Apr 13, 2011 02:54 PM
24128 Views
We visited Goa in April 2011 and stayed at Taj Vivanta, Fort Aguada for three days and then thought of exploring another resort and hence decided to go to Cidade de Goa at Dona Paula. That was the worst mistake that ruined the final taste of our holiday to a great extent.
Check-in was smooth and we were shown to our rooms without much wait. The room rent was the same as what we had paid at the Taj, but the rooms and service were not even 50% of what Taj offered. The toilet was the worst – the bathtub was yellow in places, the ceiling of the toilet had fungus growing at the corners, and there was a strange stink in the toilet.
The bath fittings were old and ill maintained with water getting clogged in the tub and the basin. The shower was squeezing out water in all different directions except for your head and there was no hand shower. The furniture was rickety and none of the drawers opened smoothly. The wooden flooring was worn out. I have stayed in better rooms at 3 star hotels. The electric sockets were all round Indian types and were hard to spot as they were hidden at the side of the table.
Considering the amount of foreign visitors that Goa gets, they should have offered adapters. I was not able to charge my phone, iPad, and camera because they all required the vertical US-type sockets. There was a big hole in the bathrobe provided and the guests were asked to sign for the number towels that they took at the pool. The TV in the room was old CRT 21 inch with a small choice of channels. I won’t even compare it to Taj where the bathroom was sleek and spacious with glass partition, shower cabinet, rain shower, hand shower, a great tub, 31 inch LCD TV, fruit basket, and a lot more of such fine details that make your visit worthwhile.
Another disappointing factor was the staff and service levels. The staff looked unpleasant and disinterested all the time. One day we reached our room and found that the key card was not functioning. We called the “0” number for service from another room and nobody came, we called again after ten minutes and still nobody came to help us in. When we went to the reception to enquire, they said, oh we did not know. Similar incident happened with us at the Taj, when we had forgotten our key inside, and they sent out a person within a minute.
The buffet breakfast spread was okay, but not that great either. The service staff at the restaurant stood in a group and chatted away while we kept raising our hands to call them. We were not even asked for water/coffee/tea/bread and such basic things while we were sitting at the table. We had to call out for everything and then wait for them to do the needful. They did not even have extra high-chair for my baby. At Taj, the service was awesome, they even took care of finer details like sterilizing my baby’s bottle, offering a baby pram on request, and readily getting high-chair and baby cutlery at our table.
We had taken a breakfast included plan but since we had to check out before the breakfast time, the reception staff had promised that they would pack some breakfast and hand it over to us before we checkout. Based on our bad experience with the staff we went to the reception at 11pm on the previous night to remind them of this arrangement but we did not find anybody to help us there. There was nobody who could take responsibility for this as kitchen was closed and as expected, we did not get any breakfast in the morning.
On the day before, we had asked for car cleaning and found out that they don’t offer any such service. At Taj, our car was cleaned daily even when we didn’t ask them to.
The entire hotel looked dirty and old. I would say that apart from the view, beach and pool, there’s nothing great in the hotel. You will get much better service and quality at other 5 start beach properties in Goa.
