Hotel review: Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport

These last few days, I've been busy trying to work my best strategies to maximise my IHG points. To be honest, this isn't a chain I stay with much (in fact, my last stay with them was at least 5 years back). But with the Big Win offer going on, and a whole list of promotions and status match possibilities (which I'll write about soon), I thought it was time to try out IHG and add some points to my kitty.

I'd spent a couple of days earlier last week at the Crowne Plaza, Gurgaon, and that was booked for by my clients. Now, one of the various promotions that IHG offers, is a platinum bonus for 5,000 points - after much research, I figured out that only online booking from an IHG account is eligible for this promotion.

And so the minute I realised that there was a stay coming up in Mumbai, and that the Holiday Inn was within my allotted budget, I decided to book a room here - my second IHG stay in a week. Now, I do realise that in the list of brands that IHG operates, Holiday Inn is perhaps not as "high up the value chain", but I wanted to try it out nonetheless. And I'm glad I did.

I reached the hotel quite late that evening, after a really long day's work. Entering the hotel lobby, I didn't feel suffocated with harsh and gaudy offerings, or piled up over-the-top luxuries. The lobby was simply furnished, airy, clean and fresh.

Importantly, all their public areas seemed to be spread out, open and well ventilated - even the corridors to the rooms, and the elevator lobbies. I found this to be particularly surprising, given the real estate prices in Mumbai!

So, I was given a rather personalised welcome, with the check in agent thanking me for my "loyalty" with IHG. He also informed me that I'd been upgraded to a suite. That was nice, though a virtually guaranteed benefit of holding platinum status (unless of course, there are availability issues). And here's what I subsequently noticed - a difference in the room type, between my booking and the final online confirmation:

Original booking - Superior room

Updated booking - Studio suite

I also had this letter handed over to me, indicating my benefits:

Immediately, there was a member of the concierge staff who took my bags and led me up to my room.

Lift lobby

Corridor to rooms

My room was on the 2nd floor, and the initial view from the door seemed a bit disappointing

until this happened

The room was not exactly a "suite", if you define a suite as a living space with multiple rooms, separated by walls and doors. Nonetheless, the room size was fairly large. The same was the case with the bathrooms.

Well laid-out bathroom with lots of space

Shower cubicle

Bath tub

I'm glad their shower cubicle was as large as it was, with doors opening outwards, unlike the one at the Kempinski Delhi that I'd written about as being fit for a contortionist! I also liked their attitude to the environment, even when it came to bath supplies.

There was also a small welcome gift - some chocolates - along with a hand-written note from the hotel general manager, welcoming me. From a quick look at the handwriting, either he had written the note himself, or someone had signed as him. I'm inclined to believe the former, and conclude that it was a wonderful gesture!

Because it was rather late by the time I'd settled in and taken pictures, I went straight to bed, and set up a wake up alarm. I was woken up by this device, which only then I noticed, was also an iPod player / charger.

After a quick visit to the gym and a reasonably long shower (the rain shower was quite good), I headed down to the lobby for breakfast. On the way, I asked to be checked out and for my bags to be brought down.

Breakfast was at Saptami - the coffee shop, and was the usual variety of various cuisines. 

I did like the seating, though.

After breakfast, I decided to take some more pictures, before I checked out. To my mind, the pic below is a clear indicator of the roomy feeling the hotel gives.

And the day outside wasn't all that bad either !

There are hotels, and there are hotels. In my experience of travelling and flying in the last 10+ years, the one big learning for me has been that how good you feel about staying at a hotel has almost absolutely nothing to do with the price that you pay. Now, I'm not saying that I didn't like my stay at, say, the Marriott London County Hall a few years back (at GBP 240++ a room night) Ritz Carlton Bangalore (Rs 14,500++) or the 2-hour visit I had to one of the suites at the Burj Al-Arab (I didn't have to pay for that, but I can imagine the room rates that prevailed at the time), but what I'm trying to say is that there isn't much correlation between price and feel-good. Of course, YMMV.

But having said all that, I felt this particular hotel to be really welcoming, and pleasing to the eye without being over the top. Sometimes, understated is better than grandeur? And a large, comfortable room may well be more useful that a multi-room suite? I really loved my stay at this hotel, and hope to come back here for more.

[Update - March 2014]

• What's good: great rooms, very friendly staff, overall a very pleasant ambience, F&B
• What could be better: nothing really