ITC Windsor, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bengaluru

Hotel is located at a stone's throw from the power center of Bangalore, i.e. Chief Minister's official residence on the Golf Course Road, and affords expansive green view of the tree cover in the area. The room had a huge balcony overlooking the Windsor bridge, the pool and view of the road in front. The room was big enough, bed was comfortable, and well appointed. There was plenty of towels, toiletries and linen was impeccably clean. Room had everything you might expect from a 5 star rated hotel. The entrance including the bridge in front, gives off strong old-world colonial era grandeur vibes. Lobby and interiors, dining halls, grand staircase, all remind one of a royal heritage. The Christmas tree and decoration looked beautiful. The restaurants are well known to serve delicious food, and no issues with that. The staff (mostly the young ones) were very warm, welcoming and polite. The senior staff did seem a little lackadaisical though not impolite.

Room was in the newly renovated 4th floor but the room had few issues. Looks like the renovation project was not monitored well enough. The smart-TV lost internet connectivity 2-3 times, but was promptly fixed by IT team when reported. The bathroom door was extremely tight from the get go and eventually it came off it's overhang rails, to get jammed. Hotel promptly sent in-house carpenter, who tried, called his senior who too couldn't fix it 100% saying that it'd need full rail disassembly. They offered another room, but I declined as we'd have checked out next morning, and didn't wish to waste more time shifting etc. The light-control bed-side switches seem to have some mix-up and need a particular combination to switch to true "nightlight" mode. Also that could be done only from switches on left side of bed, not from the other side, which is usually not how it should be. The morning breakfast spread was quite good including few live counters, however on the second day of our stay with more than an hour before breakfast closure time, there seemed to be too many things needing refilling. I think that the hotel was not well prepared to handle the surge of holiday guests. It took us 15 minutes to be seated, as the breakfast areas was full. The staff was trying it's best though. It'd be good if someone were to monitor the refilling requirements more closely and proactively.

Decoration and cleanliness : The decoration in the common areas of the hotel were top. Cleanliness in the common areas was also good. There was a slight smell from the carpets just outside my room but apart from that it was ok. The cleanliness in the room was not that good because one could see on the wooden flooring that mopping is not done on a very regular basis. The personal bathroom was just about clean but not exceptional. Bedsheets are towels were clean enough. Personnel: The staff were mostly very caring and polite (for exception, see comment on what I did not like). Facilities and security at the hotel were top notch and maintainence of garden and pool were also good. Food was only somewhat good at the Raj Pavilion.

Food: This was the worst experience at the hotel. I shared my dietary requirements with the staff and one of them assured that this would be taken care of. Despite that, the food that was served to me for dinner contained the allergic substance. This was in one of their restaurants by the name of Dakshin. I was sick for the whole night and the following day with conditions being critical enough for me. This particular personal, when confronted, only went on defence mode while the chef agreed that the food contained the allergic substance. A particular staff member (my impression that he is an assistant to the manager) attributed my sickness symptoms to the fact that being a traveller from Germany, I was not accustomed to the weather and thus made an attempt to overlook the fact that my allergy concerns were not taken care of. He did though also provide some medicines that we had requested. This was also brought to the attention of the duty manager the next day, who in an effort to do something for me, gave me a gift consisting of chocolates. But the health and financial loss that occurred to me have not been compensated by this. I do thank the duty manager for her gesture. Billing: Booking.com had promised me a cheaper rent for the room and I was also wrongly billed at the hotel and overcharged for the room. The duty manager mentioned above has been contacted and she has promised that the extra costs that were wrongly charged will be reimbursed to me. I am waiting for this to happen (it has been 24h since checkout at the time of writing the comment). Price vs. quality factor: Overall, I would not recommend this hotel because of my experience but also because I think the costs are far too high for the services provided, especially in terms of taking personal choices into account. The hotel claims to be a luxury hotel and I would not agree on this point if health concerns and food quality is not taken seriously.