Fortune Park, Vellore - Member ITC hotels' group — Hotel in Tamil Nadu

With heavy heart and disappointment, I am making these comments towards ITC owned hotel Fortune, Vellore, where I had 5 rooms booked for my family for 23-08-23 to 24-08-23. First the location is pretty awkward and the google map kept doing rounds after rounds and we could not reach them, finally somehow, we could connect on phone and took fresh location, what would have taken us only 25 minutes to reach, it took us 55 minutes after 9 pm, so obviously no question of traffic. At reception a cold response, desperate questions to handover IDS and balance 50% payment, though I requested that it was 10 p.m. in the night and I gave my ID and since I had all the IDS on phone, I assured that on hotel phone, I will send them right away, saving them the headache of scanning for 8 adults. For 50% balance, I said we are hungry, let me grab food and will make the balance payment also, but they showed inability to process rooms and insisted I pay immediately, otherwise nothing moves forward. OMG, is this the attitude of a hotel, which talks about exceptional customer experience??? At restaurant, we ordered for A la carte food, it took them 35 minutes to even revert back, and even then, they kept promising its coming, its coming, through there were no guests at that time. In the meantime, we picked up Buffet due to delays and asked for bread, we got up from seat, but breads did not come. Promise after promise to get breads for Buffet and also La carte food ordered made us leave the restaurant in frustration, shock and agony, as none of them were honest. I requested for duty manager, he started arguing that for La carte, it takes time for breads, I said, ok, what about for Buffet? again same thing, its coming and its coming. Finally, by 11 pm. We ate whatever cold food was made available and no choice of breads except tandoori and lacchha (plain type) were served. Shockingly, our luggage was left in lobby by bell staff, who had promised to deliver to our rooms at 10 p.m. I can’t believe, then we met the sales manager, he was extremely rude and behaved weird and starting questioning us about our credentials. WOW, Mr. Sanjiv Puri- Chairman sir, this will go down in my memory as the worst ever experience in a hotel owned by ITC and I will ensure I keep distance from your hotels. Budget hotels doesn’t mean cheap training, but that’s what these people are trained here for. If you find my pain worthwhile, I want you to take strict action and reprimand those responsible for this callous behavior in hospitality. Waiting for solace from you. Sushil...

A brief respite from the daily hustle-bustle of VIT, found me- staying at this hotel for a period of 3 days and 2 nights, with my mother. After being a somewhat regular patron here, here is my general review of Fortune park hotel, Vellore.

Staff: a hotel is only as good as its staff...and the staff at Fortune park are impeccable to say the least. No matter how busy they might be, they will always be willing to serve you with a smile. The waiters and waitresses in the Orchid Restraurant are well trained, well mannered and get the job done, efficiently and quickly. However, it's not just the waiters/waitresses that deserve a special mention- a huge Kudos to Gopal, the personel in charge of the House Keeping, whether it be cleaning or delivering essential items. It was majorly due to him that we had a comfortable stay in our room and if you do see him...rest assured that you are in good hands.

Food: the food was a bit of a mixed bag at times...the buffet was amazing but on few days I found the ala carte to be somewhat mixed in quality. Regardless the food was never bad at any time...the lowest it got to was probably decent food but the highs far outweigh the lows, as they say. Look forward to a scrumptious stay here.

Ambience and cleanliness: the hotel room had a pleasant lemon-y smell whenever the room service were done cleaning. The rooms were adequately bright and spacious... basically it has everything you need and more, for a relaxing hotel stay.

Reception service: believe it or not, this hotel might just be one of the few left that has a person ready to pick up your telephone calls at any time... whether it be a late night snack (as long as the Restraurant is functional) or another bottle of shampoo... they'll be ready to answer all of your whims and fancies with a smile.

Wifi: for the tech enthusiasts and the Valorant grinders...yes, this hotel has wifi...although don't expect 100 mb/s speeds.

Suggestions: during my stay we did run across some air conditioning issues in the main lobby...although they were resolved quickly it should be noted that it does get stuffy at times in the ground floor Restraurant if the AC is not working.

Final summary: in short, if your finger is hovering over the book room button on Agoda, MakeMyTrip or whatever app/website you use...feel free to give in and witness for yourself, what the Fortune Park experience can be. Dont trust me, a faceless being on the internet-rather experience it...

Booked a total of 4 rooms from Agoda which cost us a total of Rp 32000. Totally dissapointed with the service and i could say the worst hospitality among 9 other hotels we stayed. I have to mention about the 2 staffs at the reception with complete lack of ethics and interestingly are able to show attitude and arrogance towards guest. Check in was at 2 pm yet we arrived at 4pm but we were told to wait and given reason was 'room upgrade'. We had senior citizen and children in our group.

A note to those who have dust allergy, this would not be a hotel u want to choose for your stay. Also please be mindful when you deal with their reception staff Durba and Sukla. I cant brain how the management placed this 2 in front desk to deal with guest when they have no PR skills. Nada.

Last upon checking out, we were asked to wait for 5 mins for them to check on the rooms. After 20 mins, we were called by the receptionist saying one of the room we stayed had scratches on the wall. Literally were accusing the guest about the scratches???? When we asked if there is any prove that the scracthes was already there??? All they did was blinking towards us. Seriously ??? There was actually no prove that the scratches were made by us or was already there.

Receptionist Durba with her arrogant face and attitude explaining about the same thing again and again till we requested to talk to the manager directly.

Despite its high cost, the quality of service was lacking and made for a dissatisfying experience. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone seeking for a stay in Vellore. The poor quality of service and high price make it a disappointed choice for...