Recently I had the good fortune to have visited these two exquisite hotels in Udaipur. Brief though it was I have some observations. I understand that I was lucky just to have been able to enter the premises of Udai Vilas, it being one of the finest hotels of the world and ultra exclusive. It is stunning. The interior decorators have done an extraordinary job; the gardeners probably also, although we didn’t visit the grounds. My lucky friends were staying in a suite (courtesy of the hotel) that for a normal punter costs 3 lakh rupees! Is that incredible? If there were anything I could possibly fault about this wonderful hotel, could it be the incessant “namastes” of the staff. It is beautifully t, the eye contact down to the comfortable second, but is it necessary? Personally I would have preferred more invisibility of the staff. Perhaps the Lake Palace was better in this regard, or perhaps we were flagged as less important. Here we were not allowed to visit our friends in their suite, as we had in Udai Vilas. I must hold that point against the Lake Palace as I do not see the reason for it. It is of course a lovely place and I felt privileged to be able to visit. Could the toilet of the bar not have had a towel for drying my hands? If it was there I could not see it. One thing I remarked on was that the Lake Palace seemed to have a more mature staff whereas Udai Vilas seemed to be more young. Personally I like to see a better age and gender mix. One thing I would suggest to the 5 star hotels in Udaipur is to automatically place aquaguard or bisleri water on the table and not charge for it. It is a very small gesture to guests spending so much money for other items in the restaurant.
