This trip has been long planned for me as it was a celebratory day. This was the second Taj property I actually been except Taj Bengal. Though Taj Bengal hadn't had provided me much good experience, but I had lot of hope from the property itself as it looked beautiful. It's one of the heritage property of Taj which ages beyond 125 years. With the weather of Bengaluru, and the property makes it an oasis, in the middle of the Tech city.
Let's talk about how the journey went and how I almost made it a little to no cost paid trip.
1. The Flight: The flight redemption was done through HDFC Regalia points where I used my points to book the flight through SmartBuy ( at 70:30 ratio ). Had to pay only ₹ 3,905 out of pocket. Redeemed points worth ₹ 9,111.
2. Airport Transfers: I availed two of my Airport Transfers which comes with Axis in this trip. They gave Audi A4 and A6 for the transfers. I was using the M&A, and they already had the informations regarding this, so they kept the chauffeured in contact, and guided me to the parking as well as during departure, it was the same, the M&A people were right where the car parked and they instantly recognised me. Had wonderful conversations with both the chauffeured, who were well trained and humble. Got lot to learn from them about Bangalore.
3. The Stay, Taj West End: After crossing the Bengaluru Golf Club, the property comes, and it's beautiful as well as peaceful. After getting down from car, was escorted to the main lobby, and it so pretty and massive.
I went with the Azadi Mahotsav Package where they were including 1 major meal, it was a great deal. I booked their Executive Suite in that package. To my surprise, when I went there, they upgraded me to the next category of room which is Luxury Suite without even asking for it. Taj is known for not providing upgrades even to the Gold Tier Inner Circle member but even without having any elite status, they upgraded me to this room. It was their 3rd highest category of room. The room is located at the old wing.
Some pictures of the room for you all:
I paid for the room through Taj Vouchers which I received from the redemption of Standard Chartered Ultimate and SBI Aurum. The vouchers covered the whole cost and hadn't had to pay for anything else.
Used 40,000 points of Aurum for ₹ 10,000 Voucher and 15,000 points of SCB Ultimate for ₹ 15,000 worth of vouchers.
Some more pictures of the property:
The food quality and spread was really good. We had ordered few of our own choice of dishes and they were happy to cook them for us. Also witnessed genuine hospitality over there.
The only thing I would like to see a thing to be improved, is more on maintaining the property. The outside makes it clear that the property has aged. Though loved the vintage themed rooms, but there are few things which clears shows it's not maintained upto the mark as it was suppose to be being a Taj property
That's all as of now. Feel free to share your experiences and also do let me know if you've been here and how was your experience then
