Don't be beguiled by the name, facade & the website. They claim they've been inspired by Rome. Well, my apologies to the beautiful city. The hotel advertises itself well in its website & a giant hoarding at Dasturi Naka. But there's something about that screams 'avoid'. I was booked in by a relative & so had little choice. From the moment I got in to the moment I stepped out (after checking out) I was anything but comfortable. Extremely rude & apathetic staff, not a welcome greeting or smile, this is what greets you as you enter Anand Ritz. The first sentence thrown at me was 'how much did you pay the travel agent?' Wow, if this was the old world hospitality they claimed you can imagine what awaits you inside. It took a good while to decide which room we (wife & child) should be allotted. The usher never had the courtesy to ask us if he should carry our bags. Finally a room that reeked of dampness. The furniture looked sleek & modern but hardly a door or a drawer that would close or open well. The bathroom tiles were dirty with shoe marks of the earlier guest. The drawers had left over food from the earlier (or maybe even earlier) guests. With you bare feet you could feel the dust on the floor. And this was just 5 minutes into our entry. No towel or towel hangers in the bathroom and a good one hour before someone would bring in towels & toileteries (mini soap). The room had absolutely no window. Imagine a room in Matheran with no window.

The main door had a frosted glass panel in place of the ventilator and transclucent glass panels were fixed on either sides of the door. So much so for privacy. To make things worse, there was a large light bang opposite the door on the corridor that had no switch to turn off. So, the whole night was spent trying to mask the light. Finally we threw a towel over the light to minimise the trouble.

The walls were as thins as they can be & you could hear the next door guest breathe. We had a noisy family (this hotel attracts some of the noisiest communities from India) and had to knock hard on the wall to ask them to shut up at 12:30 am.

At night, with all the generous lighting available, we could see bedbugs, yes bedbugs, crawling and generally having a nice time biting us. Our child woke up with several rashes on her neck & back, thanks to the bugs. We hardly caught up with a couple of hours of sleep ourselves.

Lets not talk about the food. The review is already quite negative.

The buffet is spread around the pool garden. People sit just about anywhere to have dinner and at the end of it you find the baby pool perphery wall full of left over morsels, spilt ketchups & gravies. The pool itself was littered with paper napkins. (the mountain breeze doesnt let the napkins stay in one place). Imagine your children swimming here.

We were to be shifted to another hotel next door (we were informed about this earlier though). The phone rings at 7 am and the guy demands to know if our bags are packed. Wow, what a way to greet a guest in the morning. No good morning wishes, no enquiries about our sleep or breakfast. But then, this was expected of this unprofessional place.

The took us to an even worse place (Redwood Resort) and showed us a room that they thought was good enough for us. We rushed out of the place and thanked the gentleman (from Anand Ritz) profusely for their hospitality, service & the great time they gave us. Even as we were expelling opinions, this man just walked off as if we didn't exist there.

For your own and your family's happiness, health and honour, kindly avoid this deceitful hotel. Its a bigt blot on this enchanting place.