This hotel is called the Royal Orchid. I’ve renamed it already into the Musty Orchid. First, a few words about the hotel reviews on TripAdvisor and why I chose this hotel.
TripAdvisor and a few other sites all had generally positive reviews of this hotel. This is the one recommended to me by the folks who had come to this SAP office before and even the folks AT this SAP office. SAP likes to pay for mid-range hotels but cheap ones. Granted, they like to show frugality to the investors. And this hotel claims to be a 5- star hotel where the rates work out to something like $100/night in USD. Given the recommendations, SAP paying for it, and even internet ratings being generally positive, I wanted to err on the side of not making too much trouble when filing my expense report.
But when I say “generally positive” the keyword there is “generally.” In the reviews, more than one mentioned (a) that there is some kind of sewage treatment plant nearby, (b) that the rooms are musty smelling with old furniture, and (c) hotel staff isn’t friendly when you bring these points up and start demanding justice. But since most of the other comments – the majority actually – were positive, this is what I chose.
The hotel looks fairly nice in the lobby. At least to a weary traveler at 4am local time. The staff was friendly. Check-in was quick, although I both chuckled but had feelings of stress and dread when the clerk said “Oh, a madam called for you earlier.” A “madam” huh? I figured this was Megan (and I was right) and the desperation required to get her to call India looking for me made me worried.
Finally checked in I was escorted up to my room by the bellman, who made a point to show me all of the wonderful things about the room. He didn’t comment on the smell though. Finally I tipped him (another 200 rupees – they’re going like Indian hot cakes!) plugged in my phone charger and called home.
That’s another story but the short of it is for those not in the know: the hot water heater at the house blew up. Ruptured like a bomb. I’m not happy about that.
TripAdvisor and a few other sites all had generally positive reviews of this hotel. This is the one recommended to me by the folks who had come to this SAP office before and even the folks AT this SAP office. SAP likes to pay for mid-range hotels but cheap ones. Granted, they like to show frugality to the investors. And this hotel claims to be a 5- star hotel where the rates work out to something like $100/night in USD. Given the recommendations, SAP paying for it, and even internet ratings being generally positive, I wanted to err on the side of not making too much trouble when filing my expense report.
But when I say “generally positive” the keyword there is “generally.” In the reviews, more than one mentioned (a) that there is some kind of sewage treatment plant nearby, (b) that the rooms are musty smelling with old furniture, and (c) hotel staff isn’t friendly when you bring these points up and start demanding justice. But since most of the other comments – the majority actually – were positive, this is what I chose.
The hotel looks fairly nice in the lobby. At least to a weary traveler at 4am local time. The staff was friendly. Check-in was quick, although I both chuckled but had feelings of stress and dread when the clerk said “Oh, a madam called for you earlier.” A “madam” huh? I figured this was Megan (and I was right) and the desperation required to get her to call India looking for me made me worried.
Finally checked in I was escorted up to my room by the bellman, who made a point to show me all of the wonderful things about the room. He didn’t comment on the smell though. Finally I tipped him (another 200 rupees – they’re going like Indian hot cakes!) plugged in my phone charger and called home.
That’s another story but the short of it is for those not in the know: the hot water heater at the house blew up. Ruptured like a bomb. I’m not happy about that.
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