Apple Country Resort Reviews

Me and my wife had gone to honeymoon, i had booked in Hidimba cottage and Apple country, both were good. This was one of the best Hotel i stayed in. Its in Top of manali town free of any distrubances, surrounded by snow capped hills visible from the windows. And beautiful Lawn of this hotel surrounded by pine tree made my trip memorable. We were lucky that Rotang pass was opened 3 days back for emergency vehicles. And when we reached snow point we were disapointed seeing little snow. Then we hired a local jeep and snow point and reached rotang pass, it was one of the best thing we saw in out life, mountain fully covered by snow temperature was -5 deg and still it was not open for tourists so the snow was white and virgin. And we were informed fresh snow had fallen there in morning. We will keep Visiting Manali and This hotel.

Best Experience: We Had brought a Local Wine bottle from market and i asked in reception for the wine glass and opener since food is not served on lawans, They were more than helpful. Our driver was soo happy that he was given an luxurious dormatry to stay. The view from the Lawn is so great and its in the deadend of the road, so no disturbances whatso ever. And we had a very good tasty Breakfast which we had got as complimentary.

Worst Experience: We did not face any bad experince. Want to specify Disco inside the hotel is not made sound prood so we were hearing sound in room also. Anyways we were music lovers thatz fine.

I booked at Apple Country Resort through a Travel Agent based at Manali. The package was neatly designed without a single flaw (5D/4N). Since i booked well in advance (more than 3 months) during the peak season, the location of my room was too good... Location & Ambience : Apple Country Resorts is located in the highest point of the Log Huts area and one has to climb great heights in order to reach the place. The moment we landed here, we were greeted by the hotel staff and check-in process didn't last more than a minute. I couldn't believe my eyes after stepping inside the room. The view was so really good, i couldn't take off my eyes. During my entire stay i just loved the view from my room. The lawn area is well-maintained & is one of the main attractions of this resort apart from its location. Food : Only Vegetarian food is served which was really good. Since I being a pure veggie, i didn't had any issues.

Best Experience: The hotel staff were very courteous and polite.

Worst Experience: One bad thing about this resort is that the rooms doesn't have a balcony, the best one can do is open the window. The Discotheque is located in the 1st floor, as a result, those staying in lower floors will not be able to enjoy calmness of the place, instead will be forced to listen to loud music. So one should be very choosy about the floor (This resort has 4 floors, my room was in 3rd floor).

The trip to manali was amazing. 4-6th December 2006 i.e. days at manali are one of the most memorable in my life. The hills are b\'ful, the landscape breathtaking, surroundings serene and the snow seems like symbol of purity. The resort is b\'fully done, i especially liked the tables at the reception lobby and the Lawns. Service quality is amazing and the responsiveness to customer needs is appreciable, much better than most 5 starts. What I found different is when I told these guys that the blower in my room seems to be giving less hot air, they replaced it without arguments, never trying to proove that the blower is fine. I also liked the attitude when they told me that they will have the disc running even if we are the only customer at the place. The staff was really co-operative. Now a few cons: Health club is not upto the mark, more of a formality rather than a true health club. Acceptance of English is too low (athough with hindi being my mother tongue it doesnt hurt me) but might be a bit uncomfortable for non hindi speaking people, but then thats common with most hotels in Northern India. Overall, I will recommend the place to anyone

Best Experience: We had initially made a booking for 3 days 4 nights but then we decided to move in 2/3 coz we wanted to go to amritsar too, so we told the front desk of our plan and they jus made the whole thing pro-rated even when it was 6 in the evening rather than scheduled 12PM check out time. Amazing attitude.

Overall the experience was fine and I would say balanced as it was a mix of good and not so good moments. I guess I stayed for longer than required (6 days) in Manali. Though the scenic beauty of the place was fantastic and the snow capped mountain view is like a picture captured in my mind forever, Manali as such has limited sightseeing places. However for a laid back traveller like me these six days have been a rewarding experience. As far as the hotel is concerned though the infrastructure is satisfying there is a lot of scope for improvement in terms of service and treating the guests right. Service in terms of Housekeeping, Food and Beverage and Maintenance met the expectations on most of the occasions and even exeeded them sometimes, Front office, reception and travel desk provided a lot of sour experiences during my entire stay. Another scope of improvement is the activities being offered which becomes more important for someone staying for a longer duration.

Best Experience: The best experience I had was with the maintenance department on the first day of my visit. An employee by the name Padam had answered my call and went out of his way to make sure my needs are met. I had a DVD player with me and I wanted to connect it to the TV in the room, however the TVs were pretty old and did not have an arrangement to connect them to the DVD player. There was no way out as all the TVs were of same kind in all the rooms. Padam tried all he could by arranging for a multi socket, an extra cable etc but it did not happen. At last he went to the extent of replacing the TV with an upgraded one which was the only piece of its kind and was kept by the hotel for some other purpose. I was really impressed by this gesture. Apart from this the service was prompt and crisp from housekeeping and F&B and was coupled with a smile on most of the occasions. I tried the restaurant as well as the room service and found the experience satisfying.

Worst Experience: There is a lot of scope for improvement in terms of service at the reception.I never felt welcome interacting with receptionists and front office personnel and it was pretty evident from their behaviour as if I as a guest am a burden on them. Towards the end of my visit I was very apprehensive of expressing my needs or requirements to them as the employees went to the extent of getting rude. To quote a few instances The AC was not working as a cost cutting measure because the hotel was not doing high occupancy so I had to ask for a room heater. I was promised three times but it was never delivered during the entire stay. The front office / travel desk goofed up my return tickets. I had made a reservation through a travel agency and had paid the entire amount as advance. It was clearly mentioned on the hotel voucher that my to and fro tickets are by a VOLVO coach. But on the second last day when I asked for my return tickets the receptionist had no clue about it and promised to get back to me by evening. He later delivered me TATA bus tickets with full confidence. When I explained the situation to the gentlemen at the reception instead of acknowledging their mistake they were busy playing with a \'Rubik\'s Cube\' and did not even lend me an ear. I was given a blunt reply that this is between me and the travel agent. I caled my travel agent immediately and was told that the instructions were communicated to the hotel at least 15 days in advance and the voucher was a documented proof of it. I went back to the reception to explain them the situation but they did not budge and gave me an excuse that the tickets were not available for VOLVO. Later they called me up to inform that they have tried waitlisting my reservation for VOLVO but I will have to pay the cancellation charges for the earlier tickets. I assesed the whole situation and agreed to pay for the charges as I did not wanted to travel in a regular bus for 12 hours to reach Delhi. When I checked the old tickets I found that they were booked on the second last day when I had asked for the tickets and not in advance, moreover once I got the reservation for VOLVO later there were plenty of seats available thus proving the fact that the hotel had given me a lame excuse. Another instance to quote is that I had asked for a taxi to go to the market one evening and I was waiting at the reception for it. After waiting for half an hour I made a mistake of catching an empty cab from the road and going to the market. Within the next 10 minutes the designated cab arrived and three peole from the reception / travel desk called my spouse in the room and asked her to pay for the fare. I called backthe hotel and apologised and told them that I am ready to pay as it is my mistake and they can add it to my bill. They were very reluctant and asked me to pay cash immediately. Only after explaining them that I am currently out of the hotel and it would take me an hour to get back they agreed. Even after having this conversation two more calls were made to my room to pay up for the cash and the callers were pretty rude. When I entered the hotel after an hour the entire reception clan was there waiting to pounce on me. They were cribbing about the fact that the hotel had to pay for the cab fare. I apologised again and asked them to add this up to the bill but they were still demanding cash, At this point I lost my patience and told them in a firm manner that they can add it to my bill. My entire stay of 6 days was ruined by these experiences and I was pretty bugged that inspite of me apologising as a guest I still had to listen to the gyan and face those dirty glances from all of the front office. On the whole there is lot to improve in terms of guest handling for this department and these small things make a big difference for a guest. It is possible that I am a fussy guest but I guess the least the hotel can do is be polite and not rude. Irrespective of whoever\'s mistake is it as a guest I do not deserve this behaviour.

Really good place. However, non-veg eaters beware, as the resort is totally veg. Good veg food anyway.