I have booked this hotel for two nites from 22nd Jan thru 24th Jan on Cleartrip.
Place: its on the fag end of the Pondy bazaar. Not easily recognizable as there is not much signage as well( at about 11pm)
Security: seems to have already dozed off. Was concerned at this first inhospitable sight itself and prepared myself by discounting the experience. There is nobody to attend to the luggage or invite the guest at the main gate
Front office: guess the manager and his staff are having a field day in group discussion which is very typical of normal road side inns( indeed they are better in recognizing the presence of guest). To top it, there is none who is interested to attend or acknolwedge the presence of someone who is trying to checkin by brandishing the booking confirmation voucher...
Checkin: they are clueless about this confirmation and flatly informed that there is no record of any reservation from Cleartrip; but the very personnel after talking with someone have agreed to let me in; taken a copy of my confirmation voucher as well.
Lobby: not at all inspiring or elegant.
Corridors: musty unkempt definitely not maintained for long with stuffy feeling. Surprised to note that the hotel has been opened for public just about 2 years ago
Room: while the bed is arranged and kept clean; the wooden floors not at all maintained well. There is neither the directory for room service/reception. One need to guess or stumble upon in knowing the numbers at the back side of the room service menu, scribbled by someone earlier hapless guest I suppose
Water: none; there is no complimentary water; whatever the Kinley bottle is fetched; its already opened. I am not sure if the attendant has opened it apriori out of deference or its plain water filled in whatever the available bottle at the time of fetching it!!!
Facilities: just horrible; for there are neither toiletries; nor the hangers; nor even the laundry bags. One need to constantly followup with the reception to make things happen. Truly frustrating.
Room type: I was assured of king size bed; at the time of checkin, was informed all are booked( though atleast 50% of the rooms are indeed available by their own admission). I was promised that the very next day morning I would be changed to another room with king size bed. Even after a day is passed, in the nite of second day, to my another surprise there was no attempt to shit nor inform me in advance that it was not possible.
Bathroom: spacious and overall its cleanly maintained. But the biggest challenge is to navigate the very limited space at the bath counters; just no space to keep any of the toiletries
Toiletries: after much persuasion and nudging would one get them but in absolutely small quantities exactly that is required for a person....housekeeping would not change the toiletries or remove the used ones. Everyday one need to ask for the basic thing like soap.
Housekeeping: just horrible.
Laundry: best avoided
Pressing: just OK
Breakfast: there is no signage typical of this hotel at the counters and also at the entrance. Nor would there be any or would anyone who is there would attend to you proactively.
Bfast is not worth trying out there. Its plain insipid.
Checkout: but for the customer support from the cleartrip's intervention I would have had a real challenge in the nick of the time to impress upon the obdurate front office manager that I have already paid up the entire amount in the last week of december itself!!
Billing: it took them 20 minutes, after agreeing to let me go by recognizing the booking confirmation voucher, to provide the bills, at 8:45pm when no other guest is around.
Service Orientation: excuse me...what is it...is the simple credo of the folks out there.
