Taj Jai Mahal

Taj Jai Mahal – poor service, tasteless food – winner of National Tourism Award

It was on 1 July 2008 when I had spent a night at the Jai Mahal Palace of the Taj group in Jaipur, all praise for the property. On returning back to Delhi I had written a review of this heritage property of the Taj showering all praise for its service, food and the property itself which was renovated at that time. Indeed everything had been so perfect at that time. So on 18 April 2011 on the periphery of the Great India Travel Bazaar when Jammu and Kashmir Tourism invited for a cultural evening followed by dinner at the Jai Mahal Palace, I could not resist the temptation of trying the Jai Mahal food once again after a long gap. More so because the Jai Mahal Palace won the first prize for being adjudged the best Heritage Hotel by the Ministry of Tourism. It had won the National Tourism Award for being the best in its category.

However, the experience this time turned out to be shocking.

Just about three years later, the Jai Mahal Palace had lost its sheen. The hall in which the cultural evening was organized had a tattered, dirty carpet. The venue had fallen short of chairs although there were hardly a hundred guests gathered for the evening. After the cultural show was over, the invitees were taken to the lawn outside for cocktails. The bar was still not open for the guests who waited at the counter. When finally the go ahead was given after 20 minutes there was a beeline at the counter.

The bar tender, who appeared quite an amateur, rather untrained, was unable to cater satisfactorily to the guests. He fumbled while handling the bottles, could not pour wine properly into glasses and had no idea of how much quantity of wine should be poured into the glasses, unfortunately, they were no wine glasses. The stewards who moved around with snacks, appeared sleepy, were slow and came at long intervals. The clearance service was too poor, used plates and glasses kept piling on whatever space came in handy. My expectations got yet another shock when the buffet was thrown open for the invitees. Neither the chicken nor the mutton preparation came up to Taj standards, the Chef had failed to give the right taste even to the Rajasthan’s special ‘gatta curry’ which was served. Nothing special, Taj standards have gone down. I am sure the dinner was not served by a private caterer on Jai Mahal lawns, nor was the bar tender hired from the street for the event.

Even if Jammu and Kashmir Tourism had been quoted a lower price for the buffet and cocktails, Taj could not have lowered its standards of service and food merely for getting some more business.

I did not enjoy the buffet and left after a morsel. Moral of the story --- Taj standards are on the downslide; tasteless food and poor service are overtaking the brand and that too in a property which had won the National Tourism Award just a month earlier. Leaves questions in my mind --- was the Award given by mistake? Was it a favour to such a hotel whose standards are sliding? Is Jai Mahal not so well managed as it was earlier. It is the guest who delivers the judgement and not any award that may have been conferred erroneously in the hospitality industry.

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