I had made the booking online for this resort for two days seeing their photographs of the cottages on their web site! The rates looked reasonable and the cottages looked like a dreamland in the photos. When I reached there, I was in for the shock of my vacation.
1) First of all, there was a guy at the reception counter who behaved as if he was doing his job to complete some sentence imposed on him.
2) Secondly, my cottage booking was not in his reservation list though I had got the confirmation. My print out helped me save the day and my money as he had no way to deny that I had made a booking. Already a good 30 mins lost at the reception due to his search!
3) He said he will manage to get a cottage for me and took us to one of the cottages. it looked more like a dungeon! There were no fans or chairs! Veerappan’s hide out would have been better I thought! I asked him, but then the reply was hilarious...he said that the photo angles and the photographer’s professionalism always make the photos look better than what they actually are!
4) Next started the bargaining to see if another room/suite is available as I could not picture me and my wife staying in that cottage (dungeon would be a better word). He said all the rooms are full and that he could not refund the money that I had paid for the cottage. He offered to give a suite instead if I paid him more money. I agreed and he said he could give me discount of Rs. 700 for the suite for two days. I said I wanted it only for a day and there went the Rs.700 discount!
5) The room, his assistant said was the best the hotel had to offer, but I guess in terms of ameneties, there was no water and you could not close the main door as the door hinges were broken! We had to keep the furniture behind the door to stop anyone from opening it in the night as they did not have anyone to repair the door. Adventerous vacation, right? There were also a lot of ants and cockroaches to give us company.
6) Inspite of the reminders that there was no water, we could just see a few people running helter skelter and then forgetting the whole complaint. We made at least 6 trips to the reception to remind them. Only if kicking someone’s face was not a crime! Finally, they managed to crack the mystery of why water was not coming in our bathroom somehow and we could at least take a good bath thanking God for small mercies
7) Half of the food that we wanted to order was not in the menu and when the bill came the next day, there were items that were billed for, which we had not ordered!
8) Ok, I and my wife said that all this should not spoil our vacation and the next day would be better. The day started with no water again and many people from the cook to the room boy to the watchman climbed on the tank to see what the problem is, but it looked as if it was the greatest mystery that no one could solve!
9) We had to somehow manage with the water at the bottom of the bucket that we had thankfully kept the previous night.
Now I guess you know why I said you can book it for your worst enemies :-)