Hotel review: Renaissance Mumbai
Over the last year or so that I've been writing this blog, I've realised that my hotel reviews and other trip reports have been rather random, and very much influenced by my own priorities and preferences. Now while that might give my perspective to things, it may not be ideal for a regular reader who'd be expecting a rather objective view. So here on in, I'm going to attempt adding a set of key pluses and minuses as part of the report, and you'll find this at the end of he report. I'll also try and update all my other trip reports in this manner.
So, I spent a couple of days at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel earlier this week. This is part of a larger property that includes serviced apartments and residences, and if you come in to breakfast early enough, you may even run into kids of families staying at the residences, having breakfast before they leave for school.
Last September, I'd written about complimentary Marriott Rewards Silver status, and about how I successfully combined my Marriott Rewards accounts. I had little benefit from, or need to use, the silver status when I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, last month. And so I was quite looking forward to this trip at the Renaissance Mumbai.
I reached the hotel late in the evening, and used the Marriott Rewards membership zone to check in.
However, I had made some specific requests for my room, which hadn't been taken care of in the room that was originally assigned to me. Instead, the check-in agent offered me a room temporarily before my new room would be ready. I didn't want to do that - I had a call to take, and I guessed that it would be long enough for me to be able to go to my requested room directly, which is what eventually happened.
Strangely, throughout the check-in process, I was referred to as a Gold member, and was even handed over a complimentary drinks voucher that was intended for Gold members. Apparently, their systems showed my membership as Gold, rather than Silver. I was happy to correct them - it wouldn't have made much of a difference, I guess.
In the mean time, Varsha, the check-in agent, took me on a quick tour of the restaurants at the hotel, all but one of which were at the main lobby level or one level down.
After the tour, and my scheduled call, I was able to go to my room, passing along some really long corridors along the way.
The room was larger than the average hotel room, and featured a king-sized bed, couch and Ottoman, and a work desk.
The bathroom was also fairly large, and the Tokyo Milk branded bath amenities were really nice.
I then settled in and connected to the internet, which I must say is by far *the fastest* internet connection I've ever had at any hotel in India or overseas. I then had dinner delivered through room services, which wasn't exactly what I had ordered. I called room service again to inform them of their mistake, and they said they'd check and call me back in a couple of minutes, which they didn't. I waited a good 15 minutes before finishing off a partially unwanted dinner, and it was a further half hour or so (and several attempts at reaching the duty manager) later, that the F&B manager and the head chef came over to my room to understand the situation. They apologised, and promised to waive the dinner charges. The whole thing however took up a lot of time, and left me quite tired, and so I hit the bed.
I woke up rather early the next morning, and only then realised that I had a room with a great view of the Powai lake and the sunrise.
After a cup of coffee from the broken box that held the sachets of tea and coffee, I was ready to start the day.
Breakfast was at Fratelli Fresh, the hotel's Italian restaurant at the lobby level of the new tower where my room was also located. The spread at the buffet was really vast, and they had a counter with paper bags too, where one could load up on bakery products and other assorted stuff to carry with them. I, however, had enough time for breakfast and not enough time during the day, to bother with a take away.
After work that day, I returned to the hotel and had dinner at the Lake View Cafe - the coffee shop / restaurant - which served a variety of Indian and continental food. In particular, they had counters serving Mumbai street food - chats, ragda pattice, frankies, and the ubiquitous vada-pav, which was what attracted me to this restaurant in particular. I also managed to use my complimentary drinks voucher for some JW Black Label whisky (though the voucher itself didn't have a restriction as to the drink type, the waiter made a fuss when I asked for something higher up the whisky chain, so I let him take the call).
Day 2 morning would've been almost identical to Day 1, had it not been for the fact that the excess water I'd boiled in the kettle for my coffee on Day 1 was still in the kettle. Clearly, they didn't bother about emptying it, which leaves me to wonder how good (or bad) a job of cleaning the housekeeping staff might have done.
I checked out, only to realise that that the dinner charges on day 1 hadn't been waived. I was running very late, and it was only because the agent at the check-out desk was very reasonable, that I could settle my bills quickly and get going.
Now, for the objective bits. The good parts were:
What I thought could be better (a whole load, in some cases) were:
I hope this helps. Have you stayed at this hotel? What do you think of it?
So, I spent a couple of days at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel earlier this week. This is part of a larger property that includes serviced apartments and residences, and if you come in to breakfast early enough, you may even run into kids of families staying at the residences, having breakfast before they leave for school.
Last September, I'd written about complimentary Marriott Rewards Silver status, and about how I successfully combined my Marriott Rewards accounts. I had little benefit from, or need to use, the silver status when I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, last month. And so I was quite looking forward to this trip at the Renaissance Mumbai.
I reached the hotel late in the evening, and used the Marriott Rewards membership zone to check in.
 |
| Entrance |
 |
| Check in counter |
 |
| Concierge / helpdesk |
 |
| Membership Rewards desk |
However, I had made some specific requests for my room, which hadn't been taken care of in the room that was originally assigned to me. Instead, the check-in agent offered me a room temporarily before my new room would be ready. I didn't want to do that - I had a call to take, and I guessed that it would be long enough for me to be able to go to my requested room directly, which is what eventually happened.
Strangely, throughout the check-in process, I was referred to as a Gold member, and was even handed over a complimentary drinks voucher that was intended for Gold members. Apparently, their systems showed my membership as Gold, rather than Silver. I was happy to correct them - it wouldn't have made much of a difference, I guess.
In the mean time, Varsha, the check-in agent, took me on a quick tour of the restaurants at the hotel, all but one of which were at the main lobby level or one level down.
 |
| Oriental / Chinese restaurant |
 |
| Lobby-level bar |
 |
| Spiral staircase to Indian restaurant, Cafe and Deli |
 |
| The deli - Mumbai Express |
After the tour, and my scheduled call, I was able to go to my room, passing along some really long corridors along the way.
The room was larger than the average hotel room, and featured a king-sized bed, couch and Ottoman, and a work desk.
The bathroom was also fairly large, and the Tokyo Milk branded bath amenities were really nice.
I then settled in and connected to the internet, which I must say is by far *the fastest* internet connection I've ever had at any hotel in India or overseas. I then had dinner delivered through room services, which wasn't exactly what I had ordered. I called room service again to inform them of their mistake, and they said they'd check and call me back in a couple of minutes, which they didn't. I waited a good 15 minutes before finishing off a partially unwanted dinner, and it was a further half hour or so (and several attempts at reaching the duty manager) later, that the F&B manager and the head chef came over to my room to understand the situation. They apologised, and promised to waive the dinner charges. The whole thing however took up a lot of time, and left me quite tired, and so I hit the bed.
I woke up rather early the next morning, and only then realised that I had a room with a great view of the Powai lake and the sunrise.
After a cup of coffee from the broken box that held the sachets of tea and coffee, I was ready to start the day.
Breakfast was at Fratelli Fresh, the hotel's Italian restaurant at the lobby level of the new tower where my room was also located. The spread at the buffet was really vast, and they had a counter with paper bags too, where one could load up on bakery products and other assorted stuff to carry with them. I, however, had enough time for breakfast and not enough time during the day, to bother with a take away.
After work that day, I returned to the hotel and had dinner at the Lake View Cafe - the coffee shop / restaurant - which served a variety of Indian and continental food. In particular, they had counters serving Mumbai street food - chats, ragda pattice, frankies, and the ubiquitous vada-pav, which was what attracted me to this restaurant in particular. I also managed to use my complimentary drinks voucher for some JW Black Label whisky (though the voucher itself didn't have a restriction as to the drink type, the waiter made a fuss when I asked for something higher up the whisky chain, so I let him take the call).
Day 2 morning would've been almost identical to Day 1, had it not been for the fact that the excess water I'd boiled in the kettle for my coffee on Day 1 was still in the kettle. Clearly, they didn't bother about emptying it, which leaves me to wonder how good (or bad) a job of cleaning the housekeeping staff might have done.
I checked out, only to realise that that the dinner charges on day 1 hadn't been waived. I was running very late, and it was only because the agent at the check-out desk was very reasonable, that I could settle my bills quickly and get going.
Now, for the objective bits. The good parts were:
- largish room (possibly due to Silver status, can't be sure, though)
- excellent bath amenities
- very good internet speeds
- excellent food, in general.
What I thought could be better (a whole load, in some cases) were:
- in-room telephones - they're so 1980
- better staffing of telephone lines - one of those calls to F&B had me listening to the hotel's message 72 times (yes, I actually counted that)
- coordination between departments (only because of the F&B / billing matter)
- a little more attention to detail - the residual water in the kettle was unacceptable for me, and they could've done a better job of the tea/coffee sachets holder.
I hope this helps. Have you stayed at this hotel? What do you think of it?
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