Hotel review: Pullman Central Park, Gurgaon, India
[Update 2015/16: This hotel is no longer the Pullman, but has been converted into the Le Meridien SPG hotel. A new Pullman hotel is coming up at Aerocity, New Delhi.]
I'm someone who is usually reasonably liberal when it comes to hotel and airline reviews. The main reason for that is that even if the experience was rather bad, I like to think that maybe they were having bad luck. However, when things tend to go consistently wrong or off-putting, it strikes a very discordant note, and leaves me with an overall rather bad taste in the mouth. My stay at the Pullman Central Park, Gurgaon, a few weeks back, was one of those bad ones, though there were one or two elements that I did like about the stay.
I'd flown into DEL rather late in the evening, and so it was well past 9 pm that I checked into the hotel. I was carrying a reasonably heavy bag, and the first thing that struck me (apart from a rather rude cabbie) was that there was no bell desk person at the entrance to help with the luggage. Now, that's quite unusual in India, given that hotels are very particular about having all pieces of baggage scanned through their x-ray machine.
I did like their lobby initially, but as a person who prefers more structure than randomness, I personally found their abstract idea of decoration a bit overboard.
Next up, check in. Nothing great, though I didn't see any particular recognition of my Accor Le Club platinum status. I then reminded the check in agent about that, and it was only after that, that they changed the assigned room to a better category one (not a suite, though).
Then one of the front desk staff offered to show me to my room, and I asked about the executive lounge, which they had. I was taken there en-route to my room, and the place was D.E.A.D. There was not a single person in the lounge. Apparently, the lounge offers only soft drinks / juices in the evenings (drinks can be had at the bar, for platinum members), and a cold breakfast in the mornings (full spread breakfast at the coffee shop). Not exactly ideal.
Onward, then, to the room.
Overall impressions - quite pleasing, though some might find the colour and lighting schemes a bit too funky for their liking (but I'm not certain if the pics below say the same story).
The bed itself was quite firm, yet soft, and therefore very restful. In particular, I liked the iPod dock that they had in the room (which I'm told is not available in all rooms, only those above a certain category). I do like the experience of being able to listen to my music when I want to, so that was a big plus!
The bathroom was large rather than small, with a bath tub separate from a relatively large shower cubicle. My only complaint about the bathroom - couldn't find the light switches!
Even though this is a relatively new property, there were signs of wear, or maybe it was just poor finishing.
Next morning, I woke up fairly early, yet feeling very refreshed - the bed probably did it.
Views of the Delhi Metro aren't what you want, but it wasn't a bad view overall, was it?
After a shower, I headed to the coffee shop for breakfast. The coffee shop itself is pretty large, and so is the buffet spread, with separate sections for: Asian, Continental, North Indian, South Indian, eggs (to order), cereals and fruits, breads and juices, and yogurts. I couldn't get pictures of all, so here are just a few of these. Service, on the other hand, was virtually non-existent - I had to locate one of the servers and get some cutlery and coffee at my table.
All that aside, what really put me off was the incident when I was checking out. At the time of check in, I had asked the hotel to keep my copy of the credit card authorisation along with the rest of my folio, to be taken by me on check out. However, at the time of checking out, they couldn't locate that slip. They then proceeded to charge my credit card for the full amount of the folio, assuring me that the advance they had blocked would be released. I trusted them and signed off, only to find out in a couple of minutes, that they had indeed found my earlier authorisation. On verification, I noticed that the authorisation codes on the original blocking and the consequent charging to my credit card, were different (which would mean that the original amount would remain blocked for, virtually, all time). I then had to get them to reverse the second charge, followed by a third charge against the original authorisation. In all, a big mess.
For all of this, they apologised profusely, and the manager came out and personally handled the situation. He also mailed me later, with an offer to upgrade to a suite on my next stay. Question is, will I go back to this hotel? I'm not so sure.
[Update - March 2014]
I'm someone who is usually reasonably liberal when it comes to hotel and airline reviews. The main reason for that is that even if the experience was rather bad, I like to think that maybe they were having bad luck. However, when things tend to go consistently wrong or off-putting, it strikes a very discordant note, and leaves me with an overall rather bad taste in the mouth. My stay at the Pullman Central Park, Gurgaon, a few weeks back, was one of those bad ones, though there were one or two elements that I did like about the stay.
I'd flown into DEL rather late in the evening, and so it was well past 9 pm that I checked into the hotel. I was carrying a reasonably heavy bag, and the first thing that struck me (apart from a rather rude cabbie) was that there was no bell desk person at the entrance to help with the luggage. Now, that's quite unusual in India, given that hotels are very particular about having all pieces of baggage scanned through their x-ray machine.
I did like their lobby initially, but as a person who prefers more structure than randomness, I personally found their abstract idea of decoration a bit overboard.
Next up, check in. Nothing great, though I didn't see any particular recognition of my Accor Le Club platinum status. I then reminded the check in agent about that, and it was only after that, that they changed the assigned room to a better category one (not a suite, though).
Then one of the front desk staff offered to show me to my room, and I asked about the executive lounge, which they had. I was taken there en-route to my room, and the place was D.E.A.D. There was not a single person in the lounge. Apparently, the lounge offers only soft drinks / juices in the evenings (drinks can be had at the bar, for platinum members), and a cold breakfast in the mornings (full spread breakfast at the coffee shop). Not exactly ideal.
Onward, then, to the room.
Overall impressions - quite pleasing, though some might find the colour and lighting schemes a bit too funky for their liking (but I'm not certain if the pics below say the same story).
The bed itself was quite firm, yet soft, and therefore very restful. In particular, I liked the iPod dock that they had in the room (which I'm told is not available in all rooms, only those above a certain category). I do like the experience of being able to listen to my music when I want to, so that was a big plus!
The bathroom was large rather than small, with a bath tub separate from a relatively large shower cubicle. My only complaint about the bathroom - couldn't find the light switches!
Even though this is a relatively new property, there were signs of wear, or maybe it was just poor finishing.
Next morning, I woke up fairly early, yet feeling very refreshed - the bed probably did it.
Views of the Delhi Metro aren't what you want, but it wasn't a bad view overall, was it?
After a shower, I headed to the coffee shop for breakfast. The coffee shop itself is pretty large, and so is the buffet spread, with separate sections for: Asian, Continental, North Indian, South Indian, eggs (to order), cereals and fruits, breads and juices, and yogurts. I couldn't get pictures of all, so here are just a few of these. Service, on the other hand, was virtually non-existent - I had to locate one of the servers and get some cutlery and coffee at my table.
All that aside, what really put me off was the incident when I was checking out. At the time of check in, I had asked the hotel to keep my copy of the credit card authorisation along with the rest of my folio, to be taken by me on check out. However, at the time of checking out, they couldn't locate that slip. They then proceeded to charge my credit card for the full amount of the folio, assuring me that the advance they had blocked would be released. I trusted them and signed off, only to find out in a couple of minutes, that they had indeed found my earlier authorisation. On verification, I noticed that the authorisation codes on the original blocking and the consequent charging to my credit card, were different (which would mean that the original amount would remain blocked for, virtually, all time). I then had to get them to reverse the second charge, followed by a third charge against the original authorisation. In all, a big mess.
For all of this, they apologised profusely, and the manager came out and personally handled the situation. He also mailed me later, with an offer to upgrade to a suite on my next stay. Question is, will I go back to this hotel? I'm not so sure.
[Update - March 2014]
- What's good: iPod dock in higher-end rooms, good breakfast spread
- What could be better: staff knowledge of elite benefits, overall treatment of arriving guests (not just elites), lounge facilities and content (requires significant improvement)
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