We had made a plan to visit Ooty for 2 days on 23rd and 24th of Jan 2010. I took help of Google to search the hotels for stay. The Tamilnadu tourism site showed up couple of hotel options. One of them was Nahar Nilgiris hotel. I inquired to check the availability and found that it was available. I tried to book the stay online but the site was having some issue. I talked to the Hotel reception and they told that booking can be done on telephone. I was surprised that how can a booking can be done without taking any money in advance! But the reception person assured me that I’ll not have any issue. So the booking was done in that way only.
Our arrival was delayed by 3:45 hrs delayed somehow so I was a bit worried that they may allot the room to someone else. I made a call to them again to ensure from the mid way and they assured me again that the room is still booked for us only.
The number of times I interacted with the hotel reception, it was a pleasent experience. They are very polite and answer to every query very patiently. Sometimes, when everything is going on well you have a doubt in your mind. The same thing happened to me - I thought the hotel must not be good enough that is why the rooms are vacant otherwise in many hotels the rooms were not occupied. With such thoughts I arrived with family to the hotel. But my doubts turned to be rootless as we entered into the hotel.
It is at Charring cross road, surrounded by the market place. The hotel was not looking great from outside but when we entered, we found it great. They received us with a smile and the chek-in took only 2 min. The hotel crew, who showed us the way to our room, made us familiar to the hotel and available facilities. Our room was delux double and rent was 2250+taxes. It was on 3rd floor. A small lift was there. The room was specious and had a big bathroom.
There are two restaurants in the hotel premises - Chandan and Garden. Chandan is north indian and pure veg. Garden is south indian & veg+non-veg. We personally liked food at Chandan than that of the Garden. Besides this, they have a coffee shop and a cafe too in the same premises. We couldn’t go there due to our short stay in the hotel.
One more thing that we liked in the hotel is its location. Being situated on Charring Cross road, the market is pretty well accessible from here. Yet, it is not at all noisy. There might be some noise problem, I guess, in the the front side rooms of hotel but the delux rooms are situated in back and are very peaceful. Botanical garden is at walking distance from here.
Overall it was a nice experience and I’d recommend the hotel as one of the good stay option in Ooty.
The things I liked:
Booking on phone call, Nice ambiance of hotel and rooms, Well maintained rooms, Exellent room service, Cooperative hotel crew / responsive reception guys, Great food quality at Chandan, Travel desk for sightseeing related assistance, Good connectivity to the market.
Things I don’t like:
Complementary breakfast was not included in room rent, Hot & cold mixture of water had some issue(in the room we stayed), Room heater at additional cost of Rs. 337/night.