Serenity By Monarch

The dining hall and food were good, but the rest of my stay at Serenity by Monarch, Pune Hotel was extremely disappointing. I booked through the hotel website more than a month ahead, after several polite conversations with reception staff by phone, WhatsApp, and email. They assured me they’d take care of everything and that I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. I paid the full amount in advance, which I now regret. I’d specifically asked for park-facing rooms rather than rooms facing the building. Although those rooms were available, I wasn’t given them. Reception staff also seemed uninterested in guests and more focused on their computers. There were three of us, but we got only one large towel. Repeated requests didn’t get us another one. After housekeeping took away that towel on the second day, it took nearly two hours to get a replacement, and small towels weren’t available at all. We returned around 2 PM on the second day, after lunch service had closed. The receptionist told us to order online. When the Swiggy delivery arrived, reception said it would be sent up to our room. After waiting an hour, I had to go down and collect it myself. The staff kept encouraging us to eat in the room, even though there was no dining table or proper chairs. The balcony had just two dirty plastic chairs and a plastic table. There were no spoons or drinking glasses in the room either. Used plates and leftover food were left in the staircase area, and the lift is only big enough for two people. I won’t book here again or recommend it to anyone. That’s especially disappointing since many parents, myself included, often come to Pune for children studying at Symbiosis.