in Flaine. I contacted Credit Card co who have been very helpful.
Our accommodation was done with Powder White but via BA - BA are arranging a refund and Hotel is apparently keeping our booking so we can pay them direct. Hope this all works out OK for us and everyone else affected !

Company has gone bankrupt with one week to go until the February half term ski week. Made us pay them 100% of the accommodation, and they haven't even paid a deposit to the chalet. Beware of using their sister companies or any company associated with this owner. Crooks!

We booked to go to Meribel from the 30th December 2023 for a week. Literally a day before we travelled we received an email from the local agency that could have meant the apartment was not available (a local issue and nothing to do with Powder White). However all I want to say is the Customer Service we received from Powder White was exceptional and in particular Marina. She made the effort to call me direct to make sure I had seen the email and look at possible options. She called the resort to understand the issue and basically did all she could to get to the bottom of the problem and keep us fully informed. In the end the problem was resolved and we went with no issues. Great customer service particularly at that time of the year when many other companies would have been on holiday. Well done Powder White.

We had a really bad experience with Powder White agency. They booked for us what was meant to be a ‘chalet’, but in fact it was a multi-use building with no noise insulation whatsoever. A by the book example of misrepresentation. We could hear every single word that the family living in the flat beside us said even when they were speaking in a normal voice - it was like sharing a house with a stranger family. The hygiene standards were appalling: an ashtray full of cigarette butts, more cigarettes and a used plaster by a hot tub… disgusting. When we complained about it all, the tactic of Power White was to deflect and divert. They blamed the company that manages the property despite we had booked with them through Powder White and they had reassured us at the time of the booking that they were ‘excellent’. And despite they claimed they would ‘attempt’ to find a solution they did not bother to do so and barely followed up. To top it all up the only solution they offered was to book a different chalet for two nights and pay an extra 13K pounds!! After that there was radio silence from them. I have used rented holiday houses for decades and have never seen such an appalling service. The worse by far was the flat refusal of the Power White partner (Claire Freeland) to take up responsibility for their shoddy service. Beware of this agency.

RESPONSE TO THE AGENCY's ANSWER BELOW: A friendly suggestion - when in a hole, stop digging. The facts are clear: 1.- You are selling customers a "chalet" which is nothing of the sort. 2.- The multi-use building has no sound insulation at all between the different rented units. 3.- The timing of our contract with you is irrelevant, it's the terms which clearly were not being respected. 4.- instead of taking any responsibility for this state of affairs you deflect and divert instead. How could you possibly suggest, for eg, that cigarette butts and discarded skin plasters are somehow justified by the fact that we dropped off some bags in the property while the cleaners were still working? Really? Why do you think you have accumulated a growing number of one-star ratings on this site in recent months? You might want to start putting the customers first - rather than your own excuses. Everyone knows mistakes can happen - and often do - in holiday bookings. It's the reaction that counts - and yours has been unhelpful, inaccurate and unpleasant. An embarrassment to the many hard working and serious companies in the tourism industry.

We booked accommodation in Le Telemark in February 2023 for a ski holiday over the New year.
We paid half the deposit as per the terms and conditions.
Our booking was cancelled in July 2023. We were offered the accommodation if we paid an additional sum of money over and above the original price offer!
Our deposit was refunded .
An extremely disappointing experience.

In September 2023 we booked a holiday, through PW, for a week early April 2024 to Les Arcs 2000. Immediately there was some confusion, as PW seemed to have booked the wrong week – PW staff quickly confirmed that they had corrected this error. However, 3 months later, in December we received an email from PW saying the booking was cancelled. PW offered unsuitable alternatives in other resorts, and have now repaid our deposit.
After much correspondence with PW staff and Claire Freeland (PW Director) I am left with a number of quite serious doubts about PW:
1. Was either booking ever made by PW on our behalf with the Supplier of the apartment? Despite at least 8 requests, PW have not shown me my contract with the Supplier, as specified in their T’s & C’s. I have concluded that the booking was probably never made.
2. The reason given by PW for the cancellation was that the owner now wanted the apartment for themselves. Again, PW have declined to show me any evidence to support this assertion. Frankly I think this reason is implausible.
3. I found an identical apartment available for the same week on Booking.com. I requested PW to go back to the Supplier and re-book. PW refused. I booked it myself. The upshot is that I am £1,400 out of pocket, as I have lost the benefit of an early booking deposit.
I have received an apology from PW in very general terms. This apology also contained a threat from PW not to be overly negative on social media. This came after I had told PW that I would be leaving a very negative review on Trustpilot.
In conclusion, I will never book another holiday through PW. I don’t trust them. I don’t believe that my booking was ever made. And I think that PW then made up an excuse to cover this up. Was it a mistake or worse – I will never know. But I gave them every opportunity to satisfy me as to what had actually happened. As far as I can see, PW is a dodgy, unregulated business with a glitzy website. You have been warned. Steer clear of them.

Postscript

PW have responded to this review. Yet again, they have totally missed the point. I requested sight of my contract with the Supplier and their cancellation notice. Despite numerous requests PW have declined to do provide this. This has meant that I have been able to discuss the matter with the Supplier. My aim was to get to the cause of the problem and try and resolve it, and PW are blocking this for some unknown reason. Hence my deep suspicion of PW.

Great customer service and excellent knowledge from Oliver. He found the perfect chalet for our company trip.

Oliver was very helpful with all the booking process and made the experience seamless.

Having used Powder White in 2023, they pestered us to book with them again for February 2024 half term week. In June 23, we duly booked an apartment sleeping 7 at Cime Des Arcs 2000, paying over £2k deposit to PW and independently purchased flights to Grenoble and transfers to Les Arcs.

Mid October, PW advised of a supplier live feed issue and said we no longer had the booking. We chose Arcs 2000 specifically due to location/elevation and PWs offer of Villandry and a lower spec apartment as an alternative is nowhere near comparable.

It has taken 3 weeks and a large number of emails to eventually get a refund (fortunately we have one), at first PW only refunding less than 50% of our deposit. We're now limited on alternatives having booked flights and transfers to/from Grenoble and are struggling to find suitable accommodation.

Astoundingly, PW continue to advertise apartments at Cime on their website (at a higher price) and we were told these were not available for us to transfer over to.

PW clearly make better margins if they can sell at higher rates so watch out if you've booked early with them....

Lack of customer service, accountability and communication coupled with process to obtain a refund are truly shocking.

Avoid this lot like the plague!

We have booked with Powder White for last 3 or 4 holidays and always find them to be helpful, communication is good and they are able to give us a good price on the accommodation we want to stay at.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

Like many others here, PW charged my group and I over £13k for a trip they cancelled during COVID (March 2020). Refused to refund any of this or even offer a deferral (unlike most of their competitors).

This was a clear breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

This is the second year I have used Powder White. Robyn has been helping with our holidays and she has been really helpful and prompt to reply to emails. I love the search engine on the Powder White website too.

Friendly and came back with information quickly.

Such a seamless experience, Powder White is a great ski company!

We were looking for a four day ski break over a long weekend straddling half term - quite a difficult ask. Powder White gave us loads of affordable options and we ended up having four wonderful days staying in Bourg Saint Maurice and skiing in Les Arcs. Powder White were always there when we had questions, the hotel was fab, ski transport so easy, and the skiing fab. Thank you!

I booked an apartment in Val Thorens through Powder White. The apartment was classed as 4*. It was anything but. The shower in one bathroom didn’t work and was surrounded by a hideous shower curtain. My son described the bathroom as a run down hospital bathroom. Strip lighting and old radiators that didn’t work. Tiny beds. Ancient kitchen without proper oven. Zero soft furnishings. One pillow per bed. Toilet doors that didn’t close. Awful mismatched cold tile floor. Electrical box positioned behind front door that continually tripped when opening door. Just awful. No compensation except the offer of the use of the spa. Useless as we hadn’t bought swimwear. Will never use them again. Suggest you have confirmation in writing of the apt you will be staying in or you will get the same line we got, ‘all of our apartments are similar but we can’t guarantee which one you will be staying in’ . AVOID

The rep for powder white listened to our requirements and provided the perfect chalet for our group.

We used Powder White to go to St Anton in December 2022. We're a big group of 23 and they helped to find us the perfect catered chalet. Our week was excellent - great chalet staff, great resort and overall amazing experience. We'll look to use them again next year.

Five star experience with powder white. Their expertise and advice is second to none regarding the whole ski holiday . It literally turns in to a holiday from the moment you book as you can rest assured knowing everything is covered . I’ve had a few ski holidays independently but it’s not the same and always go back to powder white for the best in every way possible .