In a rental listing, the word spa covers three unrelated things: equipment that belongs to the chalet, access to the spa of a hotel or a residence, or a day pass to a public spa in the valley. Almost every disappointment starts there, and a few questions asked before you book will head it off.
- Choosing a chalet with a hot tub means checking who owns the equipment, how many people fit in it at once, and what state it is in on the evening you arrive.
- Count two fewer than the advertised capacity. A six-seat tub works for four, which means four sessions for a group of 14.
- Falling back on the valley's big spa does not work with younger children: QC Terme in Chamonix admits nobody under 14.
- Chalet Bonami has three separate spaces, a steam room, a sauna and a hot tub on the covered deck, all included in the weekly rate.
"Spa" in a listing: three very different things
A private hot tub is equipment that belongs to the property and is used by its occupants alone, with no booking and no opening hours. A listing can still use the word spa whether the equipment belongs to the house, gives you access to a neighbouring hotel's, or simply means there is a public spa ten minutes down the road. The difference is who else can get in the water during your week.
The terminology is no help either. Jacuzzi is a brand name that became the everyday word for a hot tub, and listings across the Chamonix valley use both interchangeably. A wood-fired tub is a different thing again: a wooden barrel heated by a stove, slower to come up to temperature.
| What the listing says | Who else is in the water | Booking | Opening hours | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Private hot tub": the equipment belongs to the chalet | Nobody outside your group | None | Yours | Usually included in the weekly rate, worth confirming |
| "Spa access": the spa of a hotel or residence | The other guests | Slot to book, sometimes the day before | The venue's | Sometimes included, often charged per session |
| "Spa nearby": a venue open to the public | Everyone | Compulsory | The venue's | One entry per person |
There is a fourth case if you have only ever booked through a tour operator. In their chalets the hot tub is shared between everyone staying in the house, which is fine when your group has taken the whole place and awkward when it has not. It is one more reason to know whether you are taking the whole chalet or rooms in it.
The wording that gives away shared access
"Spa access", "use of the spa", "wellness area on request", "communal hot tub": none of these phrases says the equipment is yours. It happens most often in the valley's chalet hamlets, where two or three neighbouring houses share an outdoor tub.
A listing that describes a hot tub without saying where it sits on the property is worth one question, and it fits in a line: can anyone outside my group use it during my week?
A tub in the house, or day passes in the valley
It depends on who is in the group. If you are all adults, a chalet without a spa plus one or two evenings at a venue in the valley makes perfect sense.
With younger children it falls apart. The valley's big spa sets the entry age at 14, and the youngest wait outside while the adults get in.
Two places in the valley for a group staying in a chalet with no spa of its own.
- QC Terme, the big paid-entry spa in Chamonix, at 480 promenade du Fori, opens every day and takes bookings in advance. Nobody under 14 is admitted, and 14 to 17 year olds must be with a parent or legal guardian. Group rate from 10 people, evening entry from 5.30pm.
- The Richard Bozon sports centre, in the middle of town, has a sauna and a steam room next to the town swimming pool. What applies to under-18s in the spa area is not published, so ask before you travel there with children.
How many people at once?
A listing gives a capacity and stops there. A hot tub's capacity counts seats under water, a sauna's counts places on the benches, and in both cases the last one in is squeezed.
Count two fewer than the advertised capacity. Time matters as much: twenty to thirty minutes in a hot tub, ten to fifteen minutes in a sauna.
| What the listing says | What it really means | How long | For a group of 14 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot tub, seats 6 | 4 in comfort, 6 squeezed | 20 to 30 minutes per session | 4 sessions, most of an evening |
| Sauna, seats 6 | 4 without touching | 10 to 15 minutes per session | Nobody goes in once, so it spreads across the week |
| Steam room, seats 4 to 6 | 2 to 4 in comfort | 10 to 15 minutes per session | The counterpart to the sauna, for anyone who cannot take dry heat |
With twelve of you, count one session fewer. It looks like a detail on paper and it decides the evening when everyone comes off the slopes at four and wants to get in before dinner.
One big tub, or several smaller spaces
Several smaller ones, every time. Three separate spaces means around ten people can be in them at once instead of queueing outside one door, and there is somewhere to send anyone who cannot take dry heat.
If the chalet only has one, take the hot tub, provided it is sheltered. It is the only one where you talk rather than sit in silence enduring the heat, and the only one that appeals to whoever did not ski that day.
Chalet Bonami has all three, listed room by room: a steam room for four to six, a traditional sauna for six and a hot tub for six on the covered deck, in a house that sleeps 14. Applying our own two-fewer rule to our own listing, that is ten to twelve people in comfort at the same time, across three spaces instead of one. The chalet is let on sole occupancy, with no resident staff, so nobody outside your group ever uses it.
A hot tub outdoors in February
In the Alps, a chalet's hot tub is almost always outside and the sauna almost always inside. Over February half term, with the air at minus five degrees and snow on the deck, the cold decides whether the tub gets used at all, far more than the view from the water.
Two things decide it, and neither of them shows up in the photographs.
The walk from the door. Two metres in a dressing gown under a canopy is one thing. Fifteen metres across a snow-covered deck is another, particularly with children going back and forth six times an evening.
The insulated cover, the rigid panel that sits on the tub. It holds the temperature between soaks and keeps the snow out. Without one, the water takes hours to come back up, and it has to be shovelled clear after every snowfall.
Once you are in the water, snow bothers nobody. What puts a group off is clearing the path and pulling the cover off before every soak. Under a canopy there is nothing to clear.
In Les Bois, a hamlet 3 km (2 miles) from the centre of Chamonix and 550 m (about 600 yards) from the Flégère gondola, the Bonami hot tub sits on the covered deck, sheltered from snow and wind. It is heated continuously through the stay: nobody has to switch it on the night before, or wait until the next day to get in after skiing.
Will the hot tub be ready on the evening you arrive?
Few listings say so: many owners switch the hot tub off between bookings, for maintenance or to save energy. That means several hours of heating, sometimes a whole night, before anyone can use it.
This is where the French market differs from the one you know. UK holiday-let owners are used to talking about water safety, daily testing and draining between guests. French rental contracts rarely spell any of that out, so what you get depends on the owner, which is exactly why the question is worth asking.
Groups rarely arrive at midday. After the drive, the food shop and unpacking, the first soak happens that same evening, and that is what you lose when the tub starts from cold.
Ask who treats the water and how often. In a house that is properly run it is done between lettings, and during the week the system needs nothing from you: no chemicals to add, no filter to clean.
Can the children and teenagers use it?
A group of twelve to fourteen almost always includes children, and it is the thing listings say least about. Four things are worth checking:
- what age children can use the tub from
- whether the cover locks
- how deep the tub is
- whether the sauna and steam room are unsuitable for them
No regulation applies to the spa in a private house. The rule is the one the owner writes into the contract, or else the one the group agrees on the first evening.
Teenagers sit in a different bracket from young children, and not only at home: in the valley's public venues, 14 to 17 year olds are admitted, but only with a parent or legal guardian. In a group of fourteen where not every parent has travelled, that needs sorting out in advance.
Bonami's tip: ask whether spa towels are provided on top of the bath linen. Fourteen people getting out of the water twice a day go through more towels than anyone plans for, and the utility room ends up running every evening of the week.
Is the hot tub included in the price? And if it breaks down?
A spa is charged in one of three ways: included in the weekly rate, as a one-off heating charge, or per session for access somewhere else. A security deposit specific to the tub is sometimes added, on top of the one for the house.
Then there is the question no listing addresses: what happens if the equipment fails during your week. The hot tub was part of why you booked, and rental contracts almost never allow for that.
Ask in writing before you book. A useful answer says who comes out, how quickly, and what is offered if it takes more than a day to fix. A vague answer on that point tells you a lot about the rest. Whether you book direct with the owner or through an agency also decides who is on the other end of that email.
At Chalet Bonami, use of all three is included in the weekly rate, which runs from €8,600 to €32,200 depending on the week. No supplement, and no security deposit specific to the spa.
Read also: What a week in a luxury chalet in Chamonix costs
The questions to ask before you book a chalet with a hot tub
Ten questions, best sent in one go. The answers tell you as much about the owner as about the equipment.
- Is the equipment reserved for my group for the whole week?
- How many people can realistically use it at the same time?
- Will the hot tub be up to temperature on the day we arrive?
- Is it heated continuously during the stay, or does it need restarting?
- Is it under a roof, does it have an insulated cover, and how far is it from the door?
- Who treats the water, and how often?
- What age can children use the tub from, and does the cover lock?
- Is there a supplement, a heating charge or a separate security deposit?
- What happens if it is out of service during the stay?
- Are spa towels provided?
For reference, here are our answers to five of them for Chalet Bonami. The chalet is let on sole occupancy, so all three spaces belong to your group alone. The hot tub is hot when you arrive and stays on all week, the water is treated and tested between stays, and house and bath linen are included. All three work in summer as well as winter, and we set no age limit: the group decides.
What is a deal-breaker, and what is not
Deal-breakers: an owner who will not confirm in writing that the tub is reserved for your group alone, and silence on what state it will be in when you arrive. Either way, you are paying for something you will not get to use the way you pictured.
Negotiable: a one-off heating charge, what time the tub comes on, extra towels. Irrelevant: the brand of the tub and the number of jets, which nobody mentions again after two days.
Read also: Which part of the Chamonix valley to stay in
Chalet Bonami is let direct, with no agency in between: send us your dates and we reply within 24 hours.
Frequently asked questions about chalets with hot tubs
The questions groups ask us most often before booking.
What is the difference between a private hot tub and spa access?
A private hot tub belongs to the property and is used by its occupants alone, with no booking and no opening hours. Spa access gives you the spa of a hotel or residence, shared with other guests, usually in booked slots and sometimes charged separately.
How many people can use a six-seat hot tub?
Six seated, but four in comfort. For a group of 14, that comes to four sessions of twenty to thirty minutes, which takes most of an evening if it is the only equipment in the house.
Can you use an outdoor hot tub when it snows?
Yes: a tub that is heated and closed under its insulated cover holds its temperature, snow or no snow. What decides it is the walk from the door and whether there is a roof, since a sheltered tub is used all season while an open one means clearing snow before you get in.
Can children use the spa in a chalet?
In a private rental no regulation applies: the rule is the owner's, or the one the group agrees on. In the valley's public venues the line is firm, with QC Terme admitting nobody under 14 and 14 to 17 year olds only when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
Is the hot tub included in the rental price?
It depends on the owner, and the question is always worth asking. Some include it in the weekly rate, others charge a one-off heating fee or a security deposit separate from the one for the house.