Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru at Embassy ONE — Hotel in Bengaluru

Stayed here in Aug'24 for a weekend staycation, expecting an extraordinary and exemplary service. After my stays in other Four Season properties, my expectations were obviously high.

Arrival - I was surprised by the mediocre "portes-cochères" and was a bit confused where the entrance to the lobby was, even after a gracious welcome by the staff outside. The entrance turned out to be just a big "trying to be fancy" door. After entering in to the lobby, I was taken aback with the architecture of the lobby area. Dark and badly laid out to say the least. However, the front office team was helpful and greeted with a smile and escorted me till the room. Though, the check-in was relatively quick, I was expecting the check-in formalities to be done in the comfort of the room going with the trend set by "luxury" hotels.

The Room - I booked a Premier King Room on a higher floor and was allotted a corner room. I was told its better than the other ones, but cannot compare as didn't see the other rooms on the floor. The room itself was just good, nothing extraordinary. I was told by the lovely front office lady, who gave me a room tour, about the use of iPad as a convenient mode of asking for help, service, order in-room dining etc. I though it was a nice touch, though nothing new as ITC had been doing this for a while. But that turned out to be the biggest flaw. More on that later.

Food - Ordered in-room dining for both the nights and the food was tasty and well presented. The in-room dining server was courteous. Breakfast spread was great, as was expected, with no noticeable flaws.

Spa - Used the spa service for a massage therapy and facial. Expansive changing rooms with jacuzzi, steam and sauna facility. The masseuse were good. The therapy and facial were good.

Swimming Pool - Amazing pool area with enough sunbath beds available to use. However, I was very disappointed to see such a small changing room/shower area to be used by both swimming pool users and the gym goers. It was the same size that of my bathroom area in the hotel room.

Service - After the best thing, let's talk about the worst thing and the most surprising as well. I faced three small but such avoidable instances of bad service that was not at all expected from a Four Seasons property.

1. Before going for a drink at their rooftop bar, I requested for a turndown service through the iPad chat option. The same was confirmed back. When I came down to my room, to my surprise, the turndown service was not done. More than angry, I was confused. Why did they miss it, I wondered. Called housekeeping and got a response: "Sir, we had a lot of requests, so missed it". Wow! After 10 mins, the room cleaning staff came to check if I want the service now and did apologize, but it was too late!
2. I requested for a bath towel, again through the iPad chat option, and was confirmed it is on its way. I waited for 20 mins, no one came! Again, such a lame instance of a bad service! I called housekeeping and they brought the towel after 5 mins. I did not get any reasoning of why it was missed at the first place.
3. Before the checkout, I requested for a shoe shine service, guess what; again with iPad chat. The housekeeping staff came after 10 mins with shoe shine sponges. I asked for a shoe shine "service", not a shoe shine!

The problem seems to be a miscommunication, broken workflow in requesting services through their "iPad service". If you have faults, do not provide these tablets in the room and just stick to conventional methods of using phone. Guests wouldn't even notice it. But, if you have provided this service, for the sake of "guest convenience", I expected it to work seamlessly.

Overall, it was just a good stay. Nothing great and extraordinary about it. I have had much better stays in other luxury hotels of Bengaluru and this is not even in my top 3....

Copitas is really good, been here many times but there isn't much attention to detail when it comes to cleanliness. The carpets were stained and had food debris from the previous guest. Even though they just opened. Kind of had to request for housekeeping to come clean it up. But the staff was really kind to switch our tables and were really apologetic. My partner (her first time) however felt that we should go elsewhere for our drinks, we just had a drink each and left. I do understand that it's probably an oversight, maybe a manager or a housekeeper could empower their team to check every table and maybe not drop food crumbs on to the floor from the table?

Back to the menu- We had come to Copitas a few months ago as well (as we are well acquainted with the cocktail scene in BLR) we were introduced to the Chapter series of drinks where they mentioned they use different parts of the plant and introduced us to the "Leaf Chapter" and mentioned that they will change the menu or Chapter every 2-3 months. The last time we were here was September, hence I expected to see the Chapter 2 or 3 menu. Was quite disappointed to see the same "Leaf - Chapter 1" menu - this time with a bit of wear and tear. So nothing exciting there. Since we've tried the entire "Leaf" menu before, we decided that we shall go ahead with our trusty old Copas (Gin and Tonics). Again both our drinks list were different. I had a menu with 6 Copas and my partner with 8 (or 9 can't remember).

We were told I was holding the new menu, and she had the old one. I mean, there are two of us, the least someone could do is to check rather than give my partner options that you don't have. Now she has been disappointed twice and is quite funny to me that the new menu reduces two drinks as the only change. No doubt it was clarified to us by the server.

The Staff-

The staff were very kind and welcoming, we really enjoyed the welcome drinks and the two drinks we had still wish my partner could have Copas 7 though. The staff is attentive and we had at least 4 of them come check in on us. They are ready for any request - eg: my phone ran out of battery and i requested if it could be charged, they happily obliged. The evening manager and the hostess were ready for the Friday night rush, but I did feel their warmth in our short interactions.

Would have been a 1 star, but thanks to the staff it's a 5 star, reducing two stars for the cleanliness and the menu...

Trust is a two way process and I do not trust the legitmacy and authenticity of the Four Seasons brand anymore !

It was my first time staying in a Four Seasons hotel, I stayed at the hotel on 15th and 16th of January with my cousin. The only positive aspect I have to write about this hotel is that it was my cousin's b-day and they arranged an amazing b-day cake and did a nice room decor for no added cost ! Thanks for the memorable experience !

Coming to the pain point, it obviously starts with the pricing! When we stayed at the hotel, the base category rooms were priced at 17k per night , which is considerably more expensive than a Taj, Marriot or Trident for that matter. And obviously you'd expect more in terms of value at that price point ! However, the plain reality is that not only did we get anything special, but the hospitality was also terribly poor.

1. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE ! : This is the message that we got from most of the staff, it started with the pool, the pool guy spoke to us in an arrogant tone saying the type of clothing is not permitted in the pool without providing any alternative solution in a rude / abusive manner !

2. No Post Pay : Special Thanks to the front desk lady who put us and our room in a no post pay category, meaning that for any services we opt for, in room dining, spa or dine in from any restaurant we'd have to pay instantaneously for it on the spot, and not while checking out ! Though this is still a mess to swipe card everytime it still would ve been okay, but instead everytime we opted for a service, the staff came to us as if we were there to steal , in a rude manner they asked us to pay up !

3. No Functional Elevator ! : Would you just believe this ? It would be one of the most expensive hotels in Bangalore, and we got locked in an elevator, and after too much effort, the staff helped us out of the elevator, and another person said to us he also got locked in the same elevator the same day, why not turn that off or fix it ? Seems like all they bother is about collecting money, without providing any peace of mind or value to the customer !

Regarding everything else, its just all the same that you get from other star hotels, nothing great / unique / special about it !

This was my first and last stay with Four Seasons, and I would no recommend anyone to stay with Four seasons again citing the...