From Windsor to Maurya

February 3, 2014: Last week I was in the Garden City, Bangalore, for some family commitment. In Bangalore I stayed at my all-time favourite property Windsor Manor which is one of the ITC properties that take care of their guests and the service is superb.

I give this property the same marks as Rajputana in terms of catering to the guests' needs, efficiency and services. My good old friend Virendra Razdan is the General Manager of Windsor and his polished and amiable nature is reflected in the rank and file of the hotel staff.

Apart from family commitments, met up with few friends at Sunny’s, I went to dinner at the Taj Western with Zubin Songadwala who just took over as the General Manager of ITC Gardenia, Bangalore from ITC Sonar, Kolkata.

Maurya is as busy as ever and my old friend Anil Chadda, who I think is one of the sharpest general managers that ITC has at present, is currently the General Manager at Maurya. As always, Maurya is completely sold out, in fact I think the first two weeks of February is a good time for hotels in India with the weddings and conferences at its peak. Hotels in Kolkata, Bangalore and Delhi are all having very high occupancy. But Maurya, as usual, is more or less always sold out. Sachin Tendulkar is staying here for his Bharat Ratna and another sports legend of the world, Tiger Woods, is also here.

With my frequency of travel increasing, the number of nights in ITC hotels has also increased. In the past two months I spent one-and-half months in hotels across India.

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