Disappointing stay at Marriott Aravali Resort & Spa
The property is beautiful, but unfortunately the people managing it seem to be doing almost as poor a job as the property is doing a good one.
tldr; monkeys and monkey poop in the balcony of a "pool view" room, because of which we could not view the pool, they took 1+ hour to shift us. promised bday decorations on phone, there was only a cake on arrival (we dont mind there not being any decorations but we could've done them ourselves if we were told before) and the bland food. other people have already talked about the road to the property so i leave that.
We stayed here for a birthday and had a pretty disappointing experience overall.
We had specifically requested a high-floor room with a pool view. We checked in around 3 PM and the room did have the view, but the balcony was full of monkeys and monkey poop. It was basically impossible to use the balcony. We complained and the staff eventually shifted us to another room, which I appreciate, but the entire process took over an hour between going to the front desk, waiting, moving our luggage and getting settled into the new room.
This could've easily been avoided had our room been checked before. Especially because it was a corner one more prone to monkeys.
We had also called the front desk beforehand specifically to ask if they would arrange birthday decorations, and were told yes. When we arrived, there was absolutely nothing. If they had simply told us beforehand that they couldn't arrange anything, we could have prepared something ourselves. Instead, we relied on what we were told and had to rush with the decorations last minute.
The food was meh, and our birthday dinner had another disappointing experience. I ordered a pizza which I found bland (now that I am home, I can see hundreds of other reviews that have called the food bland). The chef asked me what I would change and I said I'd simply prefer a bit more flavour. He said he would add some cheese and bring it back. I wasn't sure how that would improve things because I mentioned exactly what I did not like the pizza, it almost didn't have any sauces on it and lacked the bite profile of a good Neapolitan (it felt like i was crunching the bread instead of biting and pulling it, iykwim).
What came back was this:
It was absolutely covered in cheese and had basically solidified by the time we were leaving. I would honestly have preferred the original pizza or a completely different preparation. The chef also couldn't really recommend anything else that would suit what I was looking for. NOTHING that he was proud of except his "most sold" pizza.
Unfortunately this was our birthday dinner, so it made an already disappointing evening considerably worse.
I do want to give credit to Chefs Dishant and Mahesh, who spoke to me about the experience the next day and offered me a different pizza. I appreciated that they actually made an effort to improve the situation.
There were also smaller things, like there being no usable full-length mirror in the hotel. The one in our room was partially blocked by a sofa.
The property itself is genuinely beautiful and has a lot going for it, which makes the poor management and attention to detail even more disappointing. There were individual staff members who tried to help, but overall the communication and service did not match what I would expect from a Marriott resort, especially for a birthday stay.
fwiw, after this experience, I don't see myself returning.