This is review about the Highland Parade resort in Kodaikanal. If you have already booked the resort, please don’t read.(They don’t believe in cancellation anyway). If you are planning to book the resort then please read till the end. If you still want to book, don’t say you have not been warned.
We(as me and wifey, sister and hubby, cousin and hubby) had booked highland parade for a weekend break during Jan 2010. This was for a duration of 2 nights and 3 days. The itinerary was as follows.
Leave Bangalore Thursday night By Rail,
Reach KodaiKanal Road Friday morning
Go to KodaiKanal by Taxi
Leave KodaiKanal on Sunday Evening by KSRTC Bus.
We reached KodaiKanal on Friday morning with a night long journey in train plus 3 hours drive. Checked into the hotel at around 9.30 am and our nightmare started.
DAY 1:
THE MORNING SHOW: We had to ask for towels and soaps which took 10 minutes to arrive. For a cup of tea another 10 minutes. The water in the bathroom was ice-cold and you have to wait for 10-15 minutes for warm water. There is no question of shower as the the flow of water is extremely slow. Somehow managed to complete the morning ablution by 10.20 and managed to reach the restaurant at 10.30 for breakfast.
BREAKFAST TABLE: The breakfast spread was really good with Idli, Uttapam(made to order), Pongal, Vada and Tea/Coffee. But the service was REALLY SLOW. You can imagine the frustration only when you are really hungry and looking at the food but can’t eat it as you don’t have any plates and cutlery. Ok, somehow managed to finish the breakfast by 11.15. I don’t know how to explain but the Tea was really bad.
TRAVEL DESK: In KodaiKanal you have two types of tour; One - Trekking tour - Which involves a bit of walking(Don’t be afraid. It does not require more than 30 minutes of walking in any of the sites). Two - The sightseeing tour. This is mostly a easy tour where you can go to the site in the vehicle. We had taken the Trekking tour on Day 1. The charges are INR 1000. We had booked the vehicle at around 10.00 am with a promise that the vehicle will be there by 11.00am. The vehicle finally reached hotel at around 12.00 noon. It was a Tata Indica for 4 passengers. All of us boarded the car and started for the journey. The vehicle gave up in 10 minutes. At one stage it was going backward in a uphill with all the passengers in it. It was slightly scary. We got a replacement vehicle at around 12.30 and rest of the journey was really good.
EVENING SNACKS: Came back to hotel at around 18.30hrs and ordered for some tea. The quality of Tea was really bad and they didn’t have any snacks. Reason, the restaurant opens at 20.00 hrs.
DINNER: We had asked for dinner at 21.00 hrs and it was ready by the time we reached there. But again history repeated itself in giving us plates and other cutlery.(10 -12 minutes). The food was neither good nor bad. The only thing I would want to mention is the curry leaf in chicken soup.
I would like to mention the lack of lights on the roads inside the resort. It is really difficult to walk among unmaintained overgrown lawns without proper light in the night.
DAY 2:
The day2 story is similar to the day1 story in terms of service the only change being unpalatable food in for Dinner.
Overall the stay was a disaster.
SUMMARY:
Likes:
Location: The place needs major maintenance and proper staff but the location is awesome. You can see the valley from your room itself.
Room Size: With proper maintenance the rooms will be really good.
Basically lot of thought has gone into selecting the site and building the resort but the management has lost everything by poor management.
Dislike:
1) Service - Pathetic is an understatement here. A lot of improvement is required in speed of service.
2) Staff - Out of the 5 people we had interacted 3 were part time workers. They have no training on hotel service.(One of the days I had got a soup spoon for adding sugar to the tea.). We use to get the food first and the plates and cutlery later. They don’t know how to make the bed. Half of them didn’t understand English properly. Must share this; Out of frustration I had asked if they need any help is cleaning of the cutlery and plate so that they can serve it quickly and I had received a reply of "Yes Sir".
3) Food - Food is really bad. They should prepare only what they know how to prepare. The breakfast is good but the dinner and tea are really bad. The dal fry looks like moong dal ka halwa.
4) General look and Feel: Overall the resort has a rundown look. The lawns are unmaintained with overgrown grass, the swings that you see on the web-site are broken. There are no lights on the path to the cottage. The towels were almost torn. You can’t close the bathroom door. Possibly the power back up is breaking down. We didn’t have power from 7.30 in the morning to 9.30 in the morning in day 2.
Overall it is a BAD experience. I had arranged for the trip and am really doubtful if I will ever get paid for it.