As part of my trilogy of stay at hotels in Pune (Woodland, Ambassador, Phoenix), this was by far the worst hotel. I was put up here by my company coz the location was great – 5 minutes walking from Pune station.
So I could get off the Volvo bus from Mumbai, walk with my trolley luggage, check into the hotel, keep my luggage in my room and proceed to my office (without having to carry my luggage around all day).
Basic amenities in this hotel are available – hot water, clean bathrooms, drinking water, clean beds. But everything about this hotel is average – which is not good considering they are priced way above average. And since they deem to be a business hotel, I was expecting an internet connection, if not wi-fi.
My experiences here was hell-raising almost. Let me list
them for you.
*1)
Unfriendly
staff:** The day I checked in, the man at the reception did not so much as
even smile at me. The day I checked out, I tipped the man who was most helpful
to me (person ‘A’) and did not give anything to the man standing next to him at
the reception (person ‘B’). So ‘A’ thanked me and asked me “What about
‘B’?”!!!!! And since I couldn’t really say “No I don’t wanna tip him!”, I took
a tenner and gave it to ‘B’. This is when ‘B’ said he didn’t take tips! Now am
I new to the hotel industry, or was this attitude called for. On the whole, I
found the staff proud and egoistic.
*2)
*Bad food:
First of all, this is a vegan hotel (and I’m not), which is ok, if the food is
good. But no! The breakfast spread consists of idli, medu wada, upma, pohe,
puri, alu bhaji and cornflakes everyday. The idlis and pohe are too dry, I
avoid deep friend stuff (for breakfast at least) so the puri / alu bhaji and
medu wadas were out of question, which left me with upma and cornflakes
everyday – day after day after day! The food at the hotel was average with
nothing great to offer. And to top it, I was told that I’m not allowed to order
non-veg food from outside! When I asked how they would come to know what I
ordered, they said well they could find out from my bill. I think they’re
saving the world from non-vegetarians! The guy even went to the extent of
asking me which part of the country I was from, to associate my need for
non-veg food!
*3)
Too many
rules:** So first of all, no non-veg food. I hesitantly decided to order for
a vegan pizza. The staff did not even let the pizza guy come to my door, even
after I told them it was ok. So I had to make a trip to the reception with the
cash, to find that they didn’t even let the poor guy into the lobby! And it was
raining outside! Another weird thing was that we were told that our door access
keys had to be “reactivated” every 6-12 hours, so every time we came back from
work, we had to head towards the reception to get our keys reactivated. All
these coming together was getting me pissed mad!
*4)
Horrible
service:** I finally got to speak with the Operations Manager who heard me
out and said that he was sorry but the staff chosen was bad since they were
having renovation!! Now, (1) I don’t get this logic!! (2) How can he put all
the blame on his staff!?! I couldn’t believe that this man would nto take
responsibility for something that was wrong. I’m sure the staff was not making
up these rules for me…they were telling me coz they had been trained that way!
The manager then said that with the kind of needs I had, I should try their
sister hotel – Oakwood. So basically, he was telling me that this hotel would
be just the way it is and I should go to a more expensive hotel! Ridiculous!
Anyways, I made it very clear to him that I would not come back to this hotel.
So all in all, it was a horrible experience. One that I
would not recommend to anyone. And Mr. Manager, I will NOT go to Oakwood, or
any hotel owned by the Talreja Group coz I think they first need to rethink the
way they are handling the hospitality business.