Club Mahindra, Udaipur

After stopover in Jaipur we left for Udaipur where we were supposed to stay for 2 nights. We took a longer route via Chittorgarh and took longer the expected. Also, once we hit the border of Udaipur we took the bypass road as suggested by the GPS.

Unfortunately, the bypass is full of speed breakers and overloaded trucks go very slow over them so that they do not break their suspension. Hell yeah! It took us more than an hour to cover last 9-10KM stretch.

Finally we reached the mentioned property at 7:30PM. They have some planned activity everyday and the day we reached they had puppet show planned for the kids. So, immediately we unloaded the car and went for the puppet show which was enjoyed by our daughter.

This property is new addition to Club Mahindra property and some areas are still under renovation.
It looks majestic from outside and with all the lighting done up it looks amazing.

After our check in we were taken to our room. Oh! the horrible room, the most horrible room I have ever seen at Club Mahindra or anywhere for that matter. It looked like a cheap 800Rs a night hotel, except that the rooms were bigger. The room was not clean, it smelled of Guthka, cob webs around, torn and yellowish towels, stained toilet & toilet seat. Oh my god! I thought that our vacation trip is ruined. Well that is what they did. I wrote on tripadvisor and got a standard reply.

A few days ago I was browsing the latest reviews on tripadvisor and saw same complaints over and over again and same standard replies from the management. I think Club Mahindra should revoke their affiliation with them. It is not about apologizing. Because, of their attitude we lost on our vacation time. Can they compensate for that? Well no!

I wonder who are the people who are liking this resort! Have they never travelled? Or they do not care for their money. Club Mahindra per night cost works out to be 4500INR to 5500INR in which one can get a decent enough hotel of any reputed hotel chain.

Continuing my review, we asked for cleaning and the room even stank more as the cloth that the cleaner bought was dirtier. Yellow towels were replaced with slightly yellow towels! Yuck!

We thought there is nothing much we can do and will check out in the morning and will move into the nearest Taj property. Courageously, we went for our dinner which turned out to be okay. It was nothing special and was just average or below average. Next, day our rooms were changed and were slightly better. So we decided to stay back and move on to our next destination the next day.

Once or twice we thought of having a drink but couldn't as the Air Conditioning in that area was not working. It is the lobby / reception area where the bar is also located. Basically, for our entire stay the reception's air conditioning was off.

Next day we went to City Palace and saw couple of lakes and had few snacks and drinks outside at the Club Mahindra property, where we really enjoyed and felt like we were on vacation. City palace is amazing and worth visiting.

Finally, it was the day to check out we were so happy and overjoyed

In short,

Hotel - sucks

Kitchen - is average, room service quality of food pathetic and overpriced, they DO NOT accommodate change in orders or meal plans, etc. nicely and give you loads of attitude, same is with the waiting staff who do not understand your needs and can even as you to get up go on another table in middle of your meal for some stupid reason.

Swimming Pool - Dirty

Recreation Activities - Good. The only saving grace.

Overall, I would warn you from staying at this property and wasting your expensive holiday nights. It is just not worth the pain and effort. To this day I sulk not opting for Taj property in Udaipur.

I have never given such negative feedback to any hotel in my life hopefully Club Mahindra is listening!

Whispering Pines, Mashobra (Club Mahindra)

Shimla is one of the favorite haunts for the people living in the plains of Haryana and Punjab and be it winter or summers people find a reason to visit Shimla..

The biggest draw for me is the fine 8 lane highway up to Chandigarh and then the stretch from Chandigarh to Kalka which was a pain, is now 4 Lanes / 6 Lanes toll highway and cuts down the travel time drastically.

Yes, and how can I forget all those eating joints on the way.

Shimla is now very commercialized and to enjoy nature one needs to go farther from Shimla.
Being, a Club Mahindra member we chose the property. Like, any other Club Mahindra property the staff and the food is great.

It is at an ideal location and from the rooms you can see most pristine views of the mighty Himalayas.
The property also boasts of a great SPA at nominal costs.

However, from a great experience on my first visit. Things have gone downhill for the property.

1. The linen quality is really bad. They are old and torn and you have to ask for replacement every time.

2. Heating at the property is turned off at 6 AM (In winters - Dec/Jan/etc.) and then the vents in the room start throwing air at outside temperature and the room is super chilled by 6:15 AM. The only way to avoid it is to get up at 5:59 AM and switch off the central heating FAN. Especially, with young children this can be fatal if they get sick and whole trip might be ruined.

If they can come up with such a stupid thing, I did not even bother discussing it with the property manager or Club Mahindra. Because, if you talk to stupid only nonsense will come back to you.

3. Last time I visited I do not know why the Main Gate was blocked by a water tanker (Shouldn't they be using the service gate at the back). Well, the made gesture to bring the vehicle in but the space was too small and I had to back the vehicle. This was in the middle of the night with heavy snow. There was nobody to guide me and as expected I hit a huge stone with the back bumper of my vehicle.

The reception staff was unapologetic that the main gate was blocked and very completely immune to that fact there was no guard at the gate to guide customer vehicles.

4. There is no stand by bartender. So, when the bartender goes for dinner one needs to wait for good 45 mins.

Well having discussed above four points I have decided never to visit the property again, even though we had really great time there in the past.

Visit at your own risk.

Club Mahindra, Nawalgarh

Club Mahindra’s property at a non-descript place like Nawalgarh attracted our attention as it was totally unheard of. Upon checking with Club Mahindra we came to know that the property is still under development and may or may not look like as per the pictures.

We took the risk and planned our one week trip to Nawalgarh.

There were two ways to do reach our destination and they were:

1. Go to Jaipur to Sikar to Nawalgarh

2. Or try something new and turn towards kothputali and take the lesser travelled road.

We took option 2 and got to see great views. However, the only drawbacks were:

1. There were no good places to eat on the way and hence we survived on chips and coke that we     

        carried with us.

2. It took us longer than usual and the staff at the property was worried and kept calling us again and 

        again to make sure that we reach before dark.

3. Due to potholed road I had to frequently press the brakes. This heated up the discs and we had to stop        for a while so that they can cool down.

Upon reaching we were mesmerized by the remoteness and shocked by the first room given to us. The room was right in front of the pool. Ideal location, some would say. However, the pool was being built and there was cement, bricks, etc. everywhere.

We asked for another room and were given a room on the ground floor of the haveli. We asked for a change as it was right next to the hotel lawns and was too noisy. Upon our request they agreed to give us another room on the top floor the next day.

To our surprise we were given the room post dinner.

What we loved at the property:

1. NO TV. Yes there are no TVs at the property and the manager of the resort came and explained to us 

        the reason personally. We were skeptical at first and it was eerily quiet on first night. But this was the             best part of the stay.

2. Organic food. The vegetables are grown right at the back of the property without fertilizers and 

        pesticides.

3. Being woken up by the peacocks. Yes every morning you see so many peacocks and one is woken’ 

        up by their noise. Excellent way to be woken up.

Activities that can be done

1. Pottery class

2. Horse riding

3. Play badminton / cricket in the evening

4. Visit the haveli towns nearby

5. Visit Kathu Shyam and Balaji

Overall a nice property to stay. This is not your regular hotel but worth the experience.

Club Mahindra, Nawalgarh

One of the Haveli's