Oct 31, 2009 03:07 PM
3392 Views
On 27th sep 2009 I alongwith my family members a total of 8 people reached Sterling Munnar. we had a booking in the name Gopal Agarwal under timeshare membership of Mr sarat agarwal.
CHECK IN : we reached at around 2pm, it was quite cold and raining. I asked at the reception about our booking, we were told our rooms are in a seperate block about 50 meters from the main building. and we were told to go on foot as no vehicle can go upto that place. as it was raining I asked for umbrellas which the hotel staff promptly refused.
seeing no other option we all had to walk in the shivering rain resulting in fever to two children of our group. ROOM SERVICE: was very poor and it took them almost half an hour to provide any service.
HOUSE KEEPING: rooms did not had adequate blankets and pillows, the staff were reluctant to provide even the stipulated towels.
munnar becomes very cold in this season due to chilly winds blowing all the time. the rooms remain very cold all the time making us uncomfirtable. there were no proper room heating arrangement, which is a must in hotels at such places.
we were provided with a small room heater which was barely able to heat even a small portion of the room.
in the night the winds blow at high speed and make a horryfying noise against the low quality windows.
with rooms remaining cold no adequate blankets and chilly winds blowing at high speeds it was a torture living in those rooms for me and my children.
since it was a time share property with self cooking facilty, the grocery shop should have been adequately stocked, on the contrary the hotel grocery shop did not even had the basic bread and butter in stock.
every time we needed some thing we had to walk about 70 meters to the main gate and a further 50 metres to the outside grocery store in the chilly rain.
the hotel boasts of a ayurveda centre advertising all kinds of massages.
we tried to buy some comfort at the ayurveda centre but it was more torturous than staying in the hotel.
when I booked the massages for us I specifically asked them "whether the massage room will be heated and warm" and the reply was in affirmative.
on 29th sep evening we went for the massage it was very cold outside as usual but we were dreaming of a cosy massage in well heated room.
on entering the massage centre I realised that we had made a mistake. it was small place with 4-5 partitioned rooms.
i was told to wait as another person was taking steam, after about half an hour wait I was led into a small cold room with a wooden table and a plastic chair.
i was asked to take off my cloths which I did but as the room had the same incapable room heater I was feeling very cold, but the massager assured me that within minutes it will be warm , but that was not going to happen, after removing all my cloths I was made to seat literally shivering with cold for the head and face massage. which took almost 10 minutes. then I was asked to lie on the hard and cold wooden table having no cushion etc. only a small pillow to support my head. by now I was regretting my decision to agree for the massage.
the massager starded massaging me I was repeatedly telling him that I am feeling cold and am not comfortable but it was of no use.
on completion of the massage I was told to take a bath, it was a very small dimly lit bathroom, I was told that due to 3-4 continious baths the hot water in the geyser has been exhausted so I was provided with half bucket hot water and mug for bathing. which was barely adequate to wash off the sticky oil from the body. the towels were sticky and wet, with previous use.
finally I came out and went to my room to recompose myself.
now comes the best part of the story.
at around 7.30 pm I went to the hotel reception to narrate the incident , the counter staff was understanding was sympathetical towards me he even apologised , I then wanted to talk to the front office manager Mr Chandrashekhar to let him know about the matter. After much reluctance Mr chandrasekhar came on the line, when I narrated the whole incident to him, at first he was a little polite and listened to me when I told him that taking a massage their was a complete wastage of money, he asked me to wait for some time when he did not called for about half an hour I again made the reception to call him, this time Mr Chandrasekhar was Very arrogant he told me that he himself is an ayurvedic doctor and his massaging facility are perfectly ok. and it was perfectly alright to have a massage without warm room.
Mr chandrasekhar then offered me a discount of 10% as compensation. I told Mr chandrasekhar that as per my experience it was total waste of money on my part, I asked Mr chandrasekhar to take a massage their himself at my expense to get a first hand experience.
I ADVISE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE PALNNING TO GO TO STRELING MUNNAR TO AVOID IT AS AFETR VISITING IT YOU WILL FEEL CHEATED.
I ALSO INVITE OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE VISITED STERLING MUNNAR T SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES
SO THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE NOT CHETAED OF THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY
MAHENDRA KEJRIWAL
