Jun 21, 2007 11:15 PM
1908 Views
I had stayed in this hotel when I was taking a vacation (in Hyderabad) in April. I had booked a month in advance through an online portal , then confirmed it on phone with them, intimating them my time of arrival. When we reached the hotel from the airport at about noon, surprise, surprise! They didn't have a room for us!!They acknowledged the fact that I had paid them fully in advance but they said "Kya karega sahib, aapko jo room dena tha woh guest ne check out nahi kiya." "Is it my fault?" I asked. "No, no", they said "We will give you a temporary room". I accepted, thinking that it would be a standard room at least (I had booked their "Classic" room). Meanwhile, my wife sat on the sofa in the lobby, fuming. My daughter was keeping on asking how long we have to wait here, etc.After about an hour or so, they said that now we can move to the temporary room.More surprises in store of course!
The so called temporary room was in fact a "break room" of their staff! It was not a regular room at all. The door could not be locked, the cubbyhole in the wall that was supposed to be the bathroom was stinking like hell. My wife was furious. "You and your fat headed ideas! We should immediately get out and move to another hotel!" However, it was difficult because Hyderabad has a chronic shortage of hotels in the 3-4 star category. Moving away now would mean searching for a new hotel with no guarantee of finding anything better.The time passed by.
We went out and had lunch, but no signs of us ever getting our room. Finally, I started really pestering them, after which a man, puportedly the manager, came over and tried to soothe us. However, he had no solution on the room issue. I demanded that he immediately upgrade us to a suite at same cost. That sent him runnning away (not to give us a suite , but to disappear). We decided to sit in the lobby in front of the reception and do some "gandhigiri", staring at them continously, so that they do something for us fast. That tactic seemed to work after a long time and finally, four hours after we arrived, we finally got the "Classic" room. It was not much but it was infinitely better than the temporary room.
The rest of the days were uneventful, but the first day was wasted thorougly because of bad management of the hotel. I would advise people to stay in the more expensive but better Katriya Hotel instead.Breakfast was in the room package. If you are staying for a day or two, it's fine, otherwise be prepared to eat the same stuff every day! My wife can now recite the menu by heart, even after three months. Medu wada, corn flakes, lassi (alternate days instead of juice), upma, etc. No dosas.Overall a strictly so-so hotel good only for an overnight business trip, certainly not for taking your family along.Room service is average, with sometimes reminder calls required to get your orders in time. Food is average.
