My travel tales are becoming more of hotel reviews which I don’t necessarily enjoy writing, unless they’re too good and I can brag enough, so this one – Hotel Inn Season in Jodhpur met the prerequisites. Besides being able to benefit from a review, it is also a good candidate to be in the books of fellow ghumakkars.
On our second lap on Delhi-Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Delhi triangle, we were to spend two nights in Jodhpur. We got some rave reviews about a place called ‘Devi Bhawan’, yet we first checked this Welcome Heritage Property called “Bal Samand Lake Palace” but it was a little too expensive. ‘Devi Bhawan’ looked quite charming and sophisticated on “find-a-hotel” kinda websites but despite a lot of googling one could not find the official site. There is devibhawan.com which seems to be landing on someone else’s backyard. And finally after getting to get across to them, we could not get us rooms.
So the first tip : If you are not getting availability in a hotel of your choice, then always ask the guy on the other side to suggest options. Most of the times you won’t get cheated, more so because he is more worried about his own image. We were referred ‘Inn Season’ and it sounded like with a lot of conviction. With a phone call at ‘Inn Season’ we had a booking @ Rs 1500 for a Deluxe room for two nights. With that kind of price-tag we were not expecting wonders but from pics it looked like a small cosy place to hang-out. It was only two days and two nights, we thought.
Inn Season is not very well located (and that’s possibly with most places in Jodhpur) but you can find your way by asking around. One peculiar thing that we noticed in Jodhpur was that no-one would tell you the complete way-map. So if you ask: “PWD Road ?”. Answer: “Take first left, go straight and then ask someone there”. It took us a while to decode the pattern. Not sure whether it sticks but may be some local ghumakkar can confirm/deny. So this Inn Season is on PWD Road, not very far from Ratanada which is like a popular place in Jodhpur.
As you get past the reception, which is essentially a 10X10 room with basic furniture, a phone and someone manning the desk, you realize that you are actually now in a large house, a very large one with accommodation on the ground and the first floor. There aren’t too many rooms (10 odd) so its not like a “hotel” hotel.
There is a large swimming pool with sparkling azure and soothing greens to give you company. There are no big gardens and open spaces but good enough to not make you feel constricted. Its very well kept with pruned bushes, all kinds of flowers, big neem trees.
The rooms are of all kinds. Due to high-season-demand and the resulting confusion, our room was not available! But we were upgraded to a suiiiiite no. 9… :) It was on the first floor with a large glass wall and gave way to the sun inside the room. Outside in the open, there is a lobby to sit and enjoy anything – morning tea to evening cocktails. And yes, it comes with a really royal bathroom, the size of a room.
One thing on which “Inn Season” greatly lacks is the food options. They do not run a full fledged kitchen and have a very limited menu. Quite unreasonable to expect guests to order before 5 PM for dinner so essentially there is no dinner menu. Whatever limited choices they have are exorbitantly priced. Imaging two boiled-eggs of Rs 60+ or a butter toast for Rs 75. For the first evening, we actually ordered food from outside and paid in excess of Rs 300 to have it served in our room :), since we were using their cutleries. So the first impression was that they are not really equipped to take domestic tourists. But as the meals passed, we started to see value. The value was in the quality of the food, so if you order two cups of Tea (Rs 80+) then you were really getting high quality Darjeeling tea. Why, they even claim that the food is organic and grown on the very land. Or a decent breakfast for two would cost between 450-500. In this case, since the room tariff is fairly reasonable, you can set it off against the food.
My advise to would be to get sufficiently stocked. Buy carton milk, oat meal packs, cup noodles, tea maker and stuff so be better equipped, esp when you are travelling with kids.
There is a dining room which is nicely done with pastel curtains and cozy chairs. It’s called Lounge but there is no bar or even a hot plate around. If you order your dinner then they would serve it there for you. A little stuffy, I felt.
In all, good rooms, very nice and quiet ambience, pool and fresh-n-expensive food :). Inn Season is a must-try if you happen to be in Jodhpur. The cherry on the cake is that they have a wi-fi network :) – no charge!
It’s a great find, and highly recommended.
An interesting thing which happened to us was that they took our last-bath spoiled clothes for laundry since I tossed them in a box where laundry bags were kept. So when we came back after a tiring day of Mehrangarh, I saw my inners, socks and likewise washed and ironed :).
I tried convincing them that why would an domestic traveler would want to get his socks washed for Rs 40 but the damage was done. My best attempts to get the charge off my bill were futile but I let it go since the place is really very good. So watch out.
Sounds like a nice option overall…
But expensive food in hotels! I hate that! :-)
:) good to know Nandan that you got your socks washed in 40 Rs. I had this previlige when my company paid for my accomodation in Noida in Shipra Hotel (the new Mosaic).
A nice review Smita. Ratanada was in the backyard of our hostels. I spent 5 yrs in Jodhpur. Well, about the food in hotel, in most of the good hotels, I don’t think that they charge less than that & as It seems like a good hotel I think charges are justified.
When I ask directions, I don’t hear more than few turns, why to remember when you have the previlige to ask the direction after few turns (It also helps in verifying that you are going in right direction). I started to regard the smart Jodhpuris.