Excellent Property with great service but pathetic maintenance
Overall: 
Location:
Staff:
Cleanliness:
Positives: Pool, Location, Staff, Travel Facility, Bicycle Rental
Negatives: Maintenance, Mgmt Attitude, No service before 8AM
It was very easy to locate the hotel as it was bang opposite to the Bus Stand. From the gate, you can see Arjuna's Penance stone carving. Shore Temple & Krishna's Butterball+surroundings are a very short walk. Lighthouse & Five Rathas are a bit farther, but still walkable.
The pool is the major positive about this hotel. Very clean and well maintained. My kid has a blast & was ever unwilling to come out.
Rooms were very spacious (we chose std a/c - which is 1700, but was 1600 when I booked) and neat & clean. Reception was very efficient. Room service was excellent & restaurant staff were very friendly too. My kid is usually averse to strangers, yet felt very comfortable with them.
Problems started on first night, when we realised that in room 104, the toilet flush was not effective (ok for #1, not ok for #2). They sent someone to fix it only after we reached the room & he took 1 hr & finally gave up - he said we have to wait for tomorrow morning. I went to the reception & he gave a key to the next room (there were hardly 4-5 rooms occupied). Flush was working, so we shifted all the items to this room, along with my kid who was asleep. Then figured out that in this room 103, A/c is not working. Went back to reception & he gave a key to another room on 1st floor - 201, checked that both Flush & A/c were working & shifted everything again. Reception person claims that any previous guest did not complain about either issue. Staff claims that maintenance is very poor & they allot rooms without fixing anything & ask us to pacify the client. Anyway, in the morning, we realised that the new room has shower head clogged (due to calcium), so I just opened it to have a decent bath.
Next day, spoke to one person who was the Accounts head there. He asked about feedback on the stay - I told him the property was great & staff is very good, but maintenance is very poor & he simply acknowledged saying you have pointed out the issue very correctly. Then what???
Restaurant staff was very willing to accommodate our requests, but could not manage to get a regular dosa made (as the relevant cook was on leave). I was surprised as I thought dosa was something you would get anywhere in TN. Anyway, they did manage to get a not-so-crisp dosa made to meet our request. Breakfast was complimentary, but I assumed they would charge for some extras we had with our kid, but they did not, which was very nice.
On check-in, we were told that pool timing is 7am to 6pm. Rules posted near the pool indicated 8am to 6pm. On 1st day evening, we were in the pool upto 6:45pm, when a guy told us that we have to leave by 6:55pm so that he can add chlorine & close the pool by 7:00pm. On 2nd day morning, I noticed that the cleaning started at 7:00am & went on till 8:00am. On 2nd day evening, a 'mgmt' type guy told us at 6:15pm to leave the pool as it closes at 6:00pm. When we told him that yesterday one guy told us it is closed at 7:00pm, he said that is not the case & allowed us to be there till 6:30pm, while my kid still played around till 6:45pm. Not sure if the presence of more guests (some foreigners) the earlier day had a role to play...
For kids, the property is real fun, as they have 3 rabbits who move around looking for carrots placed by staff, geese & quail that run around, beautiful pigeons that are fed by staff & come to the pool to drink water, and a small but dirty fish pond with huge cat-fishes.
Location:
Staff:
Cleanliness:
Positives: Pool, Location, Staff, Travel Facility, Bicycle Rental
Negatives: Maintenance, Mgmt Attitude, No service before 8AM
It was very easy to locate the hotel as it was bang opposite to the Bus Stand. From the gate, you can see Arjuna's Penance stone carving. Shore Temple & Krishna's Butterball+surroundings are a very short walk. Lighthouse & Five Rathas are a bit farther, but still walkable.
The pool is the major positive about this hotel. Very clean and well maintained. My kid has a blast & was ever unwilling to come out.
Rooms were very spacious (we chose std a/c - which is 1700, but was 1600 when I booked) and neat & clean. Reception was very efficient. Room service was excellent & restaurant staff were very friendly too. My kid is usually averse to strangers, yet felt very comfortable with them.
Problems started on first night, when we realised that in room 104, the toilet flush was not effective (ok for #1, not ok for #2). They sent someone to fix it only after we reached the room & he took 1 hr & finally gave up - he said we have to wait for tomorrow morning. I went to the reception & he gave a key to the next room (there were hardly 4-5 rooms occupied). Flush was working, so we shifted all the items to this room, along with my kid who was asleep. Then figured out that in this room 103, A/c is not working. Went back to reception & he gave a key to another room on 1st floor - 201, checked that both Flush & A/c were working & shifted everything again. Reception person claims that any previous guest did not complain about either issue. Staff claims that maintenance is very poor & they allot rooms without fixing anything & ask us to pacify the client. Anyway, in the morning, we realised that the new room has shower head clogged (due to calcium), so I just opened it to have a decent bath.
Next day, spoke to one person who was the Accounts head there. He asked about feedback on the stay - I told him the property was great & staff is very good, but maintenance is very poor & he simply acknowledged saying you have pointed out the issue very correctly. Then what???
Restaurant staff was very willing to accommodate our requests, but could not manage to get a regular dosa made (as the relevant cook was on leave). I was surprised as I thought dosa was something you would get anywhere in TN. Anyway, they did manage to get a not-so-crisp dosa made to meet our request. Breakfast was complimentary, but I assumed they would charge for some extras we had with our kid, but they did not, which was very nice.
On check-in, we were told that pool timing is 7am to 6pm. Rules posted near the pool indicated 8am to 6pm. On 1st day evening, we were in the pool upto 6:45pm, when a guy told us that we have to leave by 6:55pm so that he can add chlorine & close the pool by 7:00pm. On 2nd day morning, I noticed that the cleaning started at 7:00am & went on till 8:00am. On 2nd day evening, a 'mgmt' type guy told us at 6:15pm to leave the pool as it closes at 6:00pm. When we told him that yesterday one guy told us it is closed at 7:00pm, he said that is not the case & allowed us to be there till 6:30pm, while my kid still played around till 6:45pm. Not sure if the presence of more guests (some foreigners) the earlier day had a role to play...
For kids, the property is real fun, as they have 3 rabbits who move around looking for carrots placed by staff, geese & quail that run around, beautiful pigeons that are fed by staff & come to the pool to drink water, and a small but dirty fish pond with huge cat-fishes.