Lotus an Eco Beach Resort Dapoli Murud

The property is huge, around 3-4 acres, and there's plenty for kids to do, including the pool, hammocks, and indoor snooker, chess, and carrom. The AC rooms are beautiful and worked well, breakfast had good options, and the beach is 100 m away. We spent 3 days and 2 nights here. It's a branch of Orchid hotels, and the stay was good overall, but the price feels too high for the amenities and their upkeep. At ₹6500 a night for us, better properties in other places seemed possible. The restaurant rates are high and the options limited, so we chose other places for lunch and dinner. The pool is small, and there were issues in the washroom, a broken tap, a leaking flush, and insects. The table tennis table was broken and the snooker balls uneven. There's little difference in the view from the Konkan villa and sea breeze room, since the sea breeze villas are also far from the beach, so paying extra for those rooms doesn't feel worth it.

The resort looks good in pictures, and you'll likely enjoy the breakfast and how close it is to the beach. The service, though, was mediocre, and the upkeep and maintenance below average. We were four people in the konkan villas for three days. The resort is very close to murud beach, so we could walk there anytime and watch sunrise and sunset. For safety, they close beach access from 11pm to 5am. Breakfast was delicious on most days, though only okay sometimes. The in-house restaurant is called Waadi, and they charge 18% GST even though our room tariff was under 7k. They have excellent local dishes like thaalipeeth and Daamti. But the buffet doesn't label dishes, so it was hard for vegetarians to tell what was vegetarian. We also ordered snacks, tea, and dinner al carte and those were good. Tell them to use less or no sugar in tea, since they make it very sweet. There are in-house activities like archery, mountaineering, and shooting, though shooting is useless when it's right beside the see and there's nothing to aim at. We didn't use the pool even once, the water was green and absolutely dirty. The room was called a villa, but was just a simple room with a washroom. I was very dissatisfied with the stained, dirty linens and slow housekeeping. Toiletries weren't restocked, and what they provided didn't include moisturizer, ear tip, or razor. The towels were rough, and the chairs were so dirty we didn't want to sit on them.

Staff were courteous and helpful, and the food was decent. But the rooms were very average, and for the price the stay felt average too, mainly because of the location. The live counter at breakfast needs much better planning. In the kutumbh suite, the mezzanine or first floor has a very noisy fan serving as a makeshift option, with no Aircon. That feels like a design flaw. Overall, not worth the price.

The location was okay, but the hotel needs to be more upfront about maintenance and have basic first-aid supplies available. We weren't told the pool was under maintenance; it was only mentioned in small print, and nobody called before our booking date. A staff member called to ask when we'd check in but still said nothing about the pool. I asked reception to have it cleaned, but it hadn't been done by the next morning, and they suggested we go to the beach instead. My daughter was stung by a jellyfish at the beach. We had to drive 8 km to Harne village to find a doctor, and the hotel didn't even have a basic medical kit. Food was expensive too, ₹131 including taxes for one cup of tea. Poor communication, no pool despite booking, and no medical support made for a disappointing 3-star stay.