Feb 02, 2009 02:55 PM
7417 Views
(Updated Feb 02, 2009 02:56 PM)
Over the last 10yrs, I've stayed in a variety of hotels across India - budget, economy and luxury. But nothing had prepared me for the NIGHTMARE that my wife and I encountered at PURI HOTEL, Puri. I guess we would have never considered this hotel, going by its 'environment', had we not been booked in it by our friend whose wedding we'd gone to attend all the way from Pune.
Without getting into the finer details, here are the 'highlights:
At 2am with my wife, being asked to wait outside the main gate of the hotel (on the main road) for 15 minutes , while the watchman (Gorkha Neelbahadur, among the two villains) checks whether we have a booking. He comes back and says we dont have a booking (it was later revealed that there WAS a booking by our hosts, but that jackass was looking at the wrong page!!)
Taking pity on us (as he later told us, ehsaan kiya tumko room deke), he shows us one room. We ask him to show us a better room (it's a 150-room hotel!). He says, he is doing us a favor by showing us even one room that late in the night, forget showing us more! DECIDE IN 2 MINUTES, OR GET OUT! Yes, that is the language he used. Now, at 2am with my wife, I had no option but to swallow my anger and take the room.
Paid cash. The Gorkha did not have change. Told him to take the balance (50-odd bucks) from the other watchman, who owed me money from an earlier transaction. This innocent adjustment was to assume demonic proportions the next day.
We asked for a bed sheet, since the blankets we really dirty. Gorkha tells us that it's not possible, because the housekeeping person is sleeping.
Following day, an agent of the groom's family turns up, apologizes profusely for last night's events, and despite my protests, insists on returning my cash advance, saying that booking had been done for two days with cash already paid. With this gesture, my wife and I feel placated, and decide to stay on. What was to happen barely 4 hours later, we could have never imagined...
Around 10:30 pm, returing to the hotel after dinner, we are confronted by the manager, a joker by the name of Goswami. His words,
"You're Chakraborty, right?"
I say "Yes..". Goswami "You're the one who checked in last night at 2am, right? Aur aapne payment karne mein jhamela kyun kiya(why did you create a problem in paying up)!!!??" That was the final straw! As we revolted against this shamelessly false accusation, emphasising that we not only paid full amount in cash, but ironically, even paid a tip to the SOB Gorkha, Goswami tells the booking clerk, "Check them out right now!! They are a nuisance!"
Imagine the situation...it's 10:30 in the night in a sleepy beach town, and we're being abused and thrown out of a hotel for which booking has been made in advance with cash paid!! I told my wife, "Even if we have to spend the night sleeping on the railway station platform, we're not spening one more minute here." She stood by me.
Thankfully, nothing so horrible happened.... I called up my friend. He sent over the fool-of-an-agent. He explained matters to the manager (Goswami), who then haughtily tells his clerk, "Dont check them out. Shift them to another room." But I was having none of it. On his face, I told the clerk, "There is no question of us staying here for even a minute if this idiot (Goswami) doesnt apologise in full measure." I dont know what had transpired between the agent and Goswami, but lo behold, Goswami folds his hands and says he's sorry.
This apart, some other incidents:
Bell-boy tells us to pack up and shift rooms within 5 minutes, because he wants to have his dinner! We tell him that we're in the middle of our dinner. He says, I dont know all that. The manager asked me to shift you right now....!!
A waiter rang the bell uninvited and TRIED TO FORCE OPEN THE DOOR WITHOUT WAITING FOR A RESPONSE, asking whether we wanted water or not. As you can imagine, a waiter trying to barge into the room of a young couple does make one suspicious. Surprisingly, every time we rang for the waiter, there was no response, not once in two days.
Anyway, if you've read so far, you would have got a fair idea of what we went through. To sum up our experience, I'd say that the PURI HOTEL has mastered the art of taking the guest for granted. They've been around for around 40 years, and that gives each and every member of the hotel a sense of invincibility, right from the manager, down to the Gorkha. The attitude is, STAY IF YOU WANT, OTHERWISE F&^% OFF!
