Hotel Daspalla, Hyderabad {Review}

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.

READ MORE - Hotel Daspalla, Hyderabad {Review}

Are you searching for a hair dresser in Hyderabad?

So, this is a kinda different post and before I proceed on with it, I am not endorsing or criticizing any of the brands or places I will be talking about. No one is paying me to write this. I am writing everything based on my personal experience and yours might differ from it so please bear with me.

So, apart from my disclaimers, I wanna say this that this post is for people who are in search of good hair stylist or hair dressers in Hyderabad. If you already have one, you are lucky but if you think you need someone better, go ahead and read the post. So, I have been thinking of a good hair cut since quite a long time and since it is my friend's engagement in a week, I direly needed to go today. I have been having regular hair style changes for only a couple of times till now and I have tried a couple of salons like Naturals, Lakme and La Belle. To sum up my experience, I was not very satisfied any where. So, this time, I asked one of my friends for any recommendation and it was a HE. I know sounds kinda lame but his mom has been visiting the same parlor for past 26 years and he advised me to go there. It turns out that this said parlor is owned by a Chinese lady. Now, if you do not know about this fact, Chinese people are particularly good at beauty. Another of my friend also recommended another Chinese parlor to me she is a fan of and a regular at.

Now, let me make one thing clear. This parlor is not like the high-end salons which have become so famous these days but the similar to the concept of beauty parlors in the last decade. At home, employing some girls and not so into using high-end equipments. If you are a kind of person who loves high-end salon, this is definitely not for you. Since I did not like any high-end ones and needed some one, I decided to place my trust in my friends and went to the parlor. Of course, I was skeptical and was full of mind to beat up my friend in case I was any less satisfied.

So, I go to this parlor and ask for a hair cut. An old Chinese lady who is apparently the same owner I talked about came out. I ask her how much time would a hair cut take and she said 20 minutes. Ok, I did wash my hair at home because I am not very sure of the hygiene levels at the parlors and salons and also to save my pocket. So, I sit there to get my hair cut and as soon as I sit, the lady starts cutting my hair. I told her that I wanted something different from my hair and wanted a lot of layers at the back. So, I have naturally wavy to curly hair with a very less volume but a lot of fluff and have a huge forehead. So, my hair cut starts and in 15 minutes, she was done with chopping off and styling my hair. I kept my eyes shut coz I was afraid of what I might see. And, lo behold, when I open my eyes, I was like is it me?? I got a completely different look which I never thought would suit me. And, trust me, the hair cut is amazing. It makes my hair look voluminous and  full and covers my forehead well. I am looking younger, my hair is looking a wow which it never did till today. I can't stop smiling looking at myself since the moment I walked out of there. It costed me 350 bucks which was fine.

So, I wanted to share this experience of mine and recommend the parlor to anyone who is looking for a good hair dresser. This is only for people staying in Hyderabad. The name of the parlor is Blue Heaven. It has two branches - one at Banjara Hills (just opposite to Ohri's Banjara) and another somewhere in Secunderabad. Now, there is a catch in this whole thing. You need to get hold of the owner to do the hair cut. I was lucky that I landed with her. She is generally not available or does not provide the services on her own. So, in case you plan to go, do make an appointment asking for the owner. The phone number of the Banjara branch is 040-23370455. So, guys, once again, I am not endorsing but just recommending something which I loved. 

READ MORE - Are you searching for a hair dresser in Hyderabad?