The Den, Bengaluru

Very bad service from reception and not at all expected from such star rated hotel

I stayed at The Den the second time for more than 6 weeks. It was like returning to my home again in Bangalore. So glad to see the same old faces with whom I have had already forged good friendships with. The night I arrived at The Den, I realised I was having someone else’s luggage which I mistook as mine. I alerted the front desk after checking in. Ashwani and his team handled the luggage retrieval/exchange very swiftly for me. When I wanted to dine at a restaurant located at Nexus Shantiniketan, Suraj helped by using his Zomato app to book a table for me. When we had to pay our mobile phone bills without an Indian credit card, Pritam would happily pay on our behalf and we paid him in cash. When our company needed a place to host dinner/meetings, The Den would always oblige to do its best to accommodate, even agreed to assist with guests’ special diets/requirements. Nothing was impossible for them at the eleventh hour. Guests loved Chef Vineeth’s spicy grilled fish on banana leaves that were so delicious that they requested for the same menu at the second meeting. Rooms were set up in tiptop condition with place cards, writing materials, lots of bottled water and snacks. Kudos to banquet’s Vijay & the team’s commitment. The food at The Creek was always good and we set that as the benchmark against all our food choices in Bangalore. Always loved to see what was their Sunday brunch cuisine. Desserts were always aplenty…most of them were creatively made & served. We didn’t even want to spoil their artistic looks. Concierge team was always ready for last minute car rides for me, even helping me charged my dongles all the time. Monkey face (towel) - was one thing I couldn’t forget. I had it hung next to my bed as it cheered me up everyday. That was made by the charming young *** I called Mr Bharat from housekeeping. He would always ensure I had lots of drinking water in my room. I didn’t have to say anything to him, he wound check & ensure all was fine for me. His next challenge I gave to him was to make an elephant towel. Chefs Lokin was always passionate about cooking Chinese or Asian foods for us. Chef Prabil as usual, touted his Kerbabs & beef & chicken steaks. Chef Vineeth even baked a Turkey and a brownie cake for me to bring to a church party. I appreciate the team of chefs in the kitchen who tirelessly made great buffet spreads for their patrons and they never failed to entertain our requests. Days before Christmas, the entire hotel sprung up in a festive mood. They decorated every corner of the hotel. Loved the gingerbread house, gingerbreads were pieced together one by one. Every in-house guest was invited to witness the light-up of their tall and beautiful Christmas tree at the hotel entrance, ***** with The Den’s own team of hotel staff bursting their vocals with joy and pride when they sang the Christmas carols. Each of us was given a delicious plum cake. We had a fun night out at the cocktail party in The Nest (bar) wh

I was shocked by The Den's 4.9 TripAdvisor rating. Like another reviewer mentioned, there are serious communication issues with staff / Management - including the fact that they don't appear to realize we were not happy with our stay after raising concerns. Sumon from the concierge has been regularly sending my colleagues and me WhatsApp messages asking for a TripAdvisor review since we checked out a week ago. This is AFTER we spoke with the concierge about our multiple concerns (described below). So, Sumon, since you asked... Pros: - The location was convenient for our business trip (15 min from the office), which was great considering Bangalore traffic - We were happy with the food (breakfast buffet + we tried Layla, the rooftop restaurant) - We tried the gym (sufficient for our needs) and spa (really enjoyed) - Room was comfortable and clean Cons: - One of my colleagues came back from the restaurant TWICE to find her door propped wide open. Her room was across from the elevator, so everyone getting off on her floor could see her room was open. The front desk apologized after this happened the first time. The second time, they told her she was the one who left the door open, based on camera footage (but did not share this camera footage). If the staff actually entered her room and left it open, this is a serious safety concern. If she didn't close the door all the way and it somehow re-opened, the staff should have explained how to properly close the door so this doesn't happen again. Regardless of whose fault it was, the situation was handled poorly by the staff. Luckily nothing seems to have been stolen from her room. - We were overcharged for the hotel car service, which we discovered at checkout when reviewing our room folios. Instead of reversing the inappropriate charge, the staff asked to cancel the Uber we had already ordered and use their car instead. This appears to be a symptom of more general chaos when it came to communication about the car service. One member of our group handled all car service requests with the hotel, but staff were running around asking different members of our group if we could confirm the car reservations, and then re-confirming the same details again even after we directed them to our single point of contact. - Common areas, including the hallway, sometimes smelled terrible. The water in the shower had a similar smell. I realize the water is not potable, but that doesn't mean it should smell like a toilet. I have stayed in the neighborhood previously (at a different hotel) and did not have this issue. We had other issues with communication and service at The Den, which I won't get into in this review. For the purposes of making a decision about whether to stay at The Den, the above items are enough to steer me away from there in the future.