Kodai Sunshine Resort — Hotel in Kodaikanal

When I realized the hotel had a low occupancy at the end of my first day, I felt sad and disappointed. Mainly because I had grown fond of the place in less than 24 hours. I will list the details of my stay point-wise:

Hotel: As mentioned by various travelers, the approach to the hotel is inconvenient to say the least, The road which leads to place has deep holes and one would be hard pressed to avoid ruining the suspension of your car, You avoid one pothole just to hit another one. However, the hotel is definitely not difficult to find. Google Maps has listed its location accurately. To reach hotel, there is a steep incline which needs to be navigated in first gear (not much of a problem). Hotel has a pleasant facade and ample parking space (and not limited to two slots as mentioned in some reviews). Its a two storied structure with three kind of rooms: Superior - on the backside of the building. No valley view Deluxe - Large rooms with valley view Luxury - Largest rooms with valley view and balcony (not that large)

Hotel also offers free wifi which may or may not reach the rooms, but the connectivity and speed are strong nonetheless.

There is an attached restaurant on the roof and a recreational area as well which has a Table tennis table.

The hotel is approximately 4kms away from the main market area and doesn't take more than 15 mins to reach any of the city's main attractions - market, restaurant, lake etc. So its pretty conveniently located. However, just a distance of 4km from the main market makes the difference when it comes to valley views from this hotel It offers great views of the valley and the city from the distance adds to the charm of the location. It also is adjacent to Chettiar Park (can be viewed from the hotel itself)

Rooms Upon check in we were upgraded from Superior to Deluxe which in itself made this stay memorable. The reception staff was pleasant and warm. The rooms were large and well furnished. The bathroom was built with good quality fittings. However, there was no separation between the bathing area and toilet seat. This was a slight downer, but no biggie. However, the bigger issues with the rooms are no 24hrs hot water supply and no hot water kettle in the rooms. I didn't expect room heating in this price range, but these two things should definitely be looked at by the management. The TV has a lot of North and South Indian channels which should keep you occupied during the night time. Linen, upholstery and other things are extremely clean and hygienic. I would strongly suggest anyone making a booking at this place to go for deluxe rooms with valley view. It might mean a little more cash, but that difference is what is going to make your stay memorable. There is no difference between Superior and Deluxe rooms otherwise.

Staff The staff is extremely responsive to a guest's needs. They are warm and helpful and eager to serve. We had gotten some food with us from home and when we checked in, requested the hotel staff to microwave it for us.They ended up serving it in proper crockery. That was more than our expectation. Whatever we ordered via room service, delivery was prompt.

Restaurant / Food The breakfast buffet was not too large or expansive but whatever was served was delicious. It consisted of Idly, Vada, Pongal, Aloo Paratha, Poori subzee Sambhar, different chutneys among other things. You can also order for Omlettes and toast along with Jam and butter. We had no complaints about the food We also had dinner on the first night and the a la carte options didn't disappoint either. At the end of meals, the sous chef came to our table to inquire about the food and took feedback. When I appreciated the chicken dish during dinner, he actually went back inside the kitchen to get the cook who prepared it. I thanked the cook for his effort and he was extremely happy about the...

I had booked this resort for a one day stay with my family. I was already staying in Kodaikanal for 3 days near Coakers walk, but wanted to stay one more day away from the main town area. Kodai Sunshine Resort is located at the north side of Kodaikanal , and very near to Chettiar park . The area is sparsely populated. The hotel itself is located on a hilltop and you can view one part of Kodaikanal town from here . It has many varieties of plants all around , so it gives a rustic continental feel .

There are three kinds of rooms in this hotel - Classic, Superior and Premium . Classic rooms and Superior rooms have no balcony , instead they have a common balcony/corridor. Premium rooms are more premium than classic and superior rooms. I booked a premium room for my family . I found the premium room to be small . There is a king bed though and also a separate balcony. The balcony has a very nice valley view . The room decor , cleanliness is supercilious . The view from the balcony and windows from the premium room is picturesque . The fog, the clouds , the city lights , the hills.

I will deduct two stars because of various reasons. The room , though premium, is small . They claim that there is 24 hours of hot water, but we didn’t get that . There is a central hot water tank from where the hot water is supplied to all the rooms. Everytime we had to ask them to open the valve for hot water. After every usage they closed the valve. This hot water thingy was a headache during our stay. Our Premium room had a closed door in between. They told us that this door is a permanently sealed one and it doesn’t open, but we felt it otherwise. We could very clearly hear sounds from the adjacent room . So sounds from adjacent rooms passed through this door and that’s why it is a breach in privacy .

The hotel has a restaurant which serves tasty food. The breakfast spread was not bad. There is a small kids play area. There is ample uncovered car parking space at the front of the hotel and also at the back of the hotel .

While booking you can use travel websites like makemytrip, goibibo, yatra for booking a room. Also you can call them up and get your...

Let me summarize my experience.

Staring with booking I booked 3 rooms for 8 adults and 4 kids(aged 7, 8, 10 and 11). As per makemytrip below 12years are considered as children. Post booking spoke with kodai sunshine resort, they said that above 8 years are considered as adults. So they can't accommodate kids @10 and 11 yrs with three rooms. So I had to cancel my booking and booked 4 classic rooms by searching for 10 adults and 2kids. This is a makemytrip issue or resort issue I don't know. But I have got unnecessary confusion.

Service - 1 out of 5 Check-in time is 10am. But I checked in around 2pm. only 3 rooms were ready. Around 6pm when I came back from the site seeing 4th room was provided on the group floor. I have asked for rooms on the same floor. But I got three rooms on the first floor and one on the ground floor. Hot water is not available 24hours. Even in the morning 7am stops abruptly. We have to call the room service to get hot water again. Room service and restaurant won't pick up the call most of the time. They don't provide drinking water to the room daily morning by default. We had to call them multiple times.

Rooms - 2 out of 5 King size bed with worst mattress, I felt sweaty at night on this bed. Only 2 power sockets worked out of 4. TV remote was not provided to all four rooms. We had to call them multiple times to get the TV working. The bathroom was clean but the light above the mirror was not working. One of the rooms main door had two big cracks which they fixed on second day.

Food - 5 out of 5 Complementary breakfast was South Indian style and it was tasty. We have ordered dinner on second day. Food served fresh, hot and tasty.

Location - 4 out of 5 Located close to chettiar park. Only one tea shop was near the park entrance so you have to walk 45degree incline roads.

Site view - 5 out of 5 Wonderful view from the resort. We could see a nice sunrise view and hills.

Amenities - 0 out of 5 Indoor games like TT, chess and carrom was available but this room was not clean and dusty. Kids play area was not safe as they were covered with a green net and one side it was open. Overall...