Ok, feeling weird that I am reviewing my stay at a hotel. But, nevertheless, it would be helpful for everyone, right???
Location: Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad (for people staying in Hyderabad, it is very much near to Pantaloons, Jubilee Hills, very close to Madhapur or Hitech City)
Rating: 4-starred
My Experience
I am kinda confused on how to review. So, I'll start with my experience. Ok, so my rating of the hotel goes up if they have a good entrance. This one does. Not only good entrance but its lobby is good as you expect a four-starred hotel to be. The staff at the reception are quite courteous and the lady didn't even take much time to book the room. My dad had done his booking prior but then some hotels do take time in allotting rooms and all stuff. So, here we didn't really need to wait. Btw, in case you are thinking that there was no one staying or anything, the hotel was decently occupied and the crowd was good. Daspalla is a chain of hotels in Andhra Pradesh and this one has opened just an year back so it is a very new hotel and the construction has not yet completely finished. But, the hotel is quite neat and ambiance is great.
So, this lady at the reception accompanied us to the room. The room was very good - huge wall window, spacious with space for 2 separate beds, a small table and two chairs and a working table with a revolving chair. The chairs are also pretty comfortable so good furniture. Coming to beds, really good. The pillows are lush and they were just equal to the standards of Marriott. AC is also very powerful not sloppy at all. Two mineral water bottles were complimentary. But, wait for the main part. The standard of hotel is decided by its bathrooms according to me and frankly, I love living in hotels because of the bathrooms :D (ok, tub is the attraction!!!). So, I went to investigate the bathroom. Ok, no tub :( But, my dad told me that every hotel is removing tubs from its regular rooms to save on water and be environment friendly. Well, one has to agree to that. After all, one usage of tub wastes 200 liters of water, phew!!! So, anyways, overcoming my disappointment, I saw that the bathroom was quite neat and we had Biotique products complimentary too which I completely did not expect. So, the rating grew higher!!!
Now, we went for the restaurant. Let me tell you before this point that Daspalla is mainly a South-Indian specialty hotel so it is supposed t have good South Indian delicacies. My dad is crazy about that and I am like :| So, he ordered for a thali and I was like noooooooooo. Ok, so the food was bad - oily, spicy and really tasteless. So, points deducted. But, the staff was courteous and the ambiance of the restaurant was good. But, the regular North Indian food which we had at night was good though the quantity was less but then that is expected. Here comes the main glitch of the hotel. The staff at night were completely untrained and had no clue of anything, they were wearing stained shirts and looked really bad (not at all what you expect from a good hotel). The service was really bad so point were deducted on a huge margin there. They didn't even know how to serve coffee. They brought milk and decoction (both cold), no spoons and no sugar. When we pointed that they were cold, the guy took the milk and brought it back after about 20 minutes and the decoction was completely cold. When we pointed that out, he took the decoction, reheated it and brought it back in 5 minutes and then we had to ask for sugar and then, we realized there were no stirring spoons and then we had to again ask for that. And, in meanwhile, if you think all this process went smoothly, sorry, the staff has an innate ability to disappear or not hear when you are calling them. Really a nightmare!!! Anyways, the main course was good so I wasn't so annoyed also. Room Service is prompt though.
Ah...so here comes my favorite part of the stay in the hotel. The shower. Amazing force, hot water, really relaxing bath. Points piling up for that. Even Marriott doesn't have the same force (read: not so good booster pumps). So, yeah, you do enjoy that. And, simple mechanism for using the shower. Some showers are really hard to decipher how to use. And, the shower has good temperature control coz the water wasn't becoming too cold or too hot that one can't bear it so it was great and frankly, I loved having shower there. It was so relaxing and so energizing at the same time. Good force of water can do that to you.
So, I have talked about everything. Now, lets come to the costs. We stayed in a double bed room. My dad booked the room in the hotel on makemytrip.com so he got it for around 4300 while its original price is 5300 bucks. So, yes, it is affordable and not really pricy. Overall, if I compare, I had a great stay!!! And, my dad is even more skeptical than me but even he did like the hotel overall.
My Reccomendation
Good place to stay if you don't mind being away from the main city. If you come for tourism purposes, it might be a tad out of the way, though. Mainly, this hotel was meant to capture the IT crowd as there are no proper hotels in Hitech. Novotel is too costly and other hotels are not as good.