Wednesday 16 May 2012

Fairstay Holiday Resort, Ooty - Review

Fairstay Holiday Resort, Ooty – Review
Last month I was in Ooty and stayed in the Fairstay Resorts which is about 1.5 km before the main Ooty town. I did not know anyone there, just looked up the reviews in tripadvisor and other sites and decided to pick this place based on the very good reviews that the customers had given.
Here is my review on the resort based on my experience here.
The place:
When they say resort, do not imagine anything big like a beach resort you would see in Chennai or any other city, but you can expect a decent hotel kind of a place.
The resort itself is situated about 1.5 km before the main Ooty town. Which means you are out of the hustle-bustle of the crowded holiday town, but the same time the access to all the major tourist places are easily accessible through car / taxi.
The resort only entertains people coming as a family and do not hesitate to turn down guys coming as a group so that they could maintain a good atmosphere.
The rooms are quite spacious and maintained very well and clean. One cannot have too many complaints about the facility.
A couple of nagging things about the place is that the approach road to the hotel from the main road is not paved well. It is quite bumpy, but that is only a stretch of few meters. This is a non-issue for me. Another problem that people may find is that you do not get mobile signal in the hotel rooms and there is no landline in any of the rooms if you want to make any urgent calls outside.
Food:
They have a very clean kitchen and dining room. Though not very big, it is very well maintained. They provide only vegetarian food. If you insist on having non-vegetarian then they can buy it from outside. No preparation is done in the kitchen. The kitchen itself is very well maintained and they even encourage the guests to visit the kitchen if they want to, so that they can be sure about the hygiene of the food.
The food as such is very good, like home-made food. In the package that I took, the breakfast was complementary and they had about 5 varieties of food every morning to choose from.
They also provide dinner and change the variety everyday with rice and rasam as standard menu. The food was really tasty and hygienic!
They do not provide lunch, which makes sense. After all you are not visiting Ooty to just sit back at the hotel room and eat and sleep. You will be going out to visit place, so manage the lunch outside!
Service:
Off late, I have not seen this kind of excellent service from a common man’s hotel / resort. There is no surprise in a star hotel giving an excellent service, but I have not seen this kind of courteous and prompt service from a common hotel.
Starting from the room service to attending to the guests needs, the service had been excellent throughout and I had absolutely no complaints about the service provided in any way
People:
Last, but the most important. It is the people who actually make excellent service. It is no surprise that the service was excellent as the people who work here know what they are supposed to be doing and are real professionals, though I doubt if they would have any professional qualification in hospitality institutes.
Right from the director Mr. Anbumani to every staff of the hotel, everyone were polite, courteous and well behaved. And the same time very helpful and lively.
I have to give special mention to Mr. Sathish who was our taxi driver right from the time we landed in Mettupalayam railway station. He picked us up from the station and guided us throughout the entire tour of 3 days giving loads of information about the place, people, culture, plants, trees, flowers and everything that you can imagine there. He definitely is an asset to any employer.
He has the right kind of knowledge and contacts to get us to places which may normally need some prior bookings or permission.

Conclusion:
Overall it was a very good family vacation for me after a long time and the time was spent really well.
To sum up, here are the pros and cons of the place.
Pros:
Excellent service
Well maintained rooms, dining hall and kitchen
Very good food.
Courteous, polite and well informed people
At Rs.2500 per night during the season time is a reasonable rate for this place.
Only family is allowed.
Located just outside the main town which makes the place calm and beautiful!
Cons:
No mobile signal inside the hotel
Bad approach roads.
Would I recommend this place to my friends? ABSOLUTELY! If you are planning to go with family, look no further. Fairstay is the place to stay!

9 comments:

Ramakrishnan said...

Awesome pics as always.Thanks for the review at Fairstay. Will try this resort next time I am in Ooty.

Anonymous said...

great dramatic clouds :)

Trails of a Traveler said...

Thanks Ramakrishnan sir and Joshi Daniel..

Ram

Shrinidhi Hande said...

Will consider this place for our next visit

S.. Diva said...

wow... those are some seriously good pictures.. loved it

Trails of a Traveler said...

@Shrinidhi, you will not be disappointed for sure.

@Sneo, thanks :)

Ram

Jugmendra said...

After reading your post and observing the images you added with, I am really surprised by the natural beauty surrounding this hotel. I have written many times for Ooty but never about Fairstay Ooty. This place will really make WeAreHolidays blog splendid.

Jothi said...

Wow! Amazing hill view cloud pictures, Ooty is one of the most recommended holiday locations in India.

Anonymous said...

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