I have stayed here several times, but I've been generous in my review and felt very frustrated this time, as I have previously. The response time to emails is slow. Check in process is excellent and elegant and we were given a most beautiful room which we greatly appreciated.
The courtyard staff are always super - 5* for them! And the courtyard bar and seating is absolutely lovely. Thank you.
BUT: The service at the lovely pool is ridiculously slow and hopeless, and has been for at least the last 4 years. 10 to 15 minutes to bring a menu, the same after that to bring a drink (you can't just order the drink, they like you to see the menu) and then, invariably, it's not what you ordered. AGES for food.
The breakfast is the same, only half your order comes and the rest comes much later when you've finished. Ask for a cup of tea, you'll get coffee. And vice versa.
Probably not their fault, but next door is a wedding venue with the loudest music and fireworks until about midnight. Samode Haveli would be a restful hotel but it's like trying to sleep in a nightclub - and worse.
The pool and surrounding area is beautiful but the parasols are shabby with broken spokes and have no place at what could so easily be the most heavenly hotel but feels as if no one quite cares enough except the lovely girl who we met on arrival.
It feels horribly spoilt to say these things, but it is not a cheap hotel and it would take so little to make it the special hotel it claims to be.
