johnep1

I did end up staying here for 5 days over New Years Eve 2016 - 2017. The short version - this is a very nice hotel and I would stay here again if I were in the area.

Long(er) version:

As mentioned earlier in this thread, this is a new hotel. So new that some of the advertised amenities (like the rooftop bar area, and even the hotel shop) weren't open yet. But what was open was all excellent - it was obvious that a lot of money was pumped into the property.

The rooms were nice and pretty large. I booked 3 rooms and didn't get any real upgrade (I'm Marriott Platinum). That might have been due to the holiday and the hotel being pretty full, so I'm not sure what a MR Platinum can expect during less busy periods. Two of the rooms were upgraded to "Fort View" rooms. This meant two things, 1) if the pollution / haze went away you could see the fort in the distance, and 2) you were more likely to hear construction and road noise from outside. The size of the room was the same as the normal courtyard rooms.

As mentioned, no real Platinum upgrade was provided. We did receive from fruit / sweets in the rooms, but we weren't sure if those were in all rooms or were due to MR status. Either way they were nice. But the very nice thing was that breakfast was included for all rooms (while one room was fully on points, the other rooms were a mix of paid and points). We did have 3 MR elite members (1 Platinum, 2 Golds) so put down that one elite member was in each of the 3 rooms. Since this hotel calls itself a resort we weren't expecting free breakfast, but it was a nice surprise. Also on the MR elite part, there was no lounge and no happy hour or anything like that.

The food at the property was all excellent. We sometimes would come back from the fort area (which is just about a 5 minute drive) just for lunch since we had some people new to India and they preferred to eat at the hotel. There was a nice selection of western, Indian, and regional items. This next part will only apply to some folks, but the NYE gala was also very well done - unlimited food and drinks, party favors, local musicians - a very good time.

The staff could not have been better - they were on-point without being overbearing (as many times happens in India).

Overall this was a steal for 15,000 MR points / night. I'd quickly return if I'm in the area again. My guess is that this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip though, as Jaisalmer is just so far from anything. We live in Hyderabad and it took almost an entire day to fly first to Delhi, then to Jodhpur, and then get a car to Jaisalmer. Add in that many Jodhpur flights are delayed due to pollution and you're looking at some serious (and stressful) travel time. But if you're traveling around India and are already in Rajasthan then this is worth the trip. We found the Jaisalmer fort to be wonderful. It's still a living fort, with ~15,000 people living and working inside it. We went to it the first day and ended up spending about 7 hours inside. Then we went back again and stayed another full day just exploring the fort (one of the luxuries of spending 5 days in the area).

Please let me know if anyone has any questions about this hotel, the area, or India travel in general.