Apr 13, 2009 04:27 PM
6235 Views
We (myself and my wife) visited sterling resort on 10th April, 09. The room quality is very poor. Fans are old and noisy. Mattresses are very hard. For a double bed, it is two small beds attached. Sofa in the room should easily be 10-15 years old and soiled and dirty. Bathroom is again bad. Geyser doesn't work at times. Bathroom has western toilet, but no toilet paper (or even toilet paper holder) or help-fossett. You have to order for toilet paper every time it gets over, because the housekeeping won't care to put new ones.
We didn't receive the welcome drink that was promised. Food quality is below contempt. Service is very poor at the 'robesco' restaurant. There was only one waiter attending to 20-25 people during dinner. We had to wait for 1hr for the food to be served. Dinner is buffet @ 175 per head. Dried/cold Naan and two curries and rice. That's all. We felt completely robbed after that. For breakfast you get heated bread (no toast), bread- jam, idli- vada-sambhar-chutney, pongal. Just 3 varieties @ Rs.100 per head. No dosas, puris etc.
About the positive - We got a mountain view room and the view is superb. Room number 300#s face salem city and has excellent view. However it is the farthest rooms from the restaurant and the reception. I think 100# are good as well, and closer to the restaurant and entrance. But if you don't get any of these rooms, you might just end up in bad room (which is the case anyways) with no view at all.
We were charged Rs.8200 for 3dys/2 nights plus half day sight seeing and Rs.1800 food discount. Back to negatives: The reception staff are quite morose. They don't understand things quickly. When we arrived in the morning, they just gave a very cold stare and amused look. It was as if we landed from Mars. You will usually find one of them shouting on the phone at someone (probably an agent or housekeeping guy) and you will find a guest complaining to another over faulty geyser/food/cable tv etc. Overall the atmosphere in the reception sums up what you will get during the stay.
The activities room has carrom board, chess board, books, internet etc. If you are an avid carrom player, I sincerely advise you not to play carrom here. The Board is coarse and unusable. But you will still find it there. The striker has ends scraped off/bitten off. And the chess board is from the 70s. I know the structure of the chess board hasn't changed since long, but here the board has yellowed due to age. How much will it cost to have a new chess board?
Overall a bad experience. I liked the location, mountain view, the serenity of the place etc. I might consider going there again, but will try another resort. Not sterling. Also, the sterling guy just called me (as I am posting this review) offering me membership for 25 years. LOL. I summarised my experience to him. Guess what - he just laughed back at me. The fact that I complained about lack of toilet paper in a western toilet was hilarious for him, I guess.
