Palais Namaskar

The hotel and its facilities are incredible, the architecture is great and the whole area was clean and pretty. However, the food service was poor. Whilst the food and staff were super a 2 course dinner often took ＞2 hours. This wouldn’t be unreasonable for a packed hotel however we couldn’t help but notice the lack of people at dinner. At most there were usually 3 other tables dining at the same time as us. Also, whilst the pool was beautiful and a nice sun trap the hotel let in dozens of day guests between 11:30 and 5:30. These day guests were mostly loud, annoying and poorly behaved. They were not at all the demographic we were planning to be spending the day around at a 5 star hotel. This was the most disappointing thing about the hotel we found as it meant unless you had headphones on you would constantly be ambushed by screaming children and adults alike. The music was also appalling and the playlist being used contained mostly very poor covers of pop songs and would be played on repeat all day every day. On the whole, it is a beautiful hotel with lovely staff but it is clearly being managed poorly from higher up.

Hotels have two components. Facilities and management. The facilities here are five star bordering on six. Somebody built an amazing palace a long time ago that the hotel now benefits from. The trickier part is management. The hotel is poorly managed, which is a shame as the staff are smiley and helpful but decisions are being made above their heads which are very uncommercial. Specifically: the music at the pool is all mural/covers of songs that were never hits in the first place..it plays on constant repeat and is predominantly US soul and R+B, which I happen to detest. But even fans of those genres would get fed up with the music within a day. Second problem: hordes of chavvy day trippers who take over the only pool most days from 11.30 onwards. This includes hordes of teenage Instagrammers preening around the edges all day. Third problem : pricing. In peak August holiday season the hotel was at best 30% full. The reason is it is very expensive. Once you check in you are then skinned alive for lunch and dinner (expect to spend £500/day for a family of four assuming not much drinking), both of which take ages (at least two hours). The good news is I have the fix for the hotel. 1. Reduce prices and ban day trippers. You won’t need them because occupancy will go up. 2. Simplify the menu and cut the prices in half and include some light dishes that are not $35 each. 3. Change the music, urgently. Get a consultant in if necessary. To end on a positive note, the hotel is spectacularly beautiful and well equipped and has beautiful gardens. Just needs to wake up and be more commercial.