Peanut Mountain Lodge & le Communal

A real recommendation for the price. The rooms are functionally furnished and clean, there is a very nice sauna and the breakfast clearly exceeded our expectations. Fresh bread, real mountain cheese and ham every morning, plus great coffee. The location is also great, right next to a supermarket and the train station.

The hotel is located in a lovely quiet place but that is the only redeeming feature! Check in is all automated so very impersonal, room was nice and quirky, if a bit small, bathroom very small but functional, breakfast in minimal and not worth having, the pastries and bread are freshly baked which is nice and the coffee was good, when you managed to get one, the rest was poor and not worth having. Staff not very friendly or approachable. The food in the restaurant was expensive and not suitable for children so had to go out for dinner. The sauna didn't work the whole time we where there and when asked about it nothing was done, ski room was poor and not safe to leave skis in so had to keep them elsewhere.

I arrived at the hotel ahead of a business meeting. The welcome is... a machine. Thankfully, it does not work very well, so the person in charge of the bar comes: so it becomes human... I was upgraded to a room with a view, but no closet nor a hanging rail! But I had a coffee machine. And the bed was very good. Nice breakfast. And I loved the bar with boules ("pétanque")! All in all, an interesting albeit nice place to sleep, in a very nice valley.

We loved the hotel peanut! The food was tasty, the rooms clean, and the staff very friendly. The sauna and ski storage room was an added bonus. The noise levels were very good and the wifi was strong. The check-in/check-out process was very easy. Its location was a great feature as well -- you are only 10 mins by train to Champery and the train station is within walking distance from the hotel.

Wander between the mountains, moving to great heights and great views. Then return to the lodge where we enjoyed real hospitality. Nice rooms and on top good food. Try the grill and be amazed about the local food. All on all we loved our stay n Val d’Illiez.

What to say. We were on our way back to an already chosen hotel down the mountain, but saw this and 2 others and thought to hop in just to be sure we made a right decision for the other hotel + restaurant. But one step into this superbly decorated fresh environment with personnel with open arms, and instantly we just could not go back outside. The power of this must be the owner (I think he was), who must have been decorated the whole facility with a consistency that seems impossible, but still was there all over and in each corner. I should post photos, but it better be a surprise. But hey, if you already encounter butter for breakfast that really look like peanuts, then what eh ?! Our server seemed to be there for his first day. He mostly did not know what to do, but there we go again - het challenged for helping him instead of being annoyed. Even his wrong press on a button causing us to have paid already while we were actually just checking in (no need to pay at all), made us smile while only telling the server - later waiter that this imposed no problem at all. Confidence was key. Later appeared that the man had more experience in everything than imaginable and that he was triple more professional than normally required. You can see once again that the owner has done *all* to make things fit and make you, the customer, more than happy. Dear friend, you may recognize our personal tip for you which you changed to a free drink for us, probably not really allowed unless it was really so that the drinks for both of us were on *you*, as you told. It seems impossible to find anything with a better ambiance. Hats off !!