Savoy, Ooty - IHCL SeleQtions — Hotel in Tamil Nadu

Heritage Delight in the Hills

Dating back to the early 19th century, The Savoy is not just a heritage hotel but more of a slice of Ooty’s history - radiating a colonial charm and grandeur from every nook and corner of the premises. In fact, it is one of the oldest buildings in Ooty. Everything from the common areas to the gracefully decorated rooms exudes a colonial charm. While there are many other Raj-era hotels in the town, this is by far the finest of them all. Some sections of the property date back to 1829. The cottage-like rooms strung around pretty gardens dotted with colorful flowers is a picture-perfect sight made for Instagram

And Taj has only taken this heritage jewel to the next level infusing it with its trademark world-class hospitality, luxury, and service.

LOCATION: Excellent location atop a hill with lovely views of the town, and easy access to all key points of interest

DINE + DRINK: The restaurant is housed in a historic dining hall and serves a wide variety of local, regional, and international cuisine. They even have dishes inspired by the traditional tribal recipes from the Nilgiris. We were served multiple delicacies from the cuisine of the local BADAGA community in a curated special dining experience which felt more like a festive feast than a simple lunch experience! Thanks to Mr.Om Prakash and Chef Emon for delivering an unforgettable dining experience. The CANTERBURY bar is a super lovely (and cozy) bar that would teleport you back to the colonial era! A place you must check out if you like to imbibe your spirits in a historic setting. The food and beverage team of the Savoy also offers you a unique concept of "Tea Mixology" which marries the globally acclaimed Nilgiri tea with fine alcoholic beverages to create some wicked cocktails!

ROOM: We stayed in Room 312, which was located in a cute cottage and came with a lovely sit-out area; VIEW: Sweet view of the greenery from the cute corner windows in the bedroom and the sit-out area; SIZE: Spacious enough for 2 adults and comes with a separate dressing room area AIR-CON: Perfectly functioning airconditioner that helped in setting the perfect room temperature; BED: Comfortable bed that played the expected part of putting me to sleep; BATHROOM: Tastefully fitted Bathroom designed fully with marble and comes with a Stand-in shower; TOILETRIES: Lovely spa quality cosmetics by BIOTIQUE brand

FACILITIES: The gym is one area where the hotel can certainly improve! A very tiny room packed with dated machines and random weights! No Swimming pool on site, but they have a recreation room with a Table tennis table and other games. They also have a JIVA spa on site.

SERVICE: Friendly staff that cared for all our needs with a smile and made us feel pampered and well taken care of. Special Shout out to TITUS from the front office and KHYATI from Marketing for enhancing our stay wonderfully! A big kudos to OM PRAKASH and Chef EMON who pampered us at Lunch by serving us the most unique and lavish local meal experience we will never forget n a long time! Also, big thanks to all the restaurant staff like PADMESH who ensured each and every request of ours were attended to with a smile. SARAVANAN from housekeeping and his colleagues not just ensured the room was set up wonderfully but also lit up a romantic Bonfire in the evening for us to enjoy the Ooty chill with a glass of wine after the sun went down!

HOW WIRED YOU WILL BE: Free high-speed Wi-Fi that works well all over the property. Big Plasma TV screen dishing out a wide variety of channels spanning sports, news, music, movies, and entertainment in...

If you are planning to travel with your pet, then please read. Poor experience with Taj Savoy and their team. I was planning to travel to Ooty in January for two nights and seeing the good reviews I reached out to Taj Savoy reception at 9.30 am. I was informed that rooms are available and that reservations desk will call me back within 2 hrs. I was traveling with my pet so I informed the same to the reception and they mentioned that it's not an issue. Rs 3k needs to be paid in case I need to avail the pet food package but it is optional. I waited for call back from reservations Mr Karthik but never got one within 2 hrs. So I called reservations for the 2nd time and they said Mr Karthik will again call me back within an hr but it never happened. Third time when I called the reservations, Mr Karthik called me back but I could not receive the phone and hence called back Mr Karthik couple of times but he did not pick the phone. Again I called up reception and was diverted to reservations but the call never connected. I had to stay for about 15 mins on the call and it got disconnected. Finally I called reception again and they said within 15 mins, Mr Karthik will call me. Till now you would have guessed that Mr Karthik never called back. Poor customer service right at the booking stages where customer isn't valued. If one person is incharge of the entire reservation then best of luck to the customers. I called the reception again and got connected to Mr Karthik. Booking process was going fine till he informed me that pet charge of 3k plus gst isn't optional. So I asked him what is included in the package and the answer was pet bed, bowl and toys. Any pet parent will carry the above things so on asking that I do not see value in these as I will anyway carry this, the answer was the money is to allow the pet on the hotel premise!!! Pretty appalling. In the morning the reception had told me that the pet package is optional and requested Karthik to take her on conference call but he said that it's hotel policy on pets. Moreover Karthik also said that pet food charges will be additional. Beats me to understand why will customers pay 3k plus gst if it doesn't even include basic food items for the pets such as rice, curd, veggies and chicken. Not going to make a reservation in Taj Savoy and will definitely not recommended it to any...

First the good. The Savoy is a beautiful place with well maintained grounds and as is typical for India, a wonderful staff. They do not, however, have much of a view from the mountain. The room was nice, large and clean. A large fence hides whatever is outside from view so that you only experience the property itself.

It was, of the 20 it so hotels where we stayed in India, our least favorite. First because of how ridiculously expensive everything is, second because of lack of care for our driver, third for food quality.

Our first clue about expense was the laundry order sheet where washing a pair of socks costs 250 rupees and pants 750 (photo uploaded). For those prices we decided we would wear our clothes twice, throw them away and buy new. But then we got trapped at the bar where the QR code menu didn't work and we had to use their phone to call for a bartender. We had no idea that 5 single pour gin and tonics would cost over 7500 rupees (photo uploaded), easily triple the next most expensive hotel where we stayed. A bottle of water in the room is 350 rupees (photo uploaded) when most other hotels are included.

Breakfast was free/included and worth every penny that we paid, which is to say nothing. Selection and quality were poor, presentation as bland as the food. It was so bad that we skipped this free meal the second day. It also inspired us to have dinner in town, a short walk where we fed 3 of us really good food for 1000 rupees including tip.

With charges this high we expected that they would take care of our driver, but alas no. They have no rooms and won't allow them to sleep in their car near the hotel. They give the drivers a blanket and point them down the street to find a parking spot or advise these hardworking people making 500 rupees per day to spend 7-800 rupees on a room in town. I find this behavior uncaring and disgusting.

We will advise our tour company to use other facilities and suggest that...