Taj Inner Circle — J Santacruz

Address:

Mumbai

My worst experience in any hotel ever.

Being a Taj loyalist, I booked 3 rooms at Taj Santacruz as it was my anniversary as well as my mom n dad's.
I tried using the reservation portal as well as the hotel email & got a call from Shivam. No follow-up or reply to my mail or call to him led to me booking Leela. A day prior to our dates, he called me again & since it is always Taj for us, I cancelled our Leela booking & booked 3 rooms here.

1. We were made to wait for 30 minutes before check-in a common area where the tables were dirty & the entire team was in chaos. Apart from the security who let us in, no one had the signature taj greeting of a namaste & a smile. All were stressed & unwelcoming. The steward there saw 5 o[censored]s on the table but was not ready to serve us with bottles he was holding, let alone tea coffee that was meant for guests. Rhea comes after 25 minutes & asks us if anyone has helped us yet. She was surprised & assumed we would be taken care of but could see a breakdown there in operations.

2. We go to our suite 626 to find bathrobes missing, no masks no sanitisers present in the room. The previous guest's fingerprints flashing on the bathroom mirrors. I switch on the lights & try to use the panel on my bedside. It refused to work so I called maintenance who come & after that too, the issue prevailed. The next day, the same issue persists & they come again.

3. Bathroom bathtub nozzle was faulty again maintenance was contacted, again the same issue persisted & we called the maintenance 4 times in 2 nights to fix the issue. It is still faulty even after we checked out.

4. Since we had taken hi-tea & cocktail we head to the club lounge for hi-tea to find the table & table mat dirty. After 3 mats were changed, we were served cold pakoras, had to ask for chutneys & was a very bad experience. I have been to Taj business Bay in UAE & Delhi Taj & used the Club lounge. This was far poor & I wanted to pack up & leave.
Cocktail hours arrive & we are told there is only 1 kind of wine, day 1 there was no cranberry juice for our cocktail. Day 2 the old monk went missing & peanuts got over. Being sunday they could not manage the store.
P.S - I understand it's COVID times but have stayed at many properties in Mumbai, none have these issues. More so, I asked Shivam if the services are disturbed owing to covid. I was assured the lounge will have it all & the menu is not altered. The refusals & the bad food, poor hygiene was accompanied by a very poor staff attitude.

3. We order dinner in the room, we get the food without a heated trolly minus enough plates & cutlery. So it's 45 minutes to food delivery & another 45 for cutlery. Food was ice cold & was sent back. We ate at midnight.

4. We get the anniversary cake in the room on sat after teliing 5 people it's on monday & we'd like it on sunday with our dinner.

5. Waiting for a table in an overcorwded breakfast service, being told despite the rush & operational breakdown at their end that breakfast service will shut rudely by the hostess are a few other incidents

6. Lastly, the check out was a painful affair, 5 calls were made by me for 2 hours despite informing the at check in I need to leave at 4 pm to pick the luggae & keep the bill ready. Finally I went down myself stood there & got it made.

7. The valet also banged my car, left the audi bumper scratched. mr. Sharma the GM was not available the few times we requested to meet him. He calls me after my check out & assures me he will address my car damage which again when I call him the next day is refusing to take any onus. I can now understand the state of the hotel & the management issues after the complete change in 2 calls & the tone.

I had informed the reservations that I am getting my parents & a sister who is hearing impaired.

P.S - Taj has lost a very loyal family & business. All properties in Goa, London, Dubai, Delhi & even The Taj mahal palace Mumbai has been at it's best always. This one is a black spot on the brand. Hope they improve & others don't face what we did.