1. Entry to the hotel.
Anya has a new metro station coming next to it which might make visiting this property easier. I had to get out of Hyatt Place. Hotel has a big front and a small passage where taxi can drop you. They have big glass doors which look totally bland.
2. Why are you in this hotel in this city?
. I went online and saw the cheapest SPG property available and it turns out that ANYA was the cheapest one. Now you can get further cheap rates on OTA for this property but you won’t receive any bonus credits. Anyway it doesn’t make any sense to book this property via SPG unless you are trying to do avail sort of promotion. I just received 332 points so it’s not much except counting towards eligible stays for Platinum status. I just feel stupid for booking this property at the end of entire experience. I realized I should have booked another property such as Westin or Four point Sheraton. But my readers would benefit from my review here.
Booking any stay via Design property requires lots of follow ups for them to add your stay and points to your account. Anya was the most painful where I had to keep calling them to add my points.
3. Check in (Photos of lobby, Pictures of any decorative present)
I entered lobby and was little surprised to see check -in desks requiring me to seat in a chair at lobby where person, who is executing my room allotment, is also seating. It has been a while since I saw that in a 5 star hotel. I flexed my SPG status and asked to be upgraded to Club room. As this is a design property, I wasn’t getting any SPG privileges and had to settle for whatever I got. No free breakfast or anything similar existed.
The person at check-in desk upgraded my room to that of a Club room.
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| Apparent seating arrangements at the lobby |
4. Journey from Reception to Room
As soon as my check-in was done, I was assigned room number 507. Room was on 5th floor, right in front of the elevator.
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| The corridor and the light coming from front |
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| At Room No. 307 |
5. Room
The room had a narrow passageway to enter inside. On the right side, you have a cupboard, a luggage rack, a TV and all other stuffs. There is a longish table that leads all the way to end of the room, where you can put all your stuffs. On the left, there is restroom.
The view is basically of a cluster of residential and commercial buildings facing the hotel. There is metro train that is going to run soon but for now it is under construction.
As I entered the room, the first things I felt was I was inside a great sized room with comfortable bed. The bed was considerably a king sized bed. I was elated to see curtains that would shut maximum exposure to light and bring shade. I won’t have too much light on my face in the morning. Damn! What a bad stay can do to you? You become happy with small things.
There was small sofa for a single person to sit on. There was a decent sized writing table along with a good chair to sit & work at.
They had weighing machine in the room. (It didn’t work)
Little did I know the horror that awaited me! The security guy who had come to drop me at my room didn’t know anything it. I asked him to turn on the lights and he couldn’t figure it out. I called down to reception to turn on the power supply. It appeared like only half of the room was being illuminated. Even they didn’t understand what to do.
I thought either they would change my room or something would happen. Nothing happened! I had to leave for work so I told them at reception to check-up my room again. After I come back at night, I realized I have solved the conundrum. The room had so many power outlets and half of them were occupied by empty sockets. So if you press the switches, nothing would happen.
It turned out that the room power was designed in such horrible way. I remembered this was like Lotus 8 at Nedumbassery where fan and bulb were connected to the same switch. So when I wanted to sleep at night, I couldn’t keep the fan on lest I also had to keep the bulb on.
So when I came at night, I finished some work and then as usual my pet peeve was finding all power switches in the room. I turned off wherever any random light was on. Here some switches didn’t work for the first time. You had to click those couple of times to make them work. Are you serious? I wish the hotel had a centralized power system. It is painful to find where every switchboard is located inside the room.
6. Pictures of Entrance, Minibar, Table,Bed, Sofa, Alarm, other electronics
They had phone in the room but there was no guide to which number to dial for assistance. There was an old alarm with ancient IPOD connection system. This was discontinued in 3rd generation apple products. The time on the clock was wrong.
7. Internet speed
Internet’s speed at this hotel was almost stagnant. I gave up watching any video as it would keep buffering for infinite time. I was getting a speed of 512 kbps at max. Which generation of Internet is that?
8. Washroom
The washroom at this hotel was interesting. There was a luxurious bath tub which I really liked. I didn’t have opportunity to use it but was just happy to have it there. Bathroom looked huge. There was a sitting area near shower. WOW! That is some luxury.
They had both handheld and overhead showers. But it required serious hassle to turn the later on. You were needed to hold the shower button for a while otherwise it would go back to hand shower mode. It took me like 3 mins of holding the button till it retained and was firm. First I thought it was a cruel joke that was being played on me but it wasn’t a light issue. Pressure of water flow was fine but I just couldn’t get warm water for some reason. FAIL!
The wash basin was fine and comfortable to use. It was a large basin with adequate pressure of water flow.
9. Toiletries
Toiletries provided here were really miniatures. They looked luxurious as they were inside proper glass instead of plastic bottles which are generally seen everywhere else. The aroma was wonderful. I would definitely use them. I was scared to take them anywhere apprehending that bottles might break. But it was one of the brightest things about this hotel.
10. Food and Beverages
Getting to the restaurant is a complicated process. You have to go to first floor. You have to enter spa area and then you would see an open-terrace like area. You have to get onto the terrace and then turn right. There are no signs where the restaurant is located. Maybe I should have taken pictures of it. Restaurant had zero natural lighting and felt like a dark dingy dungeon. The spread was extremely limited as you can see from the pictures. They do have live dosa and paratha but there is not much in terms of bakery. I will not call this hotel a 5 star buffet in anyway. It is more like a 3 star hotel buffet. The food was totally bland and I would rather skip eating here.
11. Fitness Center
Fitness center could be perceived as an abandoned room with only equipments kept there. Their arrangement was uneven with beam in the middle. There were a couple of old trade mills, cycles, some weights and bosu balls. There was a lot of space to do Yoga and free-hand stuffs. No Pull Up bar or anything as such was present.
There were no towels or water kept for use. There was nobody at the center to answer your possible queries.
12. Service
The staff tried to cooperate but they were all neophytes and didn’t know anything, about anything. Only proper help I got was during check-in and check-out processes. They didn’t offer any extra amenities in the room if you requested for it. Not that they always have to; just don’t expect them to. I had to call them like 20 times to get my Starwood stay be credited. It took them 15 days to credit it. They just didn’t know how to do that. After sending query on email I never received any reply.
13. Bottomline
I am never coming back to this property again. I will not recommend anyone to come here either. It was just a cruel joke I had played on myself. Electricals were a huge issue. Hotel appeared old school. Staffs were new. If you lack awareness about the city – don’t expect them to answer anything meaningful. Do your own research. I asked them about where I can find mooncakes and the response I got was that they don’t know about it. They didn’t even bother to look it up for me.
I am never coming back to this property again. I will not recommend anyone to come here either. It was just a cruel joke I had played on myself. Electricals were a huge issue. Hotel appeared old school. Staffs were new. If you lack awareness about the city – don’t expect them to answer anything meaningful. Do your own research. I asked them about where I can find mooncakes and the response I got was that they don’t know about it. They didn’t even bother to look it up for me.