I am very much of two minds on my assessment of this property. In some ways it succeeds admirably, and in some ways it is a total miss.

Location

Clearly the great strength is the view of the Taj Mahal from every room. And that is maybe part of the problem: the hotel relies on this one key thing too much. The views are lovely, but the rooms are perhaps a little small. The bathrooms in each of our two rooms (more on that in a bit) were not great; they lacked counter space, and in one the door to the shower couldn’t open at the same time as the door to the bathroom. And turning on the shower had the unfortunately tendency to spray water all over the bathroom floor. There were also subtle differences (different toilets, for example) that made me think they had tried but not really achieved exacting standards during construction. There are also minor examples of wear and tear that I couldn’t help but feeling could be easily remedied if management really wanted to deal with them.

The other incredibly frustrating thing is that there is no view of the Taj from either of the two restaurants or from the pool. I couldn’t help but feel that a better architect would have found a solution for this.

Dining

The quality of the food in both the Western and Indian themed dining rooms was good to very good—Indian dishes clearly being of a higher quality than their Western counterparts. Service was also strong, but not as personal as an Aman.

Service

Finally, I can’t help but mention the incident that lead to us having two rooms. Our first room flooded. At 4 in the morning. During scheduled repairs to the fire control system. Hmmm. And you know it is a crisis in India when you find an Indian woman running around in her pajamas trying to deal with the problem. The most frustrating thing is that there were about half a dozen opportunities for the hotel to prevent the noise or the flooding being an issue—most obviously, the hotel was only at 20% occupancy, so just proactively moving us from the wing and floors in which the repairs were being conducted would have been the right thing to do. Nevertheless, the hotel management was clearly deeply apologetic and did resolve the situation to our satisfaction. The manager was extremely solicitous, and clearly wanted to make sure we kept Oberoi properties in mind for future trips and I did appreciate their efforts. So, in the spirit of stuff happens, and it is how you fix problems that is probably more important that trying to pretend that you never have a problem in the first place, I have to say I was absolutely impressed.

Overall

I still left frustrated by feeling that the property could have been so much better. Although the result was really good, it is still irritating the way any missed opportunity at greatness is, if that makes sense.

My husband and I stayed 2 nights at the Oberoi Amarvilas after previous stops in New Delhi (The Lodhi), Jodhpur (Taj Umaid Bhawan Palace), Udaipur (Oberoi Udaivilas), and Varanasi (Taj Nadesar Palace). We assumed the extra night would allow us plenty of chances to see the Taj Mahal, which was the only reason for our visit. We were right!

This was the only hotel in India where we didn't have a suite--though we also had not paid for a suite at the other Oberoi Udaivilas but were fortunate to get a suite upgrade. Considering the next category Deluxe Suite didn't have a balcony, we made the right choice--because the cost difference for the Deluxe Suite with Balcony was patently ridiculous IMO.

We didn't take a lot of photos of this hotel...as it lacked the charm and/or character of other hotels we enjoyed IMO. This hotel is by far the nicest luxury hotel in closest proximity to the Taj Mahal, and it knows it. It's all about the Taj Mahal...and the prices reflect that demand.

Entry drive:

Lobby (taken on our departure with our most-helpful hotel employee!):

View from our room onto the pool deck:

Check In

Check in was a bit messy--not unlike at the Oberoi Udaivilas. (A pattern or coincidence? We never will know.)

We were greeted by the hotel manager, whom I had contacted a month before our stay in the hope that we might get an upgrade. Not that lucky. But he graciously offered any assistance, and was extremely friendly and welcoming. 

Then we were brough to our Premier Room with Balcony, which unfortunately was located directly across from the elevators on the 3rd floor. The balcony was enormous...but the room location was not to our liking. Then we realized the air con had not been preset to 17-18 C as requested--it was actually 22 C in the room. 

They moved us quickly to another Premier Room with Balcony more to the end of the hallway on the 4th floor. While the balcony wasn't as large, we liked the room and it was considerably cooler already at 20 C. They promised us it would drop to 17-18 C...but it never did.

Room

Our second Premier Room with Balcony was more than sufficient if not overly spacious:

But the view was nice!

Not the biggest room, but a fairly comfortable one--with the single exception of the air con, which didn't work so well our first night and failed completely for our second night.

On check out, we expressed our dismay at the air con failure and mentioned the same happening at The Lodhi--which had refunded a half night in compensation. The Amarvilas manager agreed to refund a full night's stay in compensatio despite our asking only for the half night, so we felt the matter was handled generously. That being said, I am quite surprised that the hotel could not cool as well as every other hotel at which we stayed.

Service

Service was actually quite good overall--in spite of the air con issues (not being preset as requested, and air con failing completely for our second night). The staff really tried to go out of their way to help us, even if they didn't always get it right.

We had room service on our second night, and the set-up was a bit of a disaster. The attendant was either inexperienced or unaware that he had set the table improperly--which almost spilled our entire meal in my lap about 10 minutes into the meal! Fortunately, my quick reflexes saved the day. But I wasn't amused.

On the other hand, I was still recovering from a strep throat situation and the effect of the antibiotic, causing me some intestinal distress. One particular hotel employee was fabulous--getting us the doctor, getting someone to pick up presriptions from the pharmacy, and delivering them to us wherever we happened to be on property. She followed up with us on several occasions, making sure I was feeling better and checking if I might need anything else. We were very impressed. She was fantastic.

They also made sure to send greetings for my birthday (even though it was several days prior) and our anniversary:

For our final night:

So while our service wasn't quite perfect, we still had a fantastic service experience--even with the misses. That's saying something to us!

Dining

Dining was quite good at the hotel.

At the hotel's Indian restaurant:

Our room service dinner on our final night (before the table nearly collapsed!):

Breakfasts were also very good.

All in all, food and beverage were quite good.

Location

You can't beat the location just in front of the Taj Mahal. It was an easy 15 minute walk to the gate, or you could ride the hotel's transport/tuk-tuk as you preferred. We did both.

Otherwise, it is a crowded and crazy location because of the nightmarish traffic and throngs coming in and out to see the Taj. 

Overall

We enjoyed our stay at the Amarvilas, though its proximity to the Taj Mahal is its biggest plus IMO. While service could be extraordinary, there were some lapses and misses. And an air con fail is never too impressive. Unlike the Lodhi, where the air con failure was due to a random power issue, I get the sense from the 2 rooms that this hotel has air con issues in general...so I caution people in that regard.