Mango Hill Shola Ooty — Hotel in Tamil Nadu

When a hotel charges in a tier 2/3 city/hill station in the range of ₹ 7000+ per night when it is NOT the season, expectations also balloon accordingly. However, Mango Hill Shola, Ooty, loves to call themselves 5 Star property, but forgets that it is not just the property, but the service is equally important.

Let me break this review up in a few headings –

• Rooms – from the outside the rooms look beautiful, especially because of the villa/row house setup. But go closer and you will realize the lack of maintenance. Starting with the walkway/stairs into the rooms, they are all dusty and full of pigeon excrement, which extends over to the balcony walls. Interestingly the management finds nothing wrong in allotting this room. Inside the room, the story is worse. The sofa is stained with a flimsy bedsheet put over it. The bedsheet on the bed itself is stained – apparently, they forgot to change the sheets. I can understand that some hotels change the sheet on alternate days, but that’s when you are already staying – not for new guests. Worst part room is beside an under-construction/maintenance villa, with carpentry work sounds throughout the day – no respite on holidays from noise on a hill station.

• Food – food was funny, because same items on different days was prepared differently. So, masala dosa one day would come flat with masala squeezed in between and another day, it came round (like everywhere else) with masala inside, placed properly. Most of the items on the menu weren’t available and you needed to adjust your choices, based on the day – for example, murg malai tikka isn’t available, but chicken tikka is available; makes me wonder how old the chicken tikka is. Breakfast was worst – same choices cycled through the week and even authentic local cuisines didn’t have any flavour in them other than heavy spices. The most amazing was oats – it had more milk in it than the masala tea.

• Service – like I mentioned earlier, a hotel is not just the property – it is the service provided as well. Mango Hill Shola is the slowest in providing service of all the hotels that I have been to, over the last decade. Whether it is request for change of linen to the front desk even after telling them while leaving in the morning for sight seeing (they would do it only after we came back in the evening and reminded them) or it was removal of dishes from outside the room door because they had some inquisitive cats on campus, who would do a version of dumpster diving by next morning. Over the period of stay, I realized that the service staff doesn’t always use the buggy available for guests. May be it becomes too much for them to travel up and down the hilly landscape of the property throughout the day – can’t blame them.

• Traveldesk – they had partnered with Travels Gate to provide local site seeing services. But true to their name, Travels Gate was indeed not short of a scam. Before we visited, we discussed about airport pick-up and drop in a sedan. We were quoted ₹ 3500 coming up, and ₹ 3000 going down which made sense as it would be gravity assisted. The ₹ 3000 mysteriously changed to ₹ 3500. This was also after the fact that the previous day, the driver assigned by this same Travels Gate always found out excuses of not visiting the mentioned locations, picked up a friend on the way back, who travelled around 20 odd kilometers with us (dropping him just short of the hotel gates) and lied to us abut closing times of the market so that he could go back and meet this friend and chill in the evening.

In short, the Hotel and its services didn’t stand a chance in comparison to a 4 or 5 star hotel – 3 star may be. I cannot recommend this hotel to anyone in my family or my...

We stayed at Mango Resorts Shola for 3 nights in a double deluxe room. The property is beautifully located amidst nature, away from the town of Ooty, offering peace and serenity. The surroundings are clean, well-maintained, and there’s ample car parking. The resort also provides buggies to help guests move around the large premises, which is a thoughtful touch.

Room: Our room was spacious and clean, with basic furniture including a wardrobe, sofa, divan, and a centre table. However, we were disappointed to find the duvet and mattress damp at check-in, especially after a long day of travel. The room lacked a mini fridge, which was unexpected for a deluxe category. The kettle provided initially was not functional, and we had to request a replacement. A nice gesture was the umbrellas kept in the room for guest use.

Bathroom: The bathroom was generally clean and equipped with a standing shower, toiletries, and bath towels. However, no hand or face towels were provided unless specifically asked for, and toiletries were not replenished daily. Hot water was inconsistent, which definitely needs attention.

Room Service & Staff: Room service was quite slow—we had to call multiple times for basic requests. Communication was also difficult as most staff members did not speak English or Hindi fluently. It would be beneficial if staff were trained in basic hospitality and commonly spoken languages. Additionally, the lock on our room door malfunctioned and had to be fixed twice, which was inconvenient.

Breakfast: The buffet breakfast had a good spread, especially for vegetarians, with items like dosa, idli, upma, and puri bhaji. A few non-veg options like eggs and sausages were also available. The food tasted good, but the experience was marred by the staff’s rude behaviour. The restaurant team was unwilling to serve ordered items at the table and responded unprofessionally to basic requests.

Restaurant (Dinner): We tried the Fish & Chops for dinner. While the taste was satisfactory, the prices were unjustifiably high considering the small portion size. Additional service tax and GST made the meal feel overpriced.

Overall: The location and property are impressive, but the resort falls short on service quality, staff professionalism, and attention to guest comfort. For a property rated as 4-star, the overall hospitality experience did not meet expectations. With better staff training and service improvements, this resort could offer a much more...

We stayed at room 223. It was a fabulous time with my family. We enjoyed the cottage offered. Paid 39k for 2 nights for 5 Adults, with half board- breakfast and dinner. Without the food o think it would have been about 10k lesser.

Booking process is seamless and their central sales team is quite experienced and well trained.

The room was great, it’s a 2bhk villa only property, very ideal for families. Great setting and view.

The boy who handles the night shift for room 223, he was with another person called Samuel. That boy was a genuine hard worker. I am happy to see such people being given a fair opportunity. Please do give him a raise and some break between his night shift. With a bit more training and guidance he can do really well.

Loved the restaurant captain as well, genuine guy with a keen eye for client delight, he’s in full control of the service team and does a really fine job.

The food quality was okay tbh. If you’re someone used to 5 star and quality 3 star buffet like the ones in Radisson then you will find this spread lack lustre but for the convenience of having a buffet in-house for all times you’ll appreciate the effort. Some days were great some not as much but the team really holds it tight together and does a great job at it.

The improvements in buffet can be, a better veg and fruit salad station especially for breakfasts. Mandatory one or two meats in breakfast. With a fruit juice instead of diluted milkshakes. A couple of options of cereals Instead of just cornflakes. But otherwise the Indian spreads with the lovely chutneys and sambars were a hit and man the crispy vadas were great especially with the dosas and puris made piping hot on demand. I enjoyed the breakfast more than the dinners tbh. Just a bit of elevation in the options and if someone walked up and greeted with a bright smile saying good morning what would you like for beverages sir/madam some tea/coffe our would you prefer a juice? Would make me forget the 5stars and I’ll be happy with this hotel just for...