My stay at a 5-star building site in Delhi (Jaypee Siddarth Hotel (New Delhi, India))

Member Name: koshkha

Product:	Jaypee Siddarth Hotel (New Delhi, India)
Date:	27/10/06 (307 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rooms are quite nice. Convenient for the Metro

Disadvantages: Lousy location, noisier than the flightpath at Heathrow

Let me start with a quote from their website:-

"Amongst all the 5 star luxury hotels in New Delhi, India, Jaypee Siddharth stands tall as a beacon to the comfort hungry Traveller... where your every wish is pampered, where every member of the staff and every facility is dedicated to make you return to this Boutique luxury hotel... time after time. We are one of the finest 5 Star Hotels in New Delhi, India, which provide all luxuries to appease our esteemed guests."

Hmm, sounds lovely doesn't it? Read on and I'll tell you what it's REALLY like!

~Background~

In June this year, my husband and I went off to India to go on a trekking tour in Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas with the adventure holiday company, Exodus. Our trip included three nights in Delhi at a hotel called the Jaypee Siddarth - one night at the beginning and two at the end.

I normally only write about hotels I really like because my Granny always told me 'if you can't say something nice, it's better to say nothing at all' but I'm going to make an exception in this case.

I did a lot of hunting around for Delhi hotels because I needed a couple of extra nights in addition to the tour we'd booked. What most people probably would have done would be to get the tour company to just book extra nights at the Siddarth but the location - on paper at least - was so absurdly inconvenient and the price offered by Exodus (£95 plus airport transfer) was so high that we went elsewhere. I'm very glad we did.

Don't get me wrong, the Siddarth isn't a BAD hotel - but it is a hotel with serious problems. Some of these have a finite life-span - i.e. the renovations will one day be completed - but others are terminal. No amount of tarting up the lobby will change the hotel's location on the wrong side of town, with no attractions near-by and a location right next to a permanently busy and noisy roundabout. And if my earlier quote is anything to go by, it looks like their sense of self-awareness needs some serious adjustment too.

~Getting to the Siddarth~

We stayed our first night in Delhi at the sublime Imperial hotel which is 'out-of-this-world' gorgeous. We noticed that the concierge raised his eyebrows when we asked for a car to transfer us to the Siddarth. 'Poor folks', he probably thought, 'off to slum it'. We got into the car and headed off, leaving behind the colonial beauty of the Imperial and heading for no-man's land. We drove, and drove and then drove a bit more - for about 25 minutes in total. There were no other hotels anywhere near the Siddarth. Eventually after crossing the sort of roundabout that would bring you out in a cold sweat (who has right of way - the vehicle on the roundabout or the vehicle coming on to it? We still have absolutely no idea) we saw the Siddarth - an ugly red monster rising up behind a fly-over.

Funny that the pictures on the website didn't show the fly-over. Funny that the paperwork we received from Exodus said that the pool wasn't going to be available due to 'renovation work' (actually the pool has disappeared UNDER the flyover). And even funnier that the lobby which looked so nice on the web had shrunk to about a quarter of its original size.

~First Impressions~

The lobby was really suffering although it took me some time to realise that most of it had disappeared behind a temporary wall and ceiling. The restricted size meant that guests arriving tripped over the luggage of other guests which had been piled up near the entrance. There was no seating in the lobby and it was more like a corridor than a reception area. As we walked in we were asked 'are you with Exodus' which made us suspicious that no other Europeans were dumb enough to stay there. Anyway, none of that matters - let's fill in the registration forms and go look at the rooms.

~The Rooms~

To be fair, the rooms were very nice and I was probably judging them harshly after being at the Imperial. Certainly when we returned for our second stay after five nights in tents and another five in cute little flea-pit hotels, the Siddarth rooms were looking pretty spiffy.

We had a twin-bedded room (it's not that easy to get a double in India) with pretty silk bedspreads and hand-embroidered cushions - all rather nice. We had a comfy armchair with a big footstool, a desk, a coffee table, a TV cabinet with a modern TV offering 84 channels, a minibar, a suitcase stand, a valet stand, and a small wardrobe with extra pillows. There was no safe in the room although apparently you could get free safe-deposit facilities at the front desk. The best thing about the room - quite unusually for India - was the nice deep carpet. I would imagine that the rooms have probably been refurbished within the last year as everything was in very good condition.

The room could be cooled by both air con or a ceiling fan - a nice touch as sometimes you want a bit of a breeze but don't want to sleep in a fridge. The bathroom was rather ordinary - sink, toilet, bath with shower over. Not dirty and nothing wrong with it - just nothing exceptional.

~Services~

Somewhat bizarrely they offer the services of an astrologer - I've survived without in all the hotels I've visited up to now and I did wonder if I've been missing out. There's also a baby sitting service there should be a barber/salon but we saw no evidence of it - ditto on the health club. The pool as I already mentioned has disappeared although there are plans for a new one.

There's a business centre where you can get internet access for 150 rp (just under £2) per hour. However, don't expect too much - it's just the hotel's computer in the business centre and if they are using it or another guest got there first you'll be scuppered. And whilst you are tapping away there'll probably be an Indian businessman or three shouting into their mobile phones in front of you - just in case you hadn't realised how important they are. 'It would be much better if you'd brought your laptop' said the man on reception. 'Yes', I thought, 'How stupid of me not to lug it round the Himalayas for a fortnight just so I could benefit from your in-room Wi-Fi'.

~Bars and Restaurants~

I suspect that there may be restaurants that aren't currently available due to the renovation work. We were able to find only the bar (which was showing World Cup matches - note to self, don't watch football with Indians. They are only pretending to understand it, may ask how many 'overs' are left, and will irritate you something rotten) and the main restaurant.

Breakfast is served in the main restaurant and is very good. Lots of choice, not the greatest quality but plenty of different dishes both European and Indian. I did freak when another guest used her hands to rip up a flat bread on the breakfast hot buffet and to pick up some hash browns - but then I'm paranoid about food hygiene. Breakfast runs until 10.30 am.

Dinner in the restaurant is another matter - poor choice, high prices and very average quality. The atmosphere is sterile. We moved tables after a couple with two small children made no attempt to stop one screaming and the other whimpering. When we saw the band limbering up to play we ate up quickly and headed back to the bar.

(Before anyone gives in to the temptation to give me a hard time for being intolerant about kids in restaurants let me just say that he behaviour of these two little monsters was beyond belief. One girl eating with us was ready to go over and slap the parents).

~The Noise~

If hell exists it almost certainly is under constant renovation. When we arrived the first evening we noticed there was quite a lot of banging and tapping. As we headed out to dinner we noticed a large party arriving for an engagement celebration so we were expecting to get a lot of noise when we returned. The party was actually very quiet and so we put up with the little bit of tapping - turned up the TV and ignored it. We had to leave at 4 am the next morning so we just stuck our heads under the pillows and slept. When we came back 10 days later things were utterly out of control.

Each morning the building work kicked off at 7 am. Each night it was still going strong when we went to sleep - we clocked the work still going on at half past midnight on our final night. The work had also progressed from irritating tapping to full on stone cutting - like a dentists drill but a thousand times louder. I think I can predict that the lobby - once it's done - is going to have lots and lots of lovely marble. I know because it was all piled up and getting cut outside our window.

We were told that the renovations would be completed by the end of July but I am very sceptical about that and would recommend that anyone thinking of using this hotel either gets a written guarantee that everything is finished before booking or gets their head examined. Nobody should have to pay £95 per night to stay in a building site. If I had been paying my own money directly to the hotel (rather than as part of a package) I would have been down talking to the manager about refunds within hours of arriving. I've done it before in other noisy hotels and generally they will give in and rebate some of your money.

~The Future?~

So, once the renovation is over, is it going to be OK? Nope - the roundabout will still be right outside the hotel and when the building work stops, the traffic is going to drive you potty. And no doubt sooner or later the work will start on replacing the pool and that's not going to be a quiet job.

There is a little niggle at the back of my head that says 'is it fair to damn a hotel because of temporary building work?' And you know what? - I think it is. It tells you about how little respect the owners have for their customers. These guys are still keeping the hotel open, fleecing tourists and businessmen for more than £90 a night when the decent thing to do would have been to shut the hotel down. My cup of sympathy has run dry and as for my cup of annoyance with Exodus for using this hotel when they know full well how noisy it is - well that cup runneth over. Any hotel chain that thinks it's acceptable to treat customers like this during renovations is unlikely to treat them with the respect required once the work is completed.

~Where is the Siddarth?~

I mentioned already that the location's not that great - basically there's nothing anywhere near the hotel that a tourist would put on their 'must see' list - unless he or she has a yearning for McDonalds. It's in a 'commercial' district in the north west of Delhi. My guess is that a taxi to the centre (to Connaught Place for example) would take about 25 minutes depending on the time of day. It'll cost you €2-3 which isn't a lot but it's inconvenient. There are few restaurants visible around the hotel so unless someone local takes you out to find somewhere, you'll be eating in the hotel and that's not great.

The location of the Siddarth has just one hope of redemption. It's very near to the Rajendra Place metro station from where you can get to Connaught Place (Rajiv Chowk station) in about 10 minutes and for about 10 pence.

If you aren't excited about the metro or willing to use it then there is really no good reason to stay out here. There are better hotels at better prices in better locations. It's really not a hotel for tourists and with the current work in progress, I could only really recommend it to a traveller who is deaf or hard of hearing.

Summary: This hotel really has nothing going for it