IBIS Pune

Very rarely you find someplace which has excellent service. But last night I did.

We just happened to go to the new IBIS Hotel in Pune, which is on the Nagar road, very close to home coz my sis had to use the wifi to download some official mails. We weren't even sure if they would let us, but they had some coupon system for the wifi so all was good.

We drove into the parking lot. Its a budget hotel, so there are no valets. parking was a bit tricky with a big car and no one around to direct us. Also they had those, what do you call them, machines which makes it a two level parking. Whatever you call it. The car didn't really fit on that, but since the parking lot was almost empty, we figured they wudn't really use that anyways.

So we went up the elevator into the lobby. Its a pretty hotel. Interiors are well done. All this coming from my bro-in-law who's been in the hotel business for like ages now. So we went to the coffee shop. It was decent, with a red theme. We settled down after having a look at the buffet. they have a Goan fest going on. We ordered two cappuccinos and a tea. Well, I must say, if you go there please don't bother to order the above mentioned things, coz they were, I have to say it, crap. Ok, the tea was passable but the coffee...it tasted like mud water. ok, actually it tasted like those instant coffees, those sachets to which you just have to add water. Bad bad bad and tasteless.

Now the good part. We asked them to change it once and make it stronger coz it tasted like milk water and a hint of something faintly coffee. They got us another round. Hmm... this time it was worse. It was as if they had just mixed coffee upar se. :P Now we were really cheesed of, coz we were really in the mood for rich, strong COFFEE. We mentioned it to the head waiter and he took away the cups. We said we dint want anything else. He seemed quite disappointed.

After a while, my sis had finished her work, so we signaled to the guy to get us the cheque. Now, instead of the cheque he comes up with 3 glasses of some pink colored liquid. We asked what that was and he said it was some mixed fruit something, which was recovery service for the bad coffee. It was a sweet gesture, as we weren't even in-house guests. We said we really dint want to have anything cold and just wanted the check. He insisted and told us to try it. So we all took one sip (I took about 4 :P). Then he informed us, after we asked again for the check, that everything was complimentary and they were really sorry for the bad coffee.

I was quite surprised at the hospitality as it was a budget hotel and they are not known for such stuff. at the most I would have expected them not to have charged us for the coffees, but the entire bill. That was something. The guys at the coffee shop were really hospitable and sweet and really made me glad. It was after quite some time that I felt good.

P.S. I just found one thing strange, if we had ordered coffee and tea, why would they give us something cold as a recovery? Ahh..but lets just forget about that and concentrate on the good service part of it !

P.P.S. BTW after, we went and got our fav coffee from the neighborhood Coffee Day ! Coffee Day zindabaad !

P.P.P.S The IBIS is an international chain of hotels. You can check out their site by clicking here. I ought to give them some publicity, I did like their service ya !!