Meritas Aura Resort Lonavala — Hotel in Maharashtra

Ok. So we had looked for many resorts before finalizing this one. We are family of two kids so our choice was specific to some open space where kids could run and play and some gaming options. It's hard to find such properties. Hardly I see resorts thinking from Kids prospective. I have seen radisson and wanted to go there but due to their so high package of like 16000/night just didn't fit in my budget. I had to go for two rooms for 2 nights so this Radisson would have costed me more than 66k easily. Finally found Meritas Aura and by their pictures we settled on this. Budget friendly resort. they have total 9 Row houses and mostly they give it to a big family or group as the row house cost 20k per night. Luckily we got one room on ground floor exactly infront of garden for our kids and one one first floor for my mother & sister. Check in was pretty smooth. Rooms nice neat & clean. This property looks so new. Hardly 10mins drive from Lonavala so for us it was a plus point as we didn't want close to market due to noise & pollution. One operational swimming pool max of 4ft height and one for kid which is max of 2.5ht so my little ones could stand easily and play. They they have some slides which goes into the pool. Staff was courteous. Pantry was amazing. We were so happy with their food quality & service. They were almost 90% full during weekday as well. During day it was hot as it's mid of May but by evening the weather here gets cooler. So we had good Insta Reel & Tea time in evening in the garden. Enough parking space. Attached to main road only. Pool, Mini soccer, Carrom & Table tennis also there. A small suggestion, make a way for room for your 105 room like you have made for your row houses. The electric switches points were hard to use as we couldn't plug in chargers. Bathroom had great tiles but the wash basin & shower had poor fittings. My kids main attraction was Trampoline. They keep enjoying and jumping on it. Check in check out process was smooth. Check in time is 1pm and checkout is 11am as usual. Nothing much to complain about as we enjoyed our stay. Pretty calm & silent place. All family crowds were there with us. Thanks for your services...

I visited with my spouse and extended family for one night stay on 21st June 2024. From the start experience had been a disappointment to say the least.

The property location is okay and food is good. But reception staff had not been customer friendly. Since we were 2 families and categorically requested two good rooms, one of the room offered had not been good DESPITE better room being available. Further pool closes at 7, meaning after long tiring day if one looks to enjoy pool, it simply isn't there. The pool timings it seems are set keeping in mind families that are looking to spend time in resort and not people looking to travel and explore Lonavala. Thirdly, they have so called common room with TV, sofa set and dining table, but unless one books a full vila (3 rooms), one cannot use the common room, which doesn't seem sensible. What makes it worse is that just BEFORE being served Dinner we are told that the 'common' room is out of bounds for us, even though we had 2 rooms in the property.

More than staff, I m frustrated with the policies of the resort.

Another item to mention is the local cab vendor they have recommended. The experience was bad here also. The charge he asked and kind of location we went simply weren't aligned. We also thought to hire him for rest of our journey but he quoted one day charge of 9000, apart from tolls. We got another local cab hire who was much better.

One last bit to call out - the high price simply doesn't give you the kind of experience one expected. The property is average, staff behaviour poor, and resort policies not customer friendly. Overall one gets a feeling of being...

A good resort which definitely requires some work.

Rooms were good, spacious and clean, but sheets can were a bit dirty. Good place for kids with so many options to pass the time. Food was very good, breakfast was adequate. Menu for lunch and dinner is limited but options are there for everyone. Taste was good.

The reception service needs huge improvement, we were asked a day before if we are going to come or not, and what time so rooms can be ready. We reached at our communicated time but rooms were not ready, that was not an issue but the way the receptionist said it's not check in time yet. I said then why do you ask and confirm the rooms will be ready.

Check out experience was way worse, check out time was 11, they called us at 10 and asked when we will checkout, we said as breakfast service was delayed we will need 30 mins to checkout, they argued that checkout time is 11 and all. They were rude and not accomodating for 30 mins even.

Also, they over booked the resort, we saw an elderly couple with whom the reception were arguing about check in. That couple booked the resort but they couldn't pick up the call like me the day before, the resort gave their room to a walk in people. This couple had paid in advance but the resort denied them entry by overbooking the resort. That was so bad behaviour from reception and this was a long weekend that elderly couple were stranded even after paying for rooms.

Deducting 2 stars just because of the...