Hotel review: ITC Rajputana, Jaipur

In a little over a month, I've stayed at three of ITC's properties from their Luxury Collection of Hotels. The first was a the ITC Windsor in Bengaluru, where I received red-carpet, yet upmarket, treatment. The next, a few weeks back, was at the ITC Grand Central in Mumbai, where I had a mixed experience (rather, a good experience marred by this particular occurrence). So when I had the opportunity to stay at the ITC Rajputana in Jaipur, I wasn't sure of what to expect.

I reached Jaipur on a Sunday evening, on a connecting flight via AMD. After a rather eventful airport experience (modern, yet tiny airport, and my checked-in bag was the last on the baggage carousel!), I was picked up by the hotel taxi. The driver was extremely friendly and helpful, and it was very hard to disengage from conversation with him - the upshot of it being, I had my Jaipur 101 within 10 minutes! Because I was in Jaipur on work and didn't have time to sight-see, the friendly driver actually took a roundabout route to the hotel so he could show me the top 4 or 5 places!

I reached the ITC Rajputana by around 6.45 pm, and it was fairly empty in the lobby. Here's the first look.

View from the entrance

I think it's safe to say, that I was WOW-ed! I was checked in, and one of the members of the Front Office staff - Rinshi was her name - very kindly offered to show me around the property. Now, that's the sort of gift horse that you don't look in the mouth, and I took her up on the offer. The hotel lobby itself is modelled on the local "Haveli" style, with a water body (mini fountain in this case) in the middle of the floor space, and staircases on either side of the far end of the wall, leading up to a set of rooms (some meeting areas, and hotel offices, here).

View from first floor

Ground level view - lateral

What follows is a series of pictures taken during my "tour".

Central water body

Sheesha - the Bar

Spa - one of the massage / therapy varieties

Spa - another of the massage / therapy varieties

One of the spa rooms

Coffee shop

Open-air bar by the pool

Pool at night

Drinks at the Peshawri restaurant

Tables at the Peshawri restaurant, just before service started

After a good 40-45 minutes, the tour came to an end, and I was led to my room, where my bags had already been deposited. The hotel has four room types - Executive Club, Rajputana Chamber, Rajputana Royale and the Thikana Suite. Although my booking was for an Executive Club room, I was upgraded to a Rajputana Royale room (that's 2 levels up!) thanks to SPG Gold status. I also happened to have a dekko at the standard Executive Club and Rajputana Chamber rooms, and there isn't much different among those rooms per se, except that my room had a couch in place of two chairs, and a very different bathroom (separate tub, shower and toilet areas, as well as a two-way closet. Here are some pictures of the room and bath.

Room view from the entrance

Room view

Bed and couch

Work table - doesn't face the TV, so no distraction!

Play and work!

Closet that opens two ways - from the room, and from the bathroom side too!

Couch. In spite of the looks, quite comfy!

Usual coffee stuff, and the French press that I've begun to like at the ITC hotels

Breakfast the next morning was in one of the restaurants. A reasonably large spread, that included juices, shakes, smoothies, a variety of breads and croissants, house and commercial jams/preserves, and a spread of western, local (Rajasthani), South Indian, and Far-east elements. Plus eggs to order. Quite fulfilling!

My only regret was that I couldn't use the swimming pool - it looked so inviting in the morning !

And a word about the staff. The hotel has a fairly large number of rooms (not sure how many), so it is not unreasonable to expect that the staff don't remember you by name. WRONG. Not only did they (the front office) call me by name every single time, they also remembered my room number, when I got locked out and had to request for a duplicate swipe card. The staff is also very very friendly and easy-going, and to my mind, the standout (really, the only two that I interacted with) were Rinshi (who showed me around the hotel, on day 1) and Shreya. Great show, guys!

Will I come back to this place again? My trip was short and there's so much that Jaipur has to offer - as a city - that I will have to visit on holiday. No doubts as to where I'll be staying!

[Update - March 2014]

• What's good: nice rooms, regional tilt throughout the hotel, very friendly and helpful staff, F&B
• What could be better: can't think of anything as such