January 23, 2012
Rating
Went there to see what they have. Basically the doors for the cabinets are being manufactured in Mumbai and are shipped here, but the carcass itself is locally made by local carpenters. The doors appeared to be well made and there are a few colours and door types. The carcass (the rest of the cabinet) of the kitchen however is poorly made and rough. I looked at one exposed wooden baton which ran along the underside of the granite countertop and the grain of the wood was visible, rough (un-sanded) and simply varnished over it. That is not the standard I would expect from a commercial kitchen. If that is the standard of product being placed in their showroom (which should be the best work they can do), then one could not risk the possibility of even worse work on placement of order.
January 06, 2012
Rating
NOTE : I looked at these apartments on their website and had a few doubts so I emailed them for clarifications however received no reply! I decided to call to make the booking and asked a couple of questions. Pity I didn't think to query them in detail - at least we would have saved a load of hassle!
On arriving at the apartment - "Penthouse" as I was impressively told on the phone, my husband was so disappointed with the quality of the apartment that he asked for his money back. They refused so we decided to stay just the one night and check out in the morning. Here is some of our feedback :
1. Description is not as described on their website!
The whole flat is not premium by any stretch of the imagination. There were missing floor tiles in the sitting room. The "Queen" bedroom did not even have a proper sized sheet on the bed. The mattress was 50% visible because it was only covered with a single bed sheet! In my life I've never seen a bed covered with a sheet that is atleast 2 feet too small for the mattress.
What they are actually offering is not clear on their website. They say they are offering rooms and also offering apartments. In fact the "rooms" turned out to be one room in a 2-bedroom apartment with shared kitchen and seating area. Can you imagine two unrelated, separate families SHARING a kitchen and sittingroom? And can you imagine two unrelated women sharing a stove in the small kitchen area? Nevermind the huge privacy issues!! Sorry, but this is unacceptable. Maybe Indians don't mind living and sharing space with strangers, though quite frankly I would be surprised that any Indian male would be okay with their wives wandering in a shared apartment where strange men might also be wandering around.
The fridge smelled musty and dank when opened and I'm sure had not been used in a fair bit of time. The kitchen area reeked of the smell of stale oil and grease which had congealed on cabinets, wall, switches. I touched something, not sure what, and ended up with sticky gunk of congealed oil on my fingers that I had to wash three times because the stickiness just would not come off!!
The cabinet below the sink had dust and dirt in the corners - wonder when they last cleaned??? Probably not for many months.
THE BATHROOM!!
We checked the "queen" and "king" rooms. Neither of the bathrooms had even a shower curtain to protect the rest of the bathroom from the spray from the shower panels. The bathroom with the Jacuzzi was the same - no glass panels which would normally enclose a shower panel, not even a shower curtain. We turned on the water to check out the jacuzzi - all we got was a trickle of water. At that rate it would take at least an hour for the tub to fill. Fortunately we gave up on trying to fill it because moments later we found a pool of water collecting on the bathroom floor! Guess what?? A leaking bathtub resulting in a pool of water on the floor!
Showered the next morning with the obvious collection of water all over the bathroom floor as a direct result of no cubicle or shower curtain! What a joke!!
2. We had requested the Queen "Premium" room. I had chosen Queen expecting a Queen size bed as opposed to a King sized bed, which is the normal accepted terminology. However, Star Apartments translate this into size and fittings of the room, not the size of the bed!
3. MISSING ITEMS :
There was no crockery or cutlery, no gas cylinder, no garbage can or utensils. No towels either - all of which had to be moved from some other apartment by the caretaker. It may be okay in a Budget apartment, however this is not the standard I would expect from a supposedly "Premium room"!!! However the owner's representatives are of the opinion that this is quite normal and acceptable! Maybe Indians think that this is acceptable. If you're Indian you can decide for yourself what you are willing to accept when you are paying for a service. However, I am sure that most Europeans or foreigners, or even NRIs for that matter will find it unacceptable that they have to check and ask for each individual item when they have booked a "Serviced Apartment". Nowhere in the world have we had to demand for all of the items above, which are standard in a serviced apartment anywhere else in the world.
4. Facilities which were promised on their website but NOT delivered (their full list of facilities can be found here: http://www.starhomespune.com/facilities.aspx?cat=Premium )
-> APARTMENT WITH FULLY EQUIPPED KITCHEN (see above, it was definitely not fully equipped when we checked in!)
-> USB BROADBAND INTERNET ON REQUEST - We requested this on the phone before booking and were assured that USB internet would be provided. False promises!! We asked again on check-in and were promised it would be sent shortly. We waited a couple of hours as we had a visitor. We called again asking what happened to the USB internet. We were told it would be there before 6pm. We continued to wait! Finally at 7pm we could wait no more and asked again. Told to wait as it would be there shortly. Said we couldn't wait any longer as we had to go to dinner. Total waiting time for the promised USB net so far was approximately 6 hours!! Representative promised to have the USB delivered around 10.30 pm when we returned from dinner. Needless to say the promised USB never materialised - EVER!!
-> COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST - Needless to say that this never materialised either! The person who came to the door at 9am next morning to ask what time we were checking out said "No breakfast is available"!!!
-> 40â LCD SCREEN IN LIVING ROOM AND 22â LCD TV IN BEDROOMS + ALL ROOMS AIRCONDITIONED WITH SATELLITE TV
The TVs are present and Sky boxes are present - however they did not work. The Skybox in the living room was exchanged and the subscription topped up eventually, however the Skybox in the bedroom was still not working. Therefore for all practical purposes there was NO TV or satellite channel access in the bedroom!
-> FULL TIME CARETAKER & ATTENDANT - No telephone to call the said caretaker/attendant. You have to pay and use your own mobile to do so - which you will have to do often.
OTHER COMMENTS :
Found a washing machine outside on a balcony still with clothes inside. Obviously a lack of care and attention from the owners of these apartments because I'm pretty sure that if they were cleaning regularly these would have been found long before. But obviously from the dirt I found under the sink, cleaning is not high on their agenda. Having said that, cleaning in most Indian places seem to be low on their list of priorities!!! We've encountered sub standard cleanliness in even supposedly 4* hotels in India.
The owners are clearly clueless about how to run a Serviced Apartment or anything else in the hospitality business. I would stay well clear of this inefficiently run place with it beautifully designed website which is different from the reality of the apartments. And in case you still decide to brave this place (in case they give you a really really cheap rate) be aware that you will undergo the third degree at the Security entrance to the Forteleza Complex. If we hadn't already paid for a night at this Star Apartment thing we would have decided not to go through with it and would have gone on to the Ibis hotel where at least one knows that their standards of cleanliness are on par with Europe even though it is only a 2-star hotel.
By the way, the outside surroundings of the Forteleza Complex itself are quite impressive and clean. It is only the Star Apartments that are a let-down.