The Bawali Farmhouse has 2 locations --this review is for their newer initiative -- the "Arshinagar Shilpogram". We went to Arshinagar Shilpogram in a big group with senior citizens, couple of children, and a pet. Stayed there for two nights and my overall summary is that this is a place with potential that is currently grossly overpriced, understaffed, underequipped and mismanaged and so should be avoided First, however, the positives. This pet friendly resort is easily accessible from Kolkata (a bit over an hour's drive from South Kolkata), the facilities are new, surrounded by greenery, and the cooking is tasty. You can see farms, poultry, go for walks into the village nearby, and it is good for a low key family/friends gathering where you don't expect to achieve a lot. The theme of focusing on old Bengali literature is also pretty nice,. These positives however are considerably outweighed by the negatives. At INR 11000 per night (for a family of 4) in a room the rates are exorbitant especially when you realise what you've been sold as a room adequate for 4 has only one double bed and the others have to make do on temporary foldable cots with thin hard mattresses. With these in the room, the "4 person room", leaves little room to walk around. Moreover electricity and water supply are often interrupted, and the presence of high tension transmission wires and cables running right above the resort with a giant tower right at the property edge does raise safety concerns. The resort does not have a main kitchen on site and gets its food from another place. The cooking is tasty, but the food often served cold. The temporary staff tries to heat it on the one microwave that's available but as would be obvious when you go in a large group it means people wait around for a long time. The small kitchen that's available there is used for tea/coffee, frying luchis and omelettes and again the management has no permanent cooks, and you have 1-2 casual staff trying to fry luchis and serve to a big group while the manager is walking around. This often results in half cooked luchis, and in a group of 15 people, half the people are waiting, while the other half are done eating. Grossly understaffed, the casual labor they hire are friendly and helpful, while the manager on site just makes things up as he goes ("why didn't we get the Pepsi we requested at lunch"? Ans: "Pepsi trucks didn't enter the area" -- when shops around the place were selling Pepsi). At 11000 per night for each family of 4 we found the charges grossly exorbitant. The rooms are draughty -- as the roof tiles aren't sealed -- it gets cold at night. One room didn't have sufficient pillows for the number of people in it. In another room, the rooftop bamboo rafters had insects boring in them (ghun) and so clothes left on the bed would have bamboo dust on them. Faced with this, we tried to negotiate the price down to a reasonable amount and was met with intransigence, and unwillingness of the owner to negotiate fairly. Eventually they gave us a token 2% off the bill. All in all, the resort has potential. Better customer service, a better manager, hiring some of the casual staff full time, reducing the pricing to be competitive would go a long way to make this a desirable destination. At the moment, it is not. [Reading through other comments here, it seems this is a standard MO of the Bawali Farmhouse -- charge exorbitant fees, overpromise, and under deliver]…
Hello, I went to Bawali with my mother and my sweet puppy. We thoroughly enjoyed the place. Loved the architecture and yes it is truly a pet friendly place. I could roam almost the entire area and in all the rooms with my puppy. We were very happy for that as we don't like to leave her alone. The food was great too. And the the architecture and all the knick knacks that goes with the place is very well thought out. The behavior of the people was very good as well. Special mention goes to Golam Gaus Khan for taking such good care of us. Just one thing, the rooms have "chitkini" or long latches on the door. I am not sure what is the English for "chitkini". For people with petite height it becomes difficult to access that. So maybe a latch across the middle of the door could be considered. Oh found it. Apparently "chitkini" is Tower Bolt!…
Pros: 1. Green surrounding 2. Great and very friendly staff 3. Good food although slightly expensive. Cons: 1. We had taken 4 "Gachh Bari" rooms - bathroom drains are all in wrong places - shower water floods the floor 2. No sheets to cover at night 3. No Kettle/Tea/Coffee in rooms
Bawali farmhouse is a beautiful and relaxing getaway from the humdrum of daily life ,yet it is so close to Kolkata. The hospitality is touching. The staff, particularly Pradip Babu, goes out all the way to satisfy the guests. But the place is understaffed and one can do as much. The room we booked, had to be changed because the AC was not working(they didn't check beforehand). Food served at dinner was cold,even after we waited for half an hour. I would expect better service and quality at the steep price they are charging for it. Breakfast buffet has very limited options. It is a farmhouse,yet they don't serve fruits. Old rooms need thorough cleaning, swimming pool is not usable as is the sports room. Overall,the place is nice,staffs are cordial ,but it needs to uplift service standards.…
after booking when we reached their we came to know that pool is not usable nor the pool side restaurant nor the play room, play room is looking like a store room when i made complain they saying" they are not binded to give those as they are talking fair to room only and its at their will and wish if they will clean the said amenities"....further their is no such usable adventures wg=hich a resort must have when they are taking almost 5000 per night /room ............further room serrvice is too bad............my infant child broke a glass but during 40 hours of stay its not cleare properly........................further they are charging 10 % extra from giving food at room at their restarurat dont have enough fan .................hence its mandatory for u in summer to take food in room with 10% extra .......................further rate of food not par with taste and quality of food..........................they are puzzled up when 5 families are their and messed our occasion with bad semi cooked food and wron menu.......................further our dirty plates are claered around 10 am in morning........................they dont have water heater for tea coffe and minimum te price is 50 which is terrible when you are taking so much amount................................further at time of leaving resort their staffs will claim "basksis" from you in such a body laguage that its their dues and not the polite nature when asking for baksis.............................their are many more faults such as its not properly maintained .......................lights are not totaly switched on if its weekday ..............................................................hence its better to go for other resorts if you do not want to ruin your ocassion. further they are writing pets not allowed but they allowed pet which pee here and their in rooms and balconies.................wher next time may be you are siting un-knowingly…
I was very disappointed with the maintenance and shabby entrance, poor service by staff and unhygienic conditions… the tent Brikkhonath allotted to me was terrible with less space and lack of amenities… however, the concept of the resort is aesthetic but not at all maintained… food quality is good and tasty but tea is just horrible and the intercom doesn’t work as no one picks up your call for room service…The best thing about the resort is the Baul music and the natural ambience as we woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and baul song… restaurant lacks space and is ill-maintained… at the end of stay we got a small gift of a plant as a token of love which we appreciate… entrance can be innovative and resort should be well-maintained.
Excellent place for spending the weekend with family amidst nature. Rooms are very good. Clean and well maintained. Behaviour of the staffs are extremely friendly. Food is a bit expensive though. Perfect for weekend outing
The place is a private jungle, about 25 Kms from Taratala and takes less than an hour to reach from there. There are many historical sites around and one should hire a Toto to move around, as many places are not car worthy. All the places are coverable within 4 to 5 hours by Toto. The resort itself is well maintained with numerous variety of trees and palms under the watchful eyes of the proud owner Mr. Chatterjee and the staffs are also polite, sincere and extremely helpful. There is a pond as well as a swimming pool for recreation. Rooms are individually themed and stay was pleasant. Food is mediocre and pricey but the decent room tariff makes up for the loss. Each and every staff from the gate to the restaurant to the reception desk needs special mention for being friendly and always eager to help. Mr. Chatterjee had made a video presentation on the area which was helpful in deciding the places to visit. Overall a very nice experience and I will definitely visit again soon. Highly recommended.…
It is worst possible place tht I visited. At first at the entrance it looked shabby and not organised. When we checked in the room was dirty and the approach we found lot of washed clothes hanging. The toilet was not clean and probably it had been used. Staff wore no musk and no sanitization. By seeing them it seems COVID has been totally eradicated. The food is not at all to standard and not hot at all. Utensil used was not properly cleaned. Staff seems to be not trained at all. It is waste of money. No body should ever go there
Very poorly managed resort. All who are working there are local having zero skillset for the service industry. They all are incompetent. The service and price does not match at all. Swimming pool is not properly maintained, AC does not cool, Wi-Fi will not work and much more. They have play room where you will find a carom board but you will find it very hard to move the striker on that board. Behavior of the manager is also not good at all. We did not have any problems with him but watched him arguing with many guests. Better avoid this place.
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