Due to the rave reviews of this hotel on this site we were looking forward to our stay here. Unfortunately we realised it might not live up to our expectations when on checking in, we were informed that we would be staying in one room the first night and have a change of room the second night as the first room was not what we had requested. In fairness the chap on reception was quite aplogetic but due to what he was staying, we had a feeling that the room would not be very nice and it was not.
It was gloomy, had no view, well it did but the window was cracked and broken and covered by a heavy curtain - the view was a back yard full of junk. The air con unit did not work and it took the chap 10 minutes to get it working but when it did it was making the most awful noise and it looked like it could be dangerous so we made the decision to turn it off. The shower did not work, a couple of cold drips came out .. also we did see our one and only couchroach in India in this room. We figured as we would be moved the next day to a different room, we decided to stick it out for the one night - in my backpacking days in my 20's I have stayed in worse so hey what was one night !
The next day we went down to reception and asked when we would be able to be moved to the different room as per their request. The chap on reception said there were no other rooms available so we would have to stay in that room; for a fact I knew three other couples were checking out that day as we had been speaking to people upstairs in the restaurant. This was mentioned but reception were still adament that we would have to stay in the room. This is why we have marked the Pearl Palace low, the room as horrible as it was was superseeded by the feeling that reception could not be arsed with the whole situation and that moving us would involve more effort than it was worth. We were polite through-out our request but we felt we were treated with indifference.
Infact there were rooms empty and on return from sightseeing in Jaipur - we went out for the whole day as could not bear to spend one moment in that room (thankfully we were only there for 2 nights in total) we saw several rooms empty. We mentioned this and was informed they have not got air con in the rooms but on reliterating that we cannot use the air con is our room as it looks dangerous and frankly I do not want to start an electrical fire, plus the fact our shower did not work, we moved to another room. Even at this point it was with reluctance that the staff agreed to change the room.
The second room was a 100% improvement so proves that your experience at Pearl Palace can depend on the room you are given.
Yes, the restaurant is lovely and very atmospheric and the only reason it gets 2 out of 5, as opposed to 1 out of 5 is for the restaurant. The general attitude of reception was awful and due to this, more so than the condition of the first room is why I would not recommend this hotel.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Would I recommend this hotel to my best friend?
no way!
I do not recommend this hotel for:
Young singles, An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, People with disabilities, Older travelers, Great pool scene, Tourists
I selected this hotel as a top choice for:
Museums / Cultural / Historical sites, Great food / Wine
Management Response
Satinder Pal Singh, Owner
(Management representative)
Jul 23, 2008
First of all I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused .I and my staff are truly sorry about the whole matter, but there are a few points I would like to clear. According to the name mentioned in the review we have not been able to trace the guest or the exact date of his arrival in our check in register so we would know which room he is talking about, whether it is an air conditioned room or an air cool one. The guest says that he had an air conditioned room and last year we had replaced all our air conditioners with new ones with stabilizers which take three minutes to start after it is switched on and another three minutes again for the air conditioning unit to start, a total of six minutes. This feature is in built for the safety of the compressor. Till date it is not in my notice nor has any other guest complained about a loud noise of the air conditioner. If the room was an air cooled one then the noise would be of the rotating fan cutting the air which is a little more than an air conditioning unit, but there was no need to feel alarmed as this is how they work and we make sure that all electrical fittings are in proper condition. As the guest says next morning he asked for a change of room. In the morning we have a different reception boy as the reception boy who works in the day time goes off duty at night. The guest says that he had spoken to three couples on the first night who were leaving the next day and still the reception boy in the morning did not change their room but those rooms were not free as there are many guests who have reservations before hand, we are committed to hold rooms for them and some guests arrive late at night so if rooms were found to be lying empty in the evening they were for guests who had already reserved rooms with us and had called up to inform us that they would be arriving late. In case of no show of the guests then we release the rooms to other guests. Hence the reason that the room was given in the evening and that too after confirming all our previous commitments. The tariff of our hotel starts from Rs.250 to Rs.1000 and obviously there will be variation in rooms according to the price, but this doesn’t mean that our cheaper rooms are out of order or are in bad condition. All rooms are for our guests and it is not possible that we would leave rooms empty and not give it to our guests. It is totally a misconception if the guest feels that he has been treated indifferently by the reception staff.
Every fifteen days we have a man coming in for pest control who sprays the entire hotel like it is done in luxury hotels and this is the first time we have heard that a guest has seen an insect in the room. There has never been such a complaint before and if this has happened I am really sorry about it.
The guest says that he saw junk from the back window but that was not junk but our iron furniture being repainted. So it was left in the backyard. That is the only place I think where one can finish odd jobs. I live on the hotel premises itself and am available for all guests 24x7 and he could have spoken to me any time and I would have surely tried to solve his problems or make him understand why he was not shifted to another room straight away. I have seriously spoken to my reception boys but they say that they do not remember such an episode and they are also regretful as to how a guest could leave with such misunderstanding.
It is never our intention to trouble our guests in any way but if the guest feels that he has been hurt by the staff in any way I apologize on their behalf. We have so many reviews coming in from guests and if our services and rooms would be so poor I am sure guests would not have sent so many positive reviews about us .We would never want in any case to commit such a mistake purposely as a lot of hard work is involved by us and our staff and one’s reputation which is built after years of hard work is like glass which can be shattered with the bad review of one guest because he is angry with one staff member and the whole organization should not suffer because we take every review very seriously.
Regards
Mr.Singh
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
