DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Agra Review

1   Not Recommended

April 7, 2016 by
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The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Agra opened at the start of 2015, so most of the hardware was in good condition.

As is the norm at many hotels in India, at the entrance to the hotel compound, our car was visually inspected, and on entering the hotel lobby, we had to walk through a metal detector and put our bags through the x-ray scanner.

At check-in, the front desk associate gave us the signature DoubleTree cookies and scanned our passports (biodata and visa pages). I enquired about the possibility of a room upgrade (as a Hilton HHonors Diamond member). We were told that there were no suites available and were asked to take a seat on the sofa in the lobby whilst the front desk staff checked room availability. Around 5 minutes later, another associate escorted us to our room. He was very friendly and helped us with our bags.

Room

When we arrived in our room, the associate told us that we had been upgraded from a standard twin room to a king room with a view of the Taj Mahal (there are only 2 suites in the hotel, so don’t be too optimistic about receiving a Diamond suite upgrade).

There were two bottles of water and a kettle:

In reality, as the hotel was quite far from the Taj Mahal, it was only vaguely visible from the room:

A zoom-in on the Taj Mahal:

The bathroom was quite small:

Although the hotel was only around a year old, the floor tiles and the countertop in the bathroom looked fairly worn out.

Given the almost non-existent view of the Taj Mahal from our ‘upgraded’ twin room, we asked if it was possible to have a twin room instead (as we preferred having two beds).

The associate was very accommodating and helped us to move our bags to the new room (which was 3 rooms down the corridor from the previous room).

Essentially, the new room had the same view as the previous one, but because of its position/angle, the Taj Mahal was blocked by another building. The size of the room was the same as the previous one.

If you stay in this hotel, I would recommend requesting a room on the top floor (3rd floor) with a view of the pool. It is not worth paying extra to reserve a room with a ‘view of the Taj Mahal’ because it is so far away and, in any case, you can go to the outdoor pool area on the 1st floor if you want to have a view of the Taj Mahal in the distance.

There was a welcome bowl of fruit (but no welcome letter) in the room:

The bathroom was quite small:

As I mentioned on another thread, although I was able to access the ‘premium’ internet connection free of charge as a Diamond member, it was very slow.

Facilities

This hotel does not have an Executive Lounge.

As mentioned above, there is a small outdoor swimming pool/relaxation area on the 1st floor with a view of the Taj Mahal in the distance.

There is also a gym and spa on the 1st floor.

There was a sitar performance in the lobby in the evening:

Breakfast

We had breakfast in the ‘North 27’ restaurant on the ground floor. The staff were friendly. However, the variety and the quality of the buffet food were unremarkable. A few dishes were available made to order (such as eggs, dosa and uttapam).

Overall

Overall, it was a very average stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Agra. If a view of the Taj Mahal is important to you, I would recommend choosing another hotel. It is quite a small hotel (ground floor – lobby and restaurants; 1st floor – pool, gym and spa; 2nd and 3rd floors – guest rooms) so even when it is fully booked (as it was during our stay) it does not feel too overcrowded.

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