Oct 02, 2012 10:23 PM
5103 Views
It was a much anticipated trip for me as we have been planning it for a long time. After reading a lot of nice reviews, we selected windflower. I had a little bit problems with the reservation process. Even after transferring the money, and a mail, it took 2/3 calls to get a confirmation from them about the reservation.
The resort is located conveniently. We could find it without any assistance.
It has a beautiful swimming pool, an artificial lake and a good landscaped garden. They have some good activities as well. The check-in process was smooth. But we were little bit taken aback by the attitude of one person at the front desk (he is the front desk manager). Other than him everyone else was pleasant. Our luggage was taken care of and sent to the room and the car was also taken to the parking. We had booked two suits. We were given room number 40 and 41. It has one living room with a huge TV and a couch big enough for one person to sleep. The bedroom is also big enough and was good with a TV, a king bed and a nice relaxing chair. The bathroom was big with a open private shower and a open person jacuzzi. The room was clean and we liked it.
The property is spread out and inside a big coffee plantation. The food was just good enough. Nothing special about it. But the service was very good. The housekeeping service, the service at the restaurant were good. They conducted some small games like housie at night which was also good fun. It was my brother-in-law's bday. They didn't charge us for the cake and some snacks they sent. But even with so many positives, there were things which made me decide not to go back to this property again. Well, I had thought of forgetting all the negatives until the check-out time.
And here are the negatives.
The room that they gave us had a beautiful balcony. .but just across the balcony is the reception building and the dinning area. So even though there are some trees and all separating them, the most irritating fact is the A/C noise that you will hear continuously. I had gone there to sit and relax and enjoy the view, listen to the birds and the sound of nature....non of that is possible in that room...what you see is a building right across you...and what you hear is the A/C noise. When I called and requested to change the room, the response was a cold "sorry we can't change the room. we are full".
The bathroom shower as is the case with most of the places I have stayed, is never good enough to give you a peaceful shower. Even to get your body wet it will take 10 minutes. The bathroom door lock was not working.
The worse was we had requested a bday cake to be delivered to our room at 11:30 PM for my BIL's bday. But they never delivered the cake.
But the worst came at the time of check out. We checked out, paid our dues and just about to leave, when someone comes running and says that some bed sheet is stained with sketch pen color (thanks to my 3 year old daughter) and we will have to pay for it. Even though such kinds of things have happened at other places, no one had asked us to pay for it. But we were ok, as we thought they were asking us to pay for cleaning it. But what they came up with is that since you have soiled the bed sheet, you will have to buy it... and gave us a bill of 1575/-. First of all did they give us a new bed sheet when we checked-in that they were asking us to pay for a new bed sheet? Second what the price we are paying for when we booked the hotel? So any kinds of wear and tear also have to be born by the guests? The front desk manager was especially nasty and rude which infuriated me and my BIL...after a lot of shouting and arguing they came back and told
us if we want to pay we can pay, or else we are free to go.
So the question was "what the fuss all about then"? I thought that this completely ruined the holiday for us and it was utter cheapness. If they finally decided not to collect the money, then why did they ask in the first place? How did it benefit anyone?I am not going visit this windflower for a long time to come...but I am sure the reason is more personal..After reading this, you can take your own decision at its merit. And if you do decide to go and visit this property make sure you avoid rooms on the back of reception (I think room number 32-41)...
In my mind the best view are from the room 42-45 even though they are on the same side as 41..as these rooms are angled away from the reception building and facing to the jungle...All the best...
