Le Meridien or Oberoi in New Delhi

iker

The costs for staying at Le Meridien and the Oberoi are very, very similar for travel in mid-July.

If you were to choose, which hotel would you select and why?

I understand that the Oberoi might be less well positioned in the city, but I also understand that its level of service might be much better than that of Le Meridien.

Many thanks,
Jim

KABAARY

Oberoi any day...

Excellent service, some very fine restaurants and I don't know why you say it might be less well positioned (I assume, you mean Oberoi Intercontinental and not Oberoi Maidens).

iker

This is the hotel. I think it would be the Oberoi Intercontinental. The link to the hotel is below.

http://www.oberoidelhi.com/en-US/Hotel/HOverview.aspx

Which would you do?

Jim

ronsaik

Oberoi's seen as a classier hotel than Le Meridien. It's got a tonier location as well.

jyotirmoy

Oberoi's for sure

davyd

Le Meredien was heavily criticized by Frommer for its gloomy casino style lobby and endless advertisements making it feel like a mall. I would add its high prices as drawback.
Oberoi is classier on any front.
Some 5-star chains in India apparently think that 5-star tag and big name may justify their price tags, but without investments it's just rip-off, Oberoi (or Leela, or Rajvilas) spend sometimes tens of million of dollars to refurnish, upgrade their hotels. Le Meredien was very slow to catch up with this trend.

ronsaik

Also...the rooftop restaurant at Oberoi's opens up to beautiful glimpses of the Delhi Golf Club's golf course. And, if memory serves me right, from the terrace you also get lovely views of Nizamuddin and Humayun's tomb. Meridien just doesn't compare.

iker

Many, many thanks. It looks as though we'll switch hotels to the Oberoi.

I was in New Delhi last year for work and I had the opportunity to stay at the Imperial, which I have to admit, was great.

I looked into the rates, but they want a little less than double what the Oberoi charges.

I will be staying at the Oberoi on account of the cost, but am wondering where you'd stay if costs were the same: The Imperial or the Oberoi?

As an aside, I stayed at the Cecil and Wildflower up in the foothills last year and am planning to stay at the Oberoi in Agra and Jaipur on this trip.

Jim

KABAARY

Tough choice - both are good...service in Oberoi is better and more professional...Imperial seems to be a hit with foreigners (particularly the Brits) for whatever reason. If we talk of the in house restaurants, the ones in Oberoi are way superior.

Certainly, Oberoi Agra is an excellent choice.

By the way, Cecil and Wildflower are part of the Oberoi group.

brownboy66

good advice from kabarry. The Oberoi chain overall is very good (as are most of them at that end of the hotel sector I guess). Having said that the imperial with its french chefs aint too shabby either!

Not sure what the rates are but July is low season. The more popular hotels always have a good occupancy, but even so there should be some good deals out there.

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