Park Hotel Delhi, a Design Collection Hotel. Don’t waste your money.

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on Apr 21, 2017 | 4 comments

The Park Hotel Delhi is one of a few Park Hotels all over India, and they are renowned for their service and attention to detail. This stay, however, lacked service, attention to detail, and anything else positive. Read on for all the humorous and sad details of this hotel.

We arrived at about 1:55 to the Park Hotel Delhi via our private airport transfer. Even though the room type we booked included free airport transfers, our private guide was waiting for us at the terminal so it made sense for him to just drop us off.

Check In

We passed through all the lobby metal detectors and made our way to the front desk. We were informed that because it was 1:55 and check in was at 2:00, the room was not yet ready.

I’m sorry what?

Mind you, I know it’s 5 minutes early but that has got to be the strictest check in policy EVER.

At this point they hadn’t even found our reservation, so they couldn’t have possibly known who we were or what room type we had booked. When I gave them my passport, they looked befuddled, because they couldn’t find our reservation.

“Are you sure you have made a reservation?â€
“Yes I’m sure, as a matter of fact we booked the presidential suite.â€

With that, his gaze changed a bit and he called over a manager to help with the situation. After about 7-8 minutes (note that it’s now 2:03pm), we found out that the room was presented under Jun Dandrea. Now, last time I checked, my first name isn’t Jun and my last name isn’t Dandrea, especially since we booked this using my SPG number. Turns out that my SPG number wasn’t on the reservation either!

Things are going from bad to worse.

Management Steps In

The director of guest relations came over at this point to introduce herself, and apologized that our room wasn’t ready. While they were finishing preperations to the presidential suite, they had a deluxe suite available for us to use in the meantime.

At this point I’m pretty furious. Two things are really burning my biscuits. 1) It’s now 2pm, and you have a guest who has booked and paid for a presidential suite, and you don’t have the room ready and 2) A platinum SPG ambassador guest is checking in, and you don’t have any information about our reservation. The service failures are just beginning.

The First Room

We head up to the deluxe suite and get ready. It’s room 901 and you can see it here on the map. It’s at the end of the hallway on the right. As you can see, it’s a large bedroom on the left, a large bathroom and closet in the middle, and a dining and seating area on the right hand side.

Park Hotel Delhi Map

We used the restroom, freshened up, and went on our way with the Delhi tours.

That evening when we got back, the manager of guest relations was there and apologized. She had the keys to our new room, #904. If you look at the map above, it’s the one with the black box and white circle. Notice anything? It’s exactly the same room size.

Now if you remember, we booked a Presidential Suite, and they gave us a Deluxe Suite temporarily. For me (and I’d imagine for you) a presidential suite is a one-of-a-kind, unique room. This to me looks like exactly the same thing with perhaps a slightly larger living room.

The Second Room

There was a welcome gift of wine and fruit on the table, which looked strikingly similar to the same wine and fruit that was on the table in 901. Sure enough, when we opened the card, it was addressed to a Mr. Goel. Obviously, there is no personalized welcome for us here at this hotel. It’s also ironic because when the guest relations manager came up to the room with us, we told her that we didn’t drink wine, and much prefer sparkling water. #ParkHotelFail and #SPGAmbassadorFail

Mr Goel’s Welcome Amenity

We went back down to the lobby, obviously thinking that something wasn’t right, because this obviously was not a presidential suite. Sure enough, she gleefully said “we have 6 presidential suites in the hotel, and they are all fantastic.â€

Yup. Six. Presidential. Suites.

We were losing all our battles here, and at this point we were so damned tired that I didn’t want to put any more effort into this. We went back up to the room and sent my SPG ambassador an email expressing our discontent, hoping that the same problem would not present itself on the next two stays.

The room itself was a nice room (for a non-presidential suite). The entryway had a minibar and tea/coffee set. Just to the left in the living room was a large, rather useless bookcase.

It emptied into the “dining†room and the living room. At the end of the living room was a small desk and workspace along with phone and lamp.

Park Hotel Delhi

Park Hotel Delhi

Tucked behind that large bookcase was the bedroom. There was a king bed with gorgeous pillows and throws. It was a bit cramped though with not much room left on either side of the bed.

Park Hotel Delhi Bedroom

If you look back on that map you’ll see that there are some circular stairs. Those stairs lead up to the lounge which is only accessible via keycard access to those on the 9th and 10th floor. There are dozens of seats and tables to sit and relax with a bite or a drink.

Park Hotel Delhi Lounge

In the back there’s a desk with a printer, computer, and internet access.

Park Hotel Delhi Lounge

There’s also a large bookcase with lots of reading materials if you’re looking to relax.

Park Hotel Delhi Bookcases

I opted for a local Kingfisher Beer to try and wind down after a long day.

Cool beer, finally

There was a food on demand menu, but we wanted to have a proper dinner downstairs so we opted not to try anything.

The Next Morning…

The next morning I got an email from my ambassador which was as generic as possible.

Hello Jon,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I am sorry to hear about your experience at The Park New Delhi, a Member of Design Hotels. I appreciate you taking the time to provide me with this feed back. We want to ensure you have a memorable experience and it does not look like we have met these standards during your stay.

I passed your feedback along to our management team and someone will be in contact with you. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make your stay more enjoyable.

I hope you enjoy the remainder of your stay.

Best regards,
Meh

When we went downstairs in the morning, the guest relations manager was back and approached us with a concerned look on her face.

“So, I heard from Starwood that you are unhappy with your stay?â€

Seriously?! You’re joking right? YOU KNOW that we’ve been unhappy with our stay.

“Allow me to make it better. Can I offer you another bottle of wine?â€

Remember yesterday when we told her that we don’t drink wine? So what’s her solution to make things better? More wine!

SO here’s the thing about the Park Hotel Delhi. It has the potential to be a good hotel, but the service failures when we arrived and throughout our stay really makes it difficult for us to recommend it. For all intents and purposes, we were overcharged for something that we did not receive. Call it what you want, but that was no presidential suite. The price was almost double the Deluxe suite with exactly the same amenities. We were constantly goaded with alcohol in an attempt to make things better, even after we told them we preferred extra water, and when we asked for a refund in the difference in rooms, the response was a curt “No.â€

A much better option for your money in Delhi is the ITC hotel, as we had the benefit of staying in two ITC properties in India, and the stays were flawless in every regard.

Have you stayed at a Park Hotel in India before? What are your impressions?