Review Of HOTEL GOLDEN POTALA

Good Stay

Rated 4.0 by Jishnu Sarkar . Family Traveller . Oct 16, 2024

Review of Hotel Golden Potala, Darjeeling. There would be many hotels in a place, but it depends on certain things to decide if you'll go for the same hotel the second time or not. So, any hotel staffs, managers and the governing bodies should pay absolute attention to the fact that even if the facilities are insufficient, it can be overcome with good and cooperative behaviour and willingness to help. Pros: 1. Booked the Premium Mountain View room from MMT and stayed in room number 401. It was a nice and clean room with windows on the mountain side. Pictures are available. 2. Had elevator. 3. The room had two chairs and one small round glass tea table. 4. Wardrobe, a small bedside table and a big deck with ample space to keep small bags, water bottles, baby's staff etc. 5. The room had an electric kettle, 2 glasses, two coffee mugs, a pair of tea bags, coffee, milk pouches, wooden sticks to steer. The kettle was very clean. 3. The bathroom was clean with geyser, hot and cold water in both the shower tap and basin tap. The basin and the commod were very clean. The bathroom had shower gel and shampoo and a small soap on the basin. 4. Two pairs of bathroom sleepers were provided. 5. There was a nice balcony with some cons mentioned later. 6. Managers Lalit ji and Salim ji seem to be cooperative, polite and helpful. The phone in the room was not working so they gave us their personal numbers for any requirements. 7. Requested room service when we were outside, and they cleaned the room nicely, arranged the bed, blanket and pillows, changed the wet towels and also changed the soap on the basin. All good. Cons: 1. when we called number from NJP, no one picked it up, and we had to Google to get an alternative number for the hotel. 2. No toothbrush and paste were provided. 3. Booked room for two adults and one child but the bed was provided as two single beds joined together, resulting in discomfort for the person who would sleep in the middle due to the crack of the two mattresses joined together. 4. The balcony has to be available through the bathroom. There was a front door and a back door in the bathroom and the balcony was after the backdoor. So, if the bathroom is occupied, then there's no chance to avail the balcony. 3. The location may be good in terms of distance from the Mall, but it is a stiff uphill ride from Gandhi Road along Rockville Road. Though cars can go to the hotel doorstep, drivers choose not to, because sometimes the traffic sergeants don't allow the car to go that way and the drivers won't want to circle around a bit (for apparently no reason) to take a detour, which would take time. This happened to us. So, we had to arrange for a coolie to carry our luggage from Gandhi Road to the hotel, and we really felt for the coolie who was finding it really difficult to climb the stiff road with our luggage. The hotel location is not recommended for old people or small children at all. 3. I did not have a chance to interact with many staffs of this hotel. I hope all are very nice, but there was this one staff who seems to not have the proper orientation to handle guests properly. I have stayed in many hotels, good and bad ones. What I really appreciate about any hotel staff is their willingness to help the guests and not try to impose their terms or attitude. The check-in time for the hotel was 1 PM. We arrived 10-15 min after that due to huge traffic in Darjeeling. After arriving, we checked to see if any food was available. This guy was like, "we take orders for lunch in the morning. I said, your check-in time is itself 1 PM! So, you have to have some kind of arrangements for the guest who are checking in at that time. Then, ultimately, some food was arranged. My point is, there was no need to appear with such a negative approach in the first place. Secondly, on the next day, I requested for a couple of extra hangers and he said, hanger is not available. Knowing his approach, I told him to leave it, and let me request to the reception directly because whenever I request something he said "no" immediately without even giving it a try! Then he suddenly got furious and challenged me to tell him when he said "no" to me. He also said, "soch samajh ke baat kijije" on the face of a guest! I was really surprised as I never ever behave badly to any hotel staff or waiter so it was a shock to me to get such arrogance from a hotel staff! I was travelling with my wife and a little kid, so I immediately restricted myself from any further arguments and I myself apologized to that hotel staff to avoid any unpleasant incident. Later, another staff handed me over two extra hangers! See my point? We all know that hotels have extra stuffs for additional requirements, like extra pillows, blankets, hangers, glass, cups etc. I chose not to complain to the hotel management about his behaviour. But I did not appreciate his attitude (always saying no before trying and confronting a guest in a rude way. Just to remind you, this hotel is a 2-Star hotel and accordingly to the criteria for a 2-star hotel, "Service: Whether the staff is professional, check-in and check-out are efficient, and requests are handled well. This staff helped us carry our luggage from the reception to the room using the elevator the day we checked in and carry it back the day we checked out. These are, of course, my personal opinions. You can definitely visit the hotel and have your own experience.