Hotel Reviews of Dukes Retreat, The

5.33
Wanderlust, Other | 12^th June 2008
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
Comments: The Duke's Retreat at Khandala has an awesome location. It is on the top of a mountain and has other small mountains for neighbours with a road cut out between the hotel and the neighbouring mountain. You can see the fog roll towards you as you sit at breakfast at the glass-fronted dining room. The fog plays peek-a-boo with the mountain next door, covering it so that you cannot see anything and then clearing away in a minute to show you the view again. Beautiful!


Best Experience: The view from the room is fantastic! Mountains, a little plateau at the top of a mountain next door and far away, lights twinkling in the night from the road to Lonavla and a few bungalows far away on the opposite side. One really feels on top of the world as one looks out, especially as the room has french windows that separate it from the fairly wide and private balcony outside the room.
The room scores full marks on privacy - even the balcony is not visible to the neigbouring rooms while simultaneously giving one a full view of the surroundings.
An additional plus is the size of the rooms. Spacious with two levels within the same room, a wide sofa and chairs and large beds. Spacious is an understatement.
Worst Experience: Service is overall poor. They take more than ten minutes to get luggage from the room while checking out. Of course the vastness of the hotel and the distance of some of the rooms from the front desk may have something to do with it but still...The air-conditioner in my room did not work and the serviceman did not turn up until the second call. And after he did come, he didn't do anything except ask if I had left the french windows open. And no, the air-conditioner did not work until the end. I had to resort to the fan to cool the room.
And horror of horrors, one of the bedsheets was soiled. I didn't point it out to the room service after I had seen the service with the A.C. but it isn't done to have dirty bedsheets. Not at all.
Service at the dining room was funny too during breakfast. In fact, they should definitely stop any service at breakfast and stick to the self-service format which they have over lunch and dinner. Since they don't have a system of identifying the persons who have ordered specific things like toast or dosas, the waiter does not have a clue who ordered the stuff at the counter and therefore, randomly serves people stuff they did not order, if he comes around to serving at all. Best to keep the waiters out until they figure out a system of identifying table numbers.

4.00
Kamalaksha, Pune | 08^th November 2005
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
Rooms & amenities need to be upgraded / improved. Though strtegically well located and offers beautiful view of the valley, noise level from Expressway Traffic is a great deterrent to sit out in open. In short, NOT a VALUE FOR MONEY....

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4.11
shohrat, Pune | 19^th October 2005
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
the place is decent however the food is way too expensive and the rooms are also not worth the price. I stayed at the nest which is part of the dukes resort....

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4.89
Jyotish, Mumbai | 18^th October 2005
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
This is a good place. There are no activities which are being conducted by hotel for the guests; this will make this place far more interesting....

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5.78
MANISHA, Mumbai | 22^nd March 2005
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
The view was good and was wondering how it will be during the rainy season...

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4.44
Kanchan, Mumbai | 22^nd March 2005
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
It was a nice weekend getaway, good place to unwind. The panorama cafe had a view to die for. Our 2 year old son enjoyed feeding the duck and geese, something you can seldom do in Mumbai. The kiddie play area is pretty decent too....

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4.89
sandeep, Mumbai | 15^th January 2005
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
Provides a good view overlooking the expressway. It is an old building & hence doesn’t inspire much. Food during rush season leaves a lot to be desired....

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4.22
rajesh, Mumbai | 23^rd July 2004
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
Didnt like their restaurant, food was not to my expectation, as compared to the reputation of the place. Overall the retreat, is only best for its excellent location, and hill view. The rooms and reception were rather impressive....

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5.56
Rajasagar, Mumbai | 16^th July 2004
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
A great place to unwind and just a short 2 hour drive from Bombay. Its quite the place for a quick weekend relax and rejuvenate trip....

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4.89
Shailesh, Pune | 15^th July 2004
Hotel Review of Dukes Retreat, The
A very good resort location...

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