The Leela Palace Udaipur : Udaipur's Only Modern Palace Hotel By Lake Pichola — Hotel in Rajasthan

A disappointing experience from the staff & overall service, this was definitely the worst service I think we have overall experienced at the Leela which we were quite disappointed with as we had high expectations, however the property has a Beautiful location, the coolest part is the boat experience. The food is spectacular as expected at The Leela and the cultural show was also of great quality.

But the staff has very unwelcoming vibes and did not make us feel welcome at all for dinner, except one kind staff member whose name I have mentioned below at the end.

We love Leela and have been coming every year to different Leela's on our anniversary -including this time-and have made it a part of our ritual to visit different Leela's with our passion for Heritage. We actually went on full faith expecting that this Leela would also be great we didn't check the google reviews-which we should have.

Typically at other locations we have experienced exquisite service & treatment at Leela's-however we felt that it was not upto par at this location. Don't want to mention names of staff here who but happy to share them via email for the purpose of improvement.

The drawbacks we felt were:

1. Responsivness of the staff for booking & reservations, we emailed them for a certain date the staff member said they would get back by the evening and we didn't hear back. Luckily we called and then booked the reservation on our own as we had really wanted to visit and got our own reservation in. And the funny thing is the next day that staff member called us asking if we needed the reservation and we were like we called and booked it ourselves and already visited :) we felt this was unacceptable for the brand of Leela and being a 5 star hotel. Clearly had we not called we wouldn't have gotten the table had we left it up to the staff

2. Communication: It isn't clearly written anywhere and even when we had made the reservations the staff did not mention anywhere that to get to this Leela you are supposed to go to the Leela Parking, take the boat get to the entry and enter the premises. We put it on google maps and ended up coming through some back entrance and had no idea we could have come through the boat entrance (which is the normal way). We felt like for a 5 star hotel this was below par.

3. Overall we felt like the server was not paying attention to us at all. Infact at the end when we paid the bill he forgot we paid and left us waiting to get the receipt until we reminded him and then he didn't have any change. It was quite clear that we had constantly get his attention to order and was a little disappointing.

In previous Leela's the servers have done something special to acknowledge our anniversary, in Gandhinagar they actually give you a small cake, and we have always felt that a kind gesture and appreciated the treatment and felt very welcomed and thats what made us want to make the chokce to choose Leela has a part of our celebration,but here it was like they did not care that it was a special day

Overall disappointing service, except for one nice staff member named Rishita who was very kind and kind of made up for the rest of the unwelcoming vibes we received all evening.

I do hope The Leela Udaipur does something...

We recently stayed at the Leela palace after a stay at the Taj Lake Palace. We had an an extremely underwhelming stay at this property. We booked this trip using the Amex FHR program.

Upon check in we were told to wait in their living room area. Amex FHR allows you to check in early as soon as 12PM and we arrived to the hotel at 3PM which is the standard check in time. We had booked two rooms, one with a small plunge pool and the other was a delux room. We provided all of the documents to them necessary for check in and we waited without any kind of welcome drink for almost 45 minutes. No recognition of booking through Amex FHR. I had to go to the front desk to ask them what was going on as we had been sitting there for a while. They finally took us to our rooms however the room with the plunge pool was not ready yet. We had to wait an additional 45 minutes for this to become available. The entire time there was barely any communication from the staff. Everyone seemed to be unenthusiastic and the customer service was not on par with our stay at the Taj Lake Palace which was excellent. No one showed us around the hotel to show us the amenities. No one told us that there was a performance in the main courtyard in the evening.

When we checked the temperature of the plunge pool it was quite cold. I asked if they could heat it up and they said that they could and that they would send someone. 45 minutes later someone comes, puts a thermometer in and leaves. No communication after that from the staff so we were not able to use the plunge pool during out stay.

For dinner we were informed that their sheesh mahal restaurant was already all booked. I had called a few weeks before to ask if we needed to make a reservation and they told us we didn't need to and we could do it once we checked in. We ate at the buffet instead which is small, however this is the only place in this hotel where the service was good. The wait staff was attentive and did a great job of making sure we had everything that we needed. I did get a chance to visit the bar and the staff there were excellent.

At check in we reminded them that we had requested for a roll away bed in each room. We reminded them again once we got into our room. After dinner we go to the rooms and there is no roll away bed. I called and they said they would send one. After 30 mins no rollaway. I called back again and they said 5 minutes. Again waited 15 minutes. This time I called back and got upset and this seemed to have them get the bed there within just a few minutes.

At check out we told them about all of the issues. They said they would note it down but they didn't seem to care. We had just stayed at the Taj Lake Palace before this and the level of service between the two hotels was night and day. If you are considering this hotel I would choose the Taj Lake Palace or...

We stayed for 3 nights & had a wonderful time for most part. The boat ride to the palace, floral welcome alongwith traditional music were fab. We checked into our room, discovered it had 2 queen beds instead of a king bed (we're a family of 3 spouse, self & kid). Upon requesting for a room with king bed, we were told that the hotel is overbooked. Nevertheless, the FO and housekeeping staff joined the beds and put extra upholstery to make it a king bed; however I couldn't get the concept of overbooking. The view from the room was beautiful. We dined at buffet and ordered in room dining too later that evening. Next day, after a hearty breakfast, we availed the tuk tuk service by hotel that drops you at the back gate from where one can take an auto for sightseeing/market visit etc. The third day was spent mostly relaxing at the palace and soaking in the fab lake views!

Things we really liked/ appreciated: Warmth & hospitality of staff tops the list. Special mention to Mr Naresh (chauffer), Mr Prasoon, Mr Sohail (floor butler), Ms Ujjala, Mr Arjun (restaurant staff). Early check in. Traditional dances in evening + flute music in morning. Walkway around the restaurant/ guava trees. Chole bhature during the breakfast. Cake sent in room was a sweet gesture. Send off was v polite with songs playing, team waving & waiting. Beautiful artifacts of Gods and floral decor in lobby.

Things that can get better: We were in the palace wing. The walkway from the lake wing to the palace wing had a carpet which sort of stinked due to rain/ moisture. The elevator connecting the 2 wings is extremes claustrophobic! I had a tough time taking it all the time! It's v small, no fan, no signature Leela fragrance. Can definitely make it much better. Overall room maintenance - the hotel info/ menu scanner button didn't work initially for us, one of the reading lights wasn't working, the shower had v luke warm water. Overall food at the restaurant. For the price, the taste & variety can definitely be better. Eg pudina tikki & noodles in buffet were v salty. Dhokla was over during one of the days, and the placard wasn't removed...i kept waiting thinking they might refill same. They only had 1 condiment box which kept going across tables, & we waited at the restaurant exit! Ideally with ker sangri & gatte, puris should be served too which wasn't an option. Overall, the nitty gritties at the restaurant can definitely be better. There was a pvt party & the next morning, the garden was full of litter of bottles, food/ dish placards...not a pleasant sight!

Tips:

I personally feel the lake wing is better for views + accessibility. While the hotel has cabs, pvt cabs can be booked via MMT/ Klook.

Appreciate the staff for making it a special and warm stay for us &...