ITC Gardenia, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bengaluru — Hotel in Bengaluru

I recently stayed at this hotel, and while it makes an effort to be a luxury property, it falls short in a few areas, especially if you're accustomed to Marriott hotels.

Pros: Excellent Location: The hotel is conveniently located, just a 7-minute walk from UB City, and it's easily accessible from the airport via bus. Overall Cleanliness: The property is generally clean, although there were a few issues that I'll mention in the cons section.

Cons:

Service Issues: The most significant problem I encountered during my stay was related to the service: a) Check-in staff attitude: On the day of my arrival, there was a city-wide Bandh in Bangalore, which forced me to cancel my office plans and arrive at the hotel much earlier than expected (around 12 PM). Initially, I was offered a smoking room, which I declined. They informed me it would take 45 minutes to get a non-smoking room, which was perfectly reasonable given my early arrival. However, after waiting for nearly an hour, I returned to the counter, and a different staff member told me I'd have to wait until 3 PM for a room, claiming that "7 other people are also waiting" (even though there was no one else waiting). I had to escalate the issue to a manager, who miraculously found me a room immediately.

b) Room Issues: The room itself had a few problems. The entrance door appeared to have been damaged in the past and was held together by screws, which isn't a good look for a luxury property. Additionally, the balcony seemed to be neglected as it had a significant amount of pigeon poop. When I brought this up, they did change my room, but they insisted that the balcony was cleaned daily, and the pigeon poop was fresh. I didn't argue further, but I did point out the presence of poop beneath the patio chair, which didn't align with their claim. Room cleaning was inconsistent; on two days, they didn't replace opened soap or toothpaste, but on the third day, they did a thorough job, including placing water bottles in the right place and replenishing tea bags. Consistency in this aspect would greatly improve the guest experience.

C) The buffet breakfast : Multiple issues here. Firstly the seating is haphazard. I was made to sit at a certain place and when I got up to get some food, I found another persons mobile placed there. Seems they seated someone else. I was told to sit at another spot but on refusing, they moved the other person. Second, the food taste is wanting specially the tea. They have a very large spread but the taste for some of the items isn't great. Finally, I was here 3 days and noticed that the focus of the servers seems to be on foreigners - I had to flag down someone for my chai each day but foreigners were getting attention immediately on seating.

Overall, while the hotel has its merits, the service and maintenance issues I encountered during my stay left much to be desired, especially for a property aiming to be considered luxury. If these issues are addressed, it could significantly enhance the overall...

Gratitude post long overdue. Let me describe my experience step by step. :)

PRE-ARRIVAL EXPERIENCE: horrible. I would say 1/10. I called them multiple times and I would just be left in the lurch or left on hold, or they would promise to call back and wouldn’t. It was a nightmare. I tried for over two weeks.

Luckily, the GM Mr. Manas intervened and sorted things for us. Once that happened, everything was absolutely amazing.

F&B (Kitchen): A huge shoutout to Chef Melroy, Chef Karthik and Chef Chirag for curating amazing personalised meals for my daughter. They arranged for everything on time and did a meticulous job with following the exact instructions I had emailed them with. They were super patient and sweet throughout, even though I would sometimes call and bug them with odd requests or at odd hours. A big big big thank you!!!

F&B (Service): Sushmita, Pankaj, Gaurav, Swati and almost all the others in the restaurant were super duper sweet to our little one and us. They had almost become like family and dining at the restaurant was such a positive and cheerful start to the day that we would look forward to it each morning. Service was super prompt and diligent.

HOUSEKEEPING: Dhanesh, Shri, Maqsood, Manjunath and Dinesh took wonderful care of us. I think we bugged them the most of all with endless requests for cleaning and the extra special requirements we had with regards to our daughter’s medical conditions. They still obliged with as much kindness and patience each time, and totally bowled us over with their hospitality. The rooms were spick and span, and all amenities that we requested for were addressed in no time at all. They even lay out linen so that our kid could enjoy her playtime on the floor. A huge huge huge thank you for the efforts!!

FRONT OFFICE: Marilyn and Ranvijay were super sweet to us. They were a call away for anything and everything, and sorted all our queries on time. Even our checkout experience was super smooth and took place in advance itself so we didn’t have to wait for a second even before leaving. Thanks a ton!

WOODPECKER SUITE: I was very disappointed with the size of the bathroom. It is too tiny and doesn’t feel like we are in a suite by any means. The shower cubicle was actually very very very teeny. I also didn’t like that there wasn’t a separate cubicle for the WC. View from the room and the rest of the room is very lovely though.

Last but not the least, the ever so amazing general manager Mr. Manas. — who facilitated everything. We owe you a huggeeeee thank you for making our trip so memorable and for ensuring that our daughter above all had a comfortable stay. We are most definitely coming back whenever we are in Bangalore, and have already been pretty vocal about our super happy experience at Gardenia even with friends and...

This review is for the "Cubbon Pavilion" restaurant. I did not stay at the hotel but I'd visited this restaurant for my birthday celebration.

While the ambience and the welcome was good, it started to go downhill after that. The menu was poorly designed with limited non-vegetarian options.

The crispy lotus stem and honey garlic prawns that we ordered turned out to be very oily. The prawns were fresh but the fish used in the fish fingers was a little smelly and not of a variety worthy of a 5 star restaurant. We ended up sharing the Mac 'n cheese ordered for my daughter from the kids menu as as substitute for our main course and skipped ordering mains entirely.

What was more shocking though was the attitude of the staff. They weren't rude but rather, completely oblivious to us. We had to literally struggle just to find the server/manager to take the order. The manager was missing most of the time. After taking our order, the server came back after 20 minutes and informed us that the prawns in hot garlic sauce wasn't available and that they could provide honey garlic prawns. Why did it take them 20 minutes to figure that out? Two dishes were served without spoons and once again, we had to struggle to find a server/manager to get us serving spoons. Our server had the habit of disappearing on us and once I asked the manager for the bill, he disappeared entirely.

A while after we had arrived, a few more guests came to the restaurant. It wasn't crowded at all but the staff seemed to be overwhelmed and running all around. We still weren't able to find our server and ended up literally hailing whoever was passing by. I couldn't help but wonder what they would do if they had a full house.

The saving grace was lady at the front desk of the restaurant who brought me a chocolate birthday cake(the cake was very good). There was no singing like at other restaurants I really preferred it that way. She even helped us get our leftovers packed - a task for which we were really struggling because...you guessed it, our server had disappeared on us.

I think that the staff need really strong training on how to pay attention to their patrons. I resisted making a fuss about it but I don't think other folks will tolerate such callous behaviour when availing of the luxury experience. My meal wasn't exactly cheap either, i.e. I spent 6.5K on this experience.

ITC Gardenia has to really work on their restaurants and the quality of the staff hired OR train them correctly. The Oberoi and the Richmond Hotel (buffets) remain the gold standard for me as far as food, ambience and service...