B. HOTEL BASICS - ROOMS & FACILITIES

The refurbishment was done by a famous architect, Jacques Garcia, to Mr Garcha's exacting specifications. The styling is certainly different from any hotel I've stayed in so far. Reflecting the indian roots of the owners, there are elephants, rhino, and monkey statues. Banyan trees of brass and ? gold leaf support the ceiling in the lobby, lounge and toilets, each one taking artisans in India years to complete.

No point doing a rehash of all that - if you want to know more about the design and decor read here and here.

Websites quote 41 rooms, 5 suites. Rooms are scattered on the second and third floors, 2 Artist Suites (Musician and Writer's room) are on the third floor, as well as the top tier Vagabond Suite. 2 Junior Suites on the fourth floor are accessible only by a short fligh of stairs from the third floor. Rooms on the third floor open onto a common open air courtyard. There are no connecting rooms so this common courtyard is the closest you get to that. Those rooms are arranged in blocks of 2, 4, 4, 2 so if you want a cosy corner request the 2 at each end.

Size-wise, the rooms are generally of the same size and differ minimally; I gather the main difference is access to the courtyard, and/or lounge. Details can be found on the hotel website.

The hotel has a bar and a lounge. Both of which double as a restaurant, though public access is only to the bar area, which keeps the lounge quite private. There is no gym or pool, and no business or internet centre. Wifi is free for guests and is being upgraded to "something quite awesome".

If you are interested, the hotel logo printed on the keycards is drawn from Mrs Garcha's family crest, and incorporates Mr Garcha's love of polo.