It is with great dissappointment that I write this letter today, to bring to the notice of those concerned the appalling state of affairs at the Taragarh Palace Hotel, Palampur, operated by the WelcomHeritage group of hotels.
Our trip took off on the wrong foot when the website and Sales & Marketing telephone operator both claimed that there were no rooms available for the dates we required, this was in fact not the case as we were offered a choice of room categories to select from within 24 hours and further more on the day of our arrival at Taragarh we found that we were among a handful of guests at the hotel. At this point I would like to say that the Sale & Marketing team were quite helpful in Delhi and very co-operative to the extent they sent us a veiled warning of the horrors in store for us when they tried to discourage us from opting for the Heritage Room Package and upsold the Superior Delux Rooms on the pretext that they were larger and had better views. However in our innocence we choose the Heritage Room with the simple logic that we were going to a Heritage Hotel to experience exactly that, the Heritage aspect of the property.
On reaching the hotel, we were given a swift check in and shown to the room assigned to us, as we found it to be a bit claustrophobic, we quickly requested for a room change and were shown four more options(quite surprising since the hotel was allegedly full). Having choosen what seemed to be the lesser of the evils we moved our bags to No. 102 and went out to explore our surroundings.
No doubt the property is a very beautiful one albeit a victim of poor maintenance. The heritage wing with its tiled floors and the royal photographs that don every wall is a delight, and the new wing has been built to complement it quite well. The peaceful nature of the property and its surrounding gardens are a true haven for the tired souls that drift in from the hustle and bustle of life in the capital.
On our return to our room post dinner we were ready to hit the proverbial sack and sleep a sleep that would rival the cosiest mummy in ancient Egypt. Little did we know of the surprises in store for us.
As I was proping myself up against the headrest of the bed I was shocked to spy lint dust and filth oozing out of the tufted leather headboard! Barely had I come to terms with this newfound aspect to the Heritage value of the room when my better half, who had been using the facilities so to speak broke to news to me that the bathroom shower curtain was a dynamic evolving ecosystem in itself. Not one to believe such a strong allegation without hardcore evidence I gingerly moved from the bed toward the bathroom careful not to disturb the headrest lest I would need to have a bath myself to wash off the dust from there.
I had underestimated my wife’s knowledge of mycology and found what was originally a white standard issue shower curtain had truely evolved into its own ecosystem!
Moving back to the bedroom I figured I better have a tete-a-tete with my old friend John(of the Walker fame) and reached into the Minibar for some ice cubes. I guess the stars were not in the right position that night thou and from the freezer I was able to obtain a tray of what looked like a sample of ice age frozen in suspension, algae. Far from being frozen potable water it looked more like potty water that had been frozen.
The stars must have realigned themselves later that night and we were able to pass through the night without any further disturbance.
The next day we headed out to the managers cabin, conveniently located a couple of doors down the hallway fron our room, only to find his seat empty. Not ones to hang about and waste the day we left to see the sights with a promise to meeting him later in the day.
After a pleasent day visiting monastries and viewing tea gardens we returned to the hotel in time for tea. Once again the managers cabin was empty so we decided to approach the front office attendant who listened to us patiently while we shared our woes of the night before and without the slightest apology offered to ask the manger to speak to us on his return.
The evening drew to a close without a sign of the manager whom we assumed had better things to do then attend to upset guests. Post dinner we approached the front desk once again knowing that we had to leave in another seven hours at five in the morning. This time there was another attendant who claimed to have no idea what we were talking about but presented us with our bill to settle. At our insistence we were finally able to speak to the manager on the telephone who claimed to have no knowledge of our earlier requests and seemed preoccupied with passing on dietary updates to his companion on the other end of the line. Having heard us out he was quick to offer a mechanical apology and change of room but did not really seem to have understood or cared about our problem. Since it was quite late and we were to leave early the next morning we declined to change rooms and left.
There were only two reasons for choosing Taragarh Palace Hotel as our weekend getaway destination over the number of smaller hotels in the Palampur region, the romanticised heritage value and the WelcomHeritage Hotel tag. The latter assured us of a clean, well maintained and hygenic environment for which we were glad to pay a premium. Or so we thought at the time of making the bookings in Delhi. Our only leaving thoughts while departing from the hotel were of the Sales & Marketing manager in Delhi who had tried to get us to opt for the Superior Deluxe Room.
But is that the standard of WelcomHeritage Hotels, to only offer services to the higher category of room guests? Coming from a company of the same family tree that operates the Sheraton and Starwood Luxury Collection Hotels across the country and a part of the ITC group I am sorry to say, we are greatly dissappointed.