Hotel Five Elements - Resort - Lonavala — Hotel in Maharashtra

Nice resort had a wonderful stay. The things that worked for us:

1. Clean, well ventilated bright room with good string AC. TV too was working, There was electric kettle for tea and coffee and cups. One liter water bottle a complementary. No cobwebs anywhere, walls neatly painted, curtains clean, mirror sparkling clean, etc
2. Swimming pool was small but clean. Max dept is 4 feet and there was kids pool too.
3. There is a small play area with slide, swings and seesaw. For indoor games carrot and table football.
4. Complementary breakfast was ok. Poha was good and upma, bread butter and corflakes, aluoaratha, and cholesterol bature were served in the two days of our stay.
5. The entire team is Rajastani so the food preparation have its touch. The chappathi are a bit thick unlike the marathi style thin ones.
6. 24 hours hot water. Hot Water was alway available and it was not hard too.
7. Ample parking space
8. Very responsive staff. I got my room cleaned and bedsheets changed at night. Despite that not being the housekeeping they ensure we are taken care of.
9. The staff would frequently check with us if everything is OK. Was the food ok? Anything needed.
10. Easy checkout. No reminders for checkout. Infact we kept our luggage there as we had planned water park for the day and we took it in evening on our way to Lonavala station.

Things which could be improved:

1. Lots of mosquitoes in the surrounding. We kept the windows closed by evening so wasn't much of a bother. Moreover there was mosquito repellant in the rooms. If not for mosquitoes, we would have kept the windows open throughout the night. Room had two windows so good cross ventilation and night temperature was about 23 degrees so no requirement of AC.
2. In some corners of swimming pool there was algae accumulation. We informed them and they said they treat it with chemicals.
3. The bathroom eventough was clean but was a bit slippery. I guess through cleaning was needed.
4. Bathroom had hand wash and shower gels. The ones used to soaps would find shower gel a bit awkward.
5. Bedsheets were torn, there was a small hole. Since it was clean so didn't mind.

Rest the property is well maintained with lots if flowers, good hospitality and Rajastani crew. It's very near to highway and about 5 kms from Lonavala station.

We had booked Executive but they upgraded it to Delux. Special thanks to Bhavaniji for it. Mr. Ajit from kitchen ensure we had a heartily meal.

My recommendation is...

If you are looking at something which could serve you a comfortable hygienic night stay with good food, then stay away. Not recommended.

Pros: Location (quick connect to highway) - The place is near to the national highway (old pune mumbai highway) which is a good location for a night stay and a quick connect to highway.

Budget - They have three rooms that suits economically for a short stay , however beware the most budget one could be overleaking and filled with mosquitos, as we found in our case.

Cons: Lousy Staff and Food - The staff was really lousy in its behavior and failed to address basic needs. I must say, they restaurant staff were highly irresponsible and had a no care attitude written on their face. The food which was served was unhealthy , overcooked and over fried . We ordered Paneer Chilly dry and it seemed the paneer were like rocks to us, Hard to eat and over fried. The Jira rice - unhygienic, also had hair , when we approached the staff, they were disinterested, unapologetic and showed absolutely no interest. The restaurant food overall and their service is horrible. We also had to ask multiple times for a single item order. So beware if you plan to eat there. Better to avoid eating in their restaurant.

Also, overall the services seemed mediocre like a 1 star or 2 star hotel , be it housekeeping or room services. Even during checkout no person was found to assist with the luggage.

Unhygienic rooms - Mosquitos - We had to switch to another room as the room allocated to us was filled with mosquitos. Basic toilet kits missing - Even in the new room there were no toiletries (dental kits) .

Location boards - If you are coming towards Lonavla , its going to be almost missed as its in is a small lane and there are no hoardings to tell you about the hotel.

Staff - Overall staff , including housekeeping and of course restaurant we found them to be lazy , uncaring and unhospitable.

Overall - NO , Much better stays...

This hotel is located near Lonavala. If you try to locate this hotel through Google Map, you may be get lost since the app would take you through country roads...

The hotel is moderately tariffed and you expect only that quality only. The rooms are located in continuous row in ground and first floor. If you want to get a balcony, specifically select the pool facing rooms. The rooms at the other side are not having any opening/ balcony and are congested. Rooms are provided with bare minimum items like LED TV and one teapoy apart from the bed. There is no chair in the room. So if you order for food in the room, you are forced to have food sitting on the bed. A regular attached toilet/ washroom is there with no toiletries other than one wall mounted soap dispenser and one wall mounted shower gel dispenser. Fresh towels are provided in the washroom.

There is a restaurant in the ground floor near the swimming pool. The complimentary breakfast is nothing great, but the 'Poha' found to be tasty. The swimming pool is right in front of the rooms itself at one corner, which is as good as a show piece more than a swimming pool. It is very small in size with no privacy since car parking and restaurant are right next to the pool. The parking space for 4-wheelers is very much adequate.

Main drawbacks of this hotel are its staff and the quality of food. Reception staffs are poorly dressed (in uniform only) personnel speaking English with Rajastani slang. They are not appropriate for manning the reception of a 3 star hotel. The owners must take care in appointing personnel who are soft spoken and at least hotel managements graduated.

Another disaster was the food served in room for dinner. Food was highly priced but floating in OIL and completely tasteless. The only relief was the 'Poha' served during breakfast.

So I do not recommend this hotel for stay unless the the owners take care in improving the quality, especially of the...