The Promenade — Hotel in Puducherry

We had booked the best suite available and paid for the extra beds as well hoping for a peaceful and comfortable stay. We were TOTALLY WRONG

Day-1 1 ) The checkin was smooth and front desk staff comes from the reception to show you the room. The first thing that comes out moment we enter the room is there are bathrobes in the room and if they go missing you have to pay for it - like we came here to steal their bathrobes 2) since we were tired because of travel we decided to take some rest - but we couldn’t as the roof if a temporary structure where even a mouse crawling was a thud sound and scared anyone in the room. We were still patient since the idea was to only chill and have a good time 3) later we ask for a opener to open the bottle that is in their refrigerator- response is we don’t have a opener and after blasting them they send someone to open and take back the opener. Utter cheapskates 4) Dinner I go to the manager Paneer and ask for a table. Since they were full I told them the room number which by the way is next to the dining area itself. He promises to call but doesn’t bother and we’re we’re already exhausted as we couldn’t even rest properly so we just had some chips and slept. 5) Extra bed paid for in advance while booking the room itself and repeatedly asked for wasn’t sent till the next day

Day-2

1. The breakfast is decent in that day. But we were already disturbed by their attitude of being utterly careless. So I ask for the manager or GM - no one is there as all are in leave but I was assured someone will get in touch. THAT NEVER HAPPENED
2. A certain Mr. Satish who overheard my issues was feeling sorry and introduced himself as the legal counsel for the hotel and instructed the front desk to ensure things are sorted and someone senior gets in touch - no one comes
3. That night when I come for dinner they take my order and provide my mocktail in a broken glass. That’s it we go to the room with the only consolation that morning we are checking out and we’re deeply pained by staying there

Day-3

1. breakfast cereal or milk my daughter takes has a piece of plastic in it
2. all breakfast plates are filled with water clearly showing that they don’t even bother to dry the plates and have no hygiene standards
3. toast too is given on a broken plate

This just triggered and I lost my cool totally. Again when asked for the GM - response is he will come in 10 minutes which doesn’t happen until I lose my cool beyond limits

Then the GM turns up and is shown that a) the previous persons cream stains are still in the room despite 2 days of us staying there and the room being cleaned b) The WC cover is fixed so absolute careless attitude towards male female hygiene c) Moment you exit the room there are smoking chairs and tables so you will suffocate while getting out. d) The telephone receiver is broken

All in all although he was apologetic we just felt totally drained of energy and utter waste of time and money. We came here with a single motto to relax but made it worse.

Kindly never stay here as you will ruin and risk you...

Been three times to this cafe/restaurant and sorry to say the service is really below par for what claims to be a five star hotel. The waitstaff who are women aren’t able to communicate and stare blankly when asked a question about the menu, they are unable to have a regular conversation or problem solve issues they themselves have created. They nod and stare blankly, even if they don’t understand the problem. Waitstaff unable to follow simple instructions like please bring the chai. waited more than 30 mins for a chai order, and when it finally came it was cold. ordered a salad but the salad had been sitting in the back for over 45 mins although a fresh salad was promised. The duty managers look at you deeply in your eyes and lie to your face eg ‘this is a fresh salad’ ‘sorry the GM is not here’ when clearly the GM is there ‘I did not see then bring you the wrong order that’s why the order is wrong’ ‘I asked the cashier to give a 25% discount for the old salad and cold chai and it’s definitely a 25% discount’ but If you check the math you realise the discount is not 25% and the service charge is still on the bill.

The people who are supposed to correct errors make more errors and are not trustworthy themselves.

If you have to eat or drink here make sure you check the bill and refuse to pay the service charge if the service is bad.

The assumption of service change for bad service and cold plus old food is unprofessional.

They nod when you give feedback but nothing has registered or been improved and the service the following time is the same.

Although the GM and owner were on site during my visit and feedback they refused to speak to me in person to resolve the issue or to offer genuine remediation of the errors made by their staff. The staff don’t miss any chance to advertise that the owner also owns hidesign but they don’t feel shame that they have made errors or blatantly lie.

All staff are trauma bonded to rich owners and slavemasters. Slavery is entrenched and accepted in India. It seems here that they hire women based on looks more like eye candy for travelling men standing there to look pretty rather than intelligence and communication skills. They are unable to engage in real conversation, offer true hospitality and genuine care of the guest. From the top down management they are unable to deeply feel genuine remorse or rectify a problem. They assume you will come back to eat even though they have given you substandard food and service and treated you like you are an idiot for understanding that they have made calculation errors. They repeat standard lines of apology which are meaningless. The owners of conglomerates think they are empire owners so there is no need to educate the staff, treat the staff with humanity or offer genuine customer service. The staff have never been spoken to kindly so they are unable to speak to the guest with kindness or genuine understanding. If you as the guest are kind they think that is an opportunity to cheat you. Kindness is seen as a weakness rather than an asset....

We stayed in this property for about three days and the service was not at all upto the mark. The service was slow and inefficient. We had to call room service four to five times before we received what we were asking for (that too it took an hour for them to deliver it to our rooms). We ordered water it took them an hour to send it. We asked for tea in the rooms and even after 45 mins we had not received it. We ended up going down to the restaurant to have tea at the end. Even there, we had to wait for twenty minutes before they served the tea. The rooms were not clean and there was an untreated issue of seepage in the walls. The TV channels did not work at times. Some electric socket outlets did not work and when we asked them to inspect and fix them they just told us that the outlet was not connected to the electric supply. The pool was located in the very depths of the hotel (it was also extremely small and required cleaning). There were issues with electricity and the key card holders in the rooms. The beds were extremely low and the mattresses were uncomfortable. We had booked two rooms and both the rooms had different mattresses. The rooms had double beds but they had joined two single( i believe movable) beds to make one double bed which had a very obvious and noticeable partition in the middle. The service was extremely slow even in the restaurant and they were understaffed. On our third day here , in the evening, we ordered two teas(it was enough to serve four people) and it was served in a teapot. Later on, we ordered another tea but we received the same quantity of tea in one tea as we received when we ordered two teas. We were charged for three teas( so there wasnt an error in the order itself) but the quantity of tea served in one tea and that in two teas was the same ( i still wonder how it was possible). They had seated two people in tables where four people could sit(the other day there was a lot of rush in the restaurants and we were waiting for a table to be available we saw two people seated on a table of eight!!). The tables at the rooftop restaurant are way too large and occupy a lot of space unnecessarily. Even the chairs at the rooftop restaurant and extremely large so the large tables still seat only two people(when they can seat four to five people if normal chairs are used). The cutlery and plates were put on the table AFTER the food was served and on its way to become cold. The food was pretty good (especially the italian and french food). They need to employ more people and train...