Crowne Plaza Pune City Centre by IHG — Hotel in Pune

Monsoon season, so booked a "five star" hotel expecting safe food, comfortable stay, and earn some loyalty points in the process.

WRONG.

things couldn't have gone more horribly wrong.

Here is a chronological order of the events:

Check-in time: there are about 5-6 staff members in the reception/check-in area. None of them bother to greet me. I have to walk to a counter and wait to be attended to.

I am issued a key that does NOT work. the fellow who is sent with my luggage opens the room door with the master key from the cleaning staff.

There are used plates and soup bowls kept outside the room when I am going to enter. Why can't these things be picked up on time?

Why can't they be kept besides your own doors??

The room is dingy. there is nothing in the area marked "mini bar" - not even the mini refrigerator. Room is spacious, the chair with leg recliner is nice.

I eat at the in-house restaurant (mosiac) because I expect safe food. Instead, I find in total 3 cockroaches on the table.

the floor manager comes up with the lame excuse "I dont know how sir, we do pest control every night"

Why is the pasta sprinkled with coriander leaves in MONSOON in India, when it is known that amoeba spreads easily through coriander leaves??

next morning, I have developed loose motions, vomitting and severe weakness. the food from the restaurant was indeed bad, and led to food poisoning, causing me to miss the business meeting..

at 7 am on Sunday morning (second day) I am woken up by loud "club music" reverberating through the room. I called the front desk in total three times, with NO action being taken.

this noise was coming from the "club" that the hotel hosts on the 8th floor.

after deciding to go and take some action myself, met the hotel manager on the floor. he was very unwilling to get the music stopped giving a lame excuse like "someone has a program there"...

I had to raise my voice a lot to finally get him to get the loud noise stopped.

he DID NOT OFFER FULL REFUND, instead only a lame excuse of "can I chance your room" for what... 2 hours till check out?

at check out time, I find there is a guy smoking in the hotel front lobby. the staff at the reception was completely oblivious of this.

by the time I pointed it out, and they checked, the guy had finished smoking and gone. staff comes and says no sir, no one is smoking.

overall the staff absolutely refused to say the word "sorry" for my bad experience. there was one lady amongst the reception staff who never greeted me, never even broke a smile, and was always on the phone.

the staff never greeted me when I returned to the hotel.

During the dinner mentioned above, talking to a friend over the dinner... suddenly there was some weird loud karaoke. WHY? why dont you announce all this in advance?

the waiters kept interfering so much in the conversation, that I had to eventually ask them to stop doing so.

Very poor experience. I had to spend the next week getting treated for the gastrointestinal infection.

Bad hotel. Bad staff. Bad food. Cockroaches in...

Mosaic at Crowne Plaza - Food was very sub power. I was expecting a good 3 star food quality at the very least. Everything looked beautiful and that made me opt for the buffet. A couple of their starters were good, and everything else the less said the better. Being a Sunday brunch they had a live counter for drinks, and they literally squeezed the lime with the seeds in my drink. I was literally spitting out the seeds, I guess the manager here is just sleeping. Even on the roadside when they serve you a simple mocktail/limbu Pani, they atleast remove the lemon seeds. Very unexpected. The starters were the only thing I would go there to eat again for alacarte- the crispy chicken and stuffed mushroom. I only ate that. The live chat was also really good, but I didn't intend to have chat after paying so much. All the other food was tasteless, below average. They had a live pasta counter, literally packet bought pasta is better. The grilled chicken was bland and overcooked. The biryani, was below average. I was then really looking forward to the deserts. They seemed amazing. They had a beautiful blueberry cheesecake mentioned ( the label said it was a blueberry cheesecake) and it looked stunning. After cutting into it, I realised it was not a cheesecake but a bad quality blueberry cake. There was no cream cheese nor any crust. All the deserts, the less said the better. I think, they have a great variety to choose from for the price. They should just cut down on what they serve and concentrate on a few hero dishes. They have gone for a wide spread, but not a single thing is even good. I hope you take this as constructive criticism and work to really boost up your game. Charge more, but do make a visit to places around you so you can see what else pune has to offer, your mind will be blown. Take action and work towards improving the taste of the food rather than the appearance. Lastly, the lychee juice at the lobby was better than anything else you had to offer. I really wish you could wake the manager up, beautiful property and it's the city center, food...

My wife and I are long staying guests here - almost 30 days. Being an ex Hotelier, '97 Management Trainee batch of the Taj Group, I could notice many things but would mention only top 4 for Hotel's Leadership team to work upon and see a positive impact on their profit margins ASAP...

FOOD has too many red and green chillies for no reason. Even Thy curry had red chillies floating on top since. Spoke to the Sous Chef who happily agreed to provide home like healthy food. Explained him that long staying guests should be provided homelike food options in Dinner while breakfast has plenty such options. Our lunch is usually at Office except on Saturdays and Sundays.

ROOM given to us on 2nd floor doesn't have safe locker or even a small fridge where I can store fruits and keep water bottles to chill. Long staying guest need safe box more than a short stay traveller for obvious reasons.

HOUSEKEEPING doesn't vaccum clean the room hence gaps in old wooden flooring accumulate dust, dander and small cockroaches. Dustbins don't have garbage bags hence fruit peals we throw start smelling at night. Quality of tooth brush is so low class that our gums started bleeding on the very first day! Room doesn't have toiletries of brands like Biotique or something similar. Liquid soap and shampoo in pushin bottles can't be used over a long period of time. It's too harsh for skin and scalp.

BED & MATTRESS is comfortable and spine friendly. Towels, bed sheets etc are super clean.

GYM is spacious and clean. No gym instructor though in the evening when I went there.

IN ROOM ENTERTAINMENT - LG 45 inch LCD in room is ancient. Doesn't have Netflix or other OTT Apps. It's a dumb LVD TV. Can't even connect my phone or laptop to it. User interface of Airtel tv box is obsolete.

Wi-Fi speed inside the room is just ok for office work.

DAILY NEWSPAPER - would appreciate daily newspaper as a long staying guest here.

POOL - Haven't...