Banalata Resort — Hotel in West Bengal

I was staying in Banalata. They have a huge restaurant and they serve the food from the same restaurant at room if you order. I decided to have lunch once sitting in the restaurant so I visited the restaurant. It was Puja time and the restaurant was heavily crowded but I could not locate the AC facility of the restaurant, so I asked a gentleman to help us find the AC restaurant. He took us to the AC facility and at first he said there is no table available but we can share a table with another family. My family wasn't really willing to share table and thus I told him that we would order our food at our room to our convenience. Hearing this the gentleman said he can manage something and came up with even better option of private cabin. We really liked it. We ordered our food, he helped with the food and to our surprise he brought a plate of Payes (Kheer in Bengali) and said it's for our son on the house. We were extremely happy with such behaviour. BUT MORE SURPRISE WERE YET TO COME!!!

When we were about to finish our lunch he came again and started having chit chats and telling us about the price of the Payas (Rs70) and extra charges for the Cabin (Rs.200). I simply ignored him as we never wanted any of those and he brought the Bill without those items. So I paid the right amount at the counter and started leaving. The guy came to me again asking for the money for those extra advantages which we never ordered or requested for. Not to mention, he settled for Rs.50/-

SUCH A SHAMEFUL INCIDENT!!!

What I learned, the management created a very greedy Eco system to run such place. There is no waiters or waitresses in Banalata, there were all SALESMAN or WOMAN. Even the attendant for our room were the same. They were preaching for food, insisting us to order food or even beers and they get good commission for every bill they generate. On top of that they eye for good tip as well from every customer.

Now the place: big place with lot of things to look for like the Cattle Barn, Horse Stable, Chicken, Emu, Quail, Duck, Goat farm and pond full of fishes. But you can hardly enjoy beings a guest because you will see strangers everywhere. Strangers will move around your rooms and can count you among the other Animals with surprised stare looking at you munching a kebab and sipping on Beer.

Rooms were way too costly compared to quality. The geyser were continuously leaking and eletrocuting if were turned on. In complaint, they replace it with another leaking geyser.

NOW THE GOOD PART

Food were really good, cheap and available along with alcohol. They allow you to have alcohol in the open and that's what I enjoyed most. Milk products were mind blowing. Staff do take care of things and help even if that's being greedy for tip.

CONCLUSION: Good Place for Friends to visit and have some party in the open with Alcohol but never a good place for...

Banalata provided us with a disappointingly mediocre experience since the moment we stepped into the property after the 3+ hour drive from Kolkata. We booked 6 "premium mud hut cottages" for 2 nights each at an average tariff of ₹6500 per night, and the stay had many more misses than hits.

**Misses:

1. The check in experience is painfully slow and very cumbersome. Took us 30+ minutes to check in without anyone as much as offering us a seat in this duration of duress.
2. Banalata is now a full fledged village fair. Hundreds and hundreds of day visitors throng the property noisily enjoying attractions, discarding rubbish after eating, and resting on the gardens, posing for selfies all around you. The hullabaloo starts before 10 AM and goes on well past 8PM (10 PM on weekends)!
3. THERE IS NO EXCLUSIVITY OR PRIVACY offered to the hotel room guests. Since the hotel rooms are situated right next the common areas hosting the attractions of the village fair (flower show, trampoline, horse carriage ride, rodeo ride etc etc) , day visitors can barge in wherever they want, whenever they want to. When you have a meal sitting on your front porch you are constantly eeked out by visitors staring at you and walking by on the dusty tracks. On more than one occasion we had to politely turn away day visitors from occupying our front porch or even stepping into our rooms!
4. Because of the surge in numbers of day visitors , room service is EXTREMELY slow.
5. Rooms are compact with limited circulation space. The blankets provided were dusty and induced dust allergy in my wife.
6. Very poor value for money - The room tarrif includes NOTHING but stay. You pay for Breakfast. You even pay for each bottle of water.We had to fight for getting allotted 2 towels per room. Turns out the "norm is 1 towel per room"! Toiletries are a joke. 1 tiny soap bar and a sachet of shampoo handed over at check-in.

**Hits:

1. Pleasant and helpful staff.
2. Rooms have allocated service attendants that help you with meals, errands etc.
3. Late evenings - once the crowd dissipates, you really get to walk around and enjoy the property.
4. You get to greet tons of farm animals. My son loved greeting Horses, Cows, Emus, ostrich, geese, rabbits and turkeys all inside the property
5. Wide range of food options available

**Verdict: For all the inconveniences caused, and in view of the hits we enjoyed, I'd probably have been ok paying ₹3k per night for the mud cottages. Advice to Banalata is this - if you expect guests to pay premium money, it is your solemn duty, your core responsibility, to offer a premium and memorable experience. Regret that wasn't the...

Banalata provided us with a disappointingly mediocre experience since the moment we stepped into the property after the 3+ hour drive from Kolkata.|We booked 6 "premium mud hut cottages" for 2 nights each at an average tariff of ₹6500 per night, and the stay had many more misses than hits.|Misses:|1) The check in experience is painfully slow and very cumbersome. Took us 30+ minutes to check in without anyone as much as offering us a seat in this duration of duress.|2) Banalata is now a full fledged village fair. Hundreds and hundreds of day visitors throng the property noisily enjoying attractions, discarding rubbish after eating, and resting on the gardens, posing for selfies all around you. The hullabaloo starts before 10 AM and goes on well past 8PM (10 PM on weekends)!|3) THERE IS NO EXCLUSIVITY OR PRIVACY offered to the hotel room guests. Since the hotel rooms are situated right next the common areas hosting the attractions of the village fair (flower show, trampoline, horse carriage ride, rodeo ride etc etc) , day visitors can barge in wherever they want, whenever they want to. When you have a meal sitting on your front porch you are constantly eeked out by visitors staring at you and walking by on the dusty tracks. On more than one occasion we had to politely turn away day visitors from occupying our front porch or even stepping into our rooms!|4) Because of the surge in numbers of day visitors , room service is EXTREMELY slow.|5) Rooms are compact with limited circulation space. The blankets provided were dusty and induced dust allergy in my wife.|6) Very poor value for money - The room tarrif includes NOTHING but stay. You pay for Breakfast. You even pay for each bottle of water.We had to fight for getting allotted 2 towels per room. Turns out the "norm is 1 towel per room"! Toiletries are a joke. 1 tiny soap bar and a sachet of shampoo handed over at check-in.|Hits:|1) Pleasant and helpful staff.|2) Rooms have allocated service attendants that help you with meals, errands etc.|3) Late evenings - once the crowd dissipates, you really get to walk around and enjoy the property.|4) You get to greet tons of farm animals. My son loved greeting Horses, Cows, Emus, ostrich, geese, rabbits and turkeys all inside the property|5) Wide range of food options available|**Verdict:|For all the inconveniences caused, and in view of the hits we enjoyed, I'd probably have been ok paying ₹3k per night for the mud cottages.|Advice to Banalata is this - if you expect guests to pay premium money, it is your solemn duty, your core responsibility, to offer a premium and memorable experience.|Regret that wasn't the...