The Serai Kabini — Hotel in Karnataka

This place is a rip-off. They have positioned themselves as a luxury resort, but can barely deliver the necessities.

Here's the list of mishaps from the start:

gatekeeper did not have an updated list of guests. At which point, he did not hesitate to let customers wait for 15mins in sweltering heat while he got a confirmation. We drove in our private car. No one would traverse 3kms of unpaved road to get to this resort if they were not staying there. The gatekeeper and the management did not get this simple logic.

at reception, they did not have the room ready. We had arrived at 1:30pm well past checkout time and the resort had barely 40% occupancy - no reason why they could have the room ready in advance.

the food at lunch was disappointing. Even basic North and South Indian dishes. The best dish was pasta - that too because after trying the Indian dishes, my expectations were rock bottom. If they can't get even Indian dishes right, then you should be ashamed of yourself!

they give a briefing on activities. The highlight are the morning and afternoon safaris. However, our host could not answer basic questions about which animals come out in mornings/evenings. After a few questions, he relented that he had no clue - just knows that the safaris are 2-2:30hrs and they insist that guests show up 45mins in advance so the safari can start on time.

the parking is out in the open, so expect your car to be covered with twigs, dirt, and bird excreta.

the cottages are tiny and have little privacy. We were looking for a quiet weekend away, still got to know all about our neighbours.

they don't believe in hand towels. At all. You will be hard pressed to find one in any loo - whether in your cottage or in common areas.

the intercom phone in the rooms will refuse to work. Just like that. And then it will start working when it is so pleases.

the wifi is whimsical at best. Posting this review sitting in their "outpost" bar was a challenge.

Too many other little things to list, e.g., the shower head in the bathroom was broken, spiders in the common dining hall, car was ready at checkout (even though we asked them 15mins in advance).

one upside: not as many mosquitos as you would expect. There are a few though to keep you on your toes.

another upside: in case you missed any wild animals at the safari, there are stray dogs in the resort to keep you company.

the manager and staff are agreeable, but actually helpless. He kept promising to "make it up to us" - but in vain.

To be honest there not much he can do and there is not much that he cares. There are only a few options around, and good advertising goes a long in luring people in. Margins are thick enough that even with 30-40% occupancy, the owners make money.

If you are planning to come to this resort, DON'T. You will regret spending...

My family and I came here for a days' getaway from the city. We wanted to celebrate two birthdays and some other good news and now as I write this I have no idea why we even picked Serai, Kabini for this. The experience will always be a negative memory for each and every one of us. (We booked 4 rooms for the 8 of us)

To tell future travellers why I strongly disapprove of this place for any sort of vacation is because of the following reasons:

Having paid a premium price of Rs. 24,000 per room you get what you can hardly call a spacious room and your three meals. You can freely access the games room as well which consists of what we already have back at our homes. Any other activity such as cycling to archery, kayaking, boat ride/safari and even a jeep safari (which is mainly why we choose a place like kabini) is all chargeable!

Coming to the food served here and included in your pricy package. From lunch to breakfast everything was cold. Not one dish was hot or fresh, (oh, expect the freshly cut fruits and vegetables at the spread). The spread is what you can rightfully call average. Actually average will also be quiet an over statement.

Throughout we wondered what it is we're paying such a premium price for! The geographic location is good but the ambience, experience and service that comes with Serai makes everything go to a complete waste.

The property also was not too vast or exceptionally beautiful in terms of architecture or horticulture for us to enjoy or relax altogether.

Understanding that it's an eco friendly resort there are no televisions in any of the rooms but there are no activities or entertainment provided by the resort itself to keep it's guest happy and entertained. Having come here we have think of what to do further (like we don't do that enough in our free time in the city). We were so bored that we went out on a drive on our own!

I would not suggest this place for anyone who wants to experience kabini's beauty or even relax. The other resorts in kabini provide better rooms and better prices and much better activities. Even if every other room in kabini is booked, I suggest you reschedule your travel dates so you don't have to end up staying in Serai like we had to. From what we ourselves have experienced as well as what our friends and family have experienced, other resorts do a much better job at providing us a memorable vacation on the whole.

But if you have a lot of money and more importantly time to waste you can choose Serai to sleep on a decent bed near...

I’ll start with the good things: the place is green & quiet. It works as a good getaway for people living in the city. The people are very polite & courteous. The service was good. Besides that I don’t have much positive things to say about this place. You will be shelling a lot of money for very little value. The place is very overpriced and definitely not worth it. My brother booked the residence as a gift for my honeymoon, which is the most premier single room on the property. The flush wasn’t working. A family was living next door and they were so loud! The soundproofing in the rooms is pathetic. The kids kept yelling and we didn’t have a minute of peace and quiet. We had to move to a regular villa because of the noise and them not being able to fix the flush. The next day we were moved back to the residence. The flush was temporarily fixed, so there was only water leaking out of the button and all through our stay. Such a waste of resource. The Jacuzzi didn’t work. We had to call room service to ask them to switch it on. The tap in the jacuzzi didn’t work, so we had no hot water. They filled the jacuzzi using a water hose from the tap close by. What is the point of a jacuzzi without hot water? WiFi connection is terrible. You’ll barely get network in the living area, and not at all in the rooms. There is absolutely no guidance in the room. What is the reception number or restaurant number? Are we supposed to remember that? No hot water in the bathroom. If there is a geyser in the bathroom which is supposed to be turned on, how are the guests supposed to know? And that suffices for just one person to take a hot shower comfortably. The plug point next to the bed was not working. You need to make sure you order Indian food, because the Italian and Indo-Chinese isn’t great. And if you’re Indian, please specify to add ‘Indian level spice’ otherwise the food is outright bland. The food was much much better on our last day of stay after talking to the restaurant manager, who kindly accommodated our requests. Not many activities- there’s not much to do, which is I guess is the point of the place. But it gets super boring.

They charge a bomb- around 30k for just the room and the experience was so so bad. We kept facing issues after issues, and they had to offer a compensation worth peanuts of 5k. I would definitely not recommend this place. Please don’t waste your hard earned money; there are plenty of other better places. The only saving grace is some of the warm...