Location 20-30 minutes from airport and massive road construction due to Chennai Metrorail project. Dense urban location with traffic noise from all directions. Efficient and friendly staff at early morning check-in. Reserved a non-smoking room but was given a smoking room. Reasonable exchange rate given at Cashier. All rooms located around a circular, open center where noise from screaming kids in lobby penetrates all rooms. Two average speed glass elevators with view onto center lobby. Terrible noise insulation. Noisy traffic from outside and noise from screaming kids from inside hallway.
9 floors, no lounge. Business Center with limited hours but Concierge very helpful with printing boarding passes. 6th-floor king room with view into alley below. Drapes shield lights well but window allows outside traffic horns. Narrow writing desk with wired Internet jacks but only Wi-Fi available. Flat-screen TV with apparently hundreds of satellite channels, mostly in Tamil and Hindu. A few in English: CNNI, NHK News, DWTV, Fashion TV, satellite box claims BBC News is scrambled! No pay movies or DVD.
Master light control near bed. Small portable alarm clock. Front-desk wake-up calls spotty, typically arriving 15 minutes early and followed by a human caller at the desired time. Small, shallow closet with only half-dozen hangers and no space for full-length clothes to hang. Safe large enough for laptop. Bath with tub/shower combo. Everything functional. Funky, off-yellow fiberglass tubs flexes a bit when used. Fixtures all functional, if a bit dated. Rust-colored water from bathroom sink at times. Standard white bath towels a bit stiff. Multi plug 110/220 v in bath. Iron and board upon request.
Armchair and armoire near window with view into adjacent apartment building and alley. Noise from nearby streets even though room faced low-traffic alley. Two small tables near a stiff king bed and four stiff pillows. OKAY Wi-Fi. Heavy light-sealed drapes. Teas and hot water pot. Functioning AC (maid would always set to freezing), complementary half-liter bottle water each day. Minibar w/o beer but shown on price list as 200/375 Rs domestic/Imported. Fridge temperature barely cold and no adjustment. Complementary newspaper each day (English).
Catered lunches of Indian veg and non-veg fairly tasty. No iced tea served. Ground-level High Time bar/lounge is cold and dark, with only Kingfisher beer on draught. Minimal Wi-Fi signal. Comfortable u-shaped booths in center with view of silent TV showing regional news in English (no closed captioning so very pointless). Big-bass techno music borders on hip hop, the worst of both worlds, occasionally flips to classic rock. Snacks and platters served (500-2900 Rs). Pints and pitchers available. $5 Kingfisher pints in lounge and $3 bottles in restaurant.
Main floor restaurant with buffet and ala carte (pastas). 24-hour café with coffee, tea and breads. Breakfast buffet starts at 7 am. Staff very helpful when needing something prior to 7am. Overall, staff very proactive, helpful, and friendly.