We stayed one night at the Taj palace at the start of a weeks tour. The hotel doesn't look that great from the outside - a dit dated but the lobby is quite spectacular.

When we arrived the hotel was fully booked with a conference and very busy which meant the service wasn't really that great. We needed lunch and the only place we could find to sit was by the pool, we waited a very long time to get served and the order was wrong which they quickly rectified. The room was ok, we had twin beds unfortunately. not particularly spacious and the decor non-descript but it was clean, one couple on the tour stayed in a club room and that sounded much better.

We ate at the indian restaurant which was excellent, the service was very good and the waiters very helpful and keen to tell us about what we were eating, we asked to share a starter and they gave us two huge portions for the price of one and a free desert when we weren't going to have one. The bhuna ghost was lovely.

All in all we were a little disappointed, we had thought this was supposed to be one of the best hotels in Delhi but i wouldn't say it was 5 star, it could do with a bit of updating and the pool area wasn't that great. We were supposed to go back there at the end of the tour but instead flew to Goa from Jaipur and were quite glad we didn't have to go back.

This is the second time I've stayed at the Taj Palace, but the first time was nearly two years ago. I thought it was a low risk choice however as last time wasn't too bad, but it has definitely declined.

Check In
Was swift, but their computer systems were down at the time so we didn't know if I got my room choice until we got in and could "smell" whether it was really a non-smoking room. Fortunately it was!

Rates
Too high... but then, hotels in Delhi are all very expensive

Room
Small. Mine had new carpet (could still smell the glue) and new furniture but old TV and a bed that hadn't had a new mattress since the English got the boot. Tiny bathroom. An unusual complaint is that the toilet was too high off the ground. (I know, bad visual) but this was quite uncomfortable! Cheap shower curtain meant that the bathroom floor was usually wet.
"Bathroom smells" passed into the room from adjacent rooms. Very annoying.

Gym
WAY TOO SMALL! About 5 or 6 treadmills (lifefitness), 1 old lifefitness elliptcal and one new one, 2 bikes. At peak times the cardio gym was completely full with people waiting. The weight machines in the weight gym were obviously purchased by a purchasing guy who was trying to save money and while they are good quality, the "set" is incomplete, i.e. a quadricep machine, but no hamstring machine, etc.... as if only half of the requirement was purchased. With 4 guys in the weight gym it starts feeling very crowded

Food
Average.
Breakfast in coffee shop is a quite limited buffet and I sat outside one morning and was disturbed by a strong smell of human faeces coming from the nearby drain.
Room service was prompt and efficient. Food was tasty.

Service
Typical for India. A few aggressively nice women working reception and in the lobby as a greeting function and no-one else really cared. Took about 5 tries over the first 2 of 4 days to train the restaurant staff how to make a good Caffe Latte. Still, each one seemed to take 1/2 hour! As per a few of the earlier reviews, the usual was handled well, the new or challenging was hardly handled at all.

Delhi is frustrating and I'm about to draw the conclusion that there are no good hotels there. The Shangri-La is the only major hotel there that I haven't tried... so it must be the only good one, as the Taj just doesn't cut it... like most of the others - especially when the rate is over $500/night.

I chose the Taj Palace after reading the TripAdvisor reports. Many reviews were very positive - a number critical. On balance I thought the Taj Palace would be a good choice.

It wasn't - the hotel is very expensive - the rooms old and well overdue for a renovation, although there are some that have been renovated they weren't on offer to me. The rooms are average in size, the walls thin which meant that noise travelled. The food equally expensive and average. The hotel is well away from the attractions of Delhi. The service was inconsistent, ranging from above average to plain ordinary. Simple requests were well handled, anything more complex or requiring a decision was impossible.

I was less than impressed with a hotel that charges top dollar by any standard and falls short on what it delivers. Intuitively there must be better choices - look elsewhere.

A hotel that charges a premium (in a low cost country) but fails to deliver. Yes, the rooms and the public areas are what you would expect from a 5 star hotel, but the attitude of the staff seemed to be how best can we separate our guests from their cash.

There seemed to be no ability by staff to make decisions - everything was done by the rule book - and generally with no flexibility. Hospitality and graciousness were lacking. You left feeling "used and abused".

Very questionable price value.