Background – Suryagarh

As most of you reading my post would know, Suryagarh, Jaisalmer was in the news for the destination wedding of Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra.

Like everyone, I was intrigued and decided to book my stay at the same property for my Rajasthan trip.

All the planning was going well with properties in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur along with Jaisalmer booked.

Properties identified in Jaipur was my favourite Marriott hotels.

• Jodhpur: Taj Hari Mahal Palace
• Udaipur: Taj Fateh Prakash Palace

All of us were super excited about the trip when I ended up encountering a strange challenge which rendered the trip as a no-go. Can’t share the exact reason / challenge in the post here but it was not at all ideal for a salaried individual like me to go ahead with the trip.

All the packages barring Suryagarh were direct bookings.

Very Bad Experience – Suryagarh

Just like everyone, I tried getting the best deal to take my family on a wonderful trip and ended up booking a non-refundable booking for Suryagarh from LuxuryEscapes.

I have had really good experiences with luxury escapes in Maldives, Tadoba, Coorg where they have gone over and above to support and ensure I had a wonderful trip.

Life itself is not certain for humans and having a major challenge with myself, I had to force myself to cancel my bookings and gear up for uncertainty when I genuinely approached both Suryagarh and LuxuryEscapes sharing in detail of the challenge I was in and how I would require their support to navigate through.

I understand the cancellation policy, booking policy that were quoted but what’s the use of any guidelines and policies that don’t enhance or support a prospective customer who could turn into a potential ambassador?

I had no challenge cancelling my bookings at all other properties that I had booked.

Suryagarh Hospitality gone wrong!

A customer coming to the Hotel management and the reservation staff right 10-12 days before the booking date sharing in detail of the challenge that he is going through and requesting a date change (not even cancellation and refund) fell on deaf ears.

The request to LuxuryEscapes was forwarded to Suryagarh. I thought the hotel management needs to understand my genuine problem and called them, mailed them in detail about the challenge.

It would be an understatement if I did not mention that I literally begged them being a customer to change my booking as we were not in a position to travel.

This fell on their royal deaf ears as they have received the payment already.

Umpteen phone calls lasting 30-45 minutes on minimum, each time explaining the problem to multiple reservation executives, writing plea emails for change in dates went unheard.

To add to the misery, an email to their GM, Karan Singh went unanswered.

Don’t fall for this wonderful exterior view as lies internally a management and it’s team that doesn’t understand service mindset!

My Explanations

I was speechless even after clearly stating about my challenges which fell on deaf ears.

• Starting with acknowledgement that I understand I booked a non-refundable booking
• Confirming on email that I didn’t want a refund but a change in dates a few months later when I would be more prepared to take the travel
• Genuinely requesting sharing my challenge and how I would be indebted for their support

Their explanation- even when I was trying to get modifications done to the booking with respect to date, they were like, the date is too close to the stay date after a call everyday and sharing they are talking to their senior management.

Conclusion

Was really feeling bad belonging to the service industry, where customer satisfaction matters, adjustments and exceptions are considered if the situation is genuine.

All of it was missing here at Suryagarh in Jaisalmer.

I felt that I was in debt to them and forced to let go off ₹80,000 of my hard earned money that I had spent on a two day booking (as I could not afford spending additional money for my travel) hoping that someday the management of Suryagarh would learn a lesson for being non-accommodative in the first place.

With a heavy heart and my first bad experience, this is Srikanth signing off with a confidence that I would bounce back from all challenges I am currently going through!

Do follow me on my social media as I recover and hopefully plan my next journeys towards the second half of 2023.