The Park Plaza, Bangalore is a very nice hotel in a very inconvenient location. It looks deceptively near the centre on a Google map, but never underestimate the traffic in Bangalore! It took almost an hour to get there in a taxi from Shanthinagar bus stand at 7pm.
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Once you do get there, it’s a beautiful hotel with great facilities and views over the city from the pool. Of course my reason to choose this hotel was to use my Club Carlson points. I have a pretty good stash from promos in prior years and after the devaluation last year I am wary of hoarding hotel points. The only thing I didn’t like was the glass vanity area in the bathrom which could be hazardous if one slipped and fell and happened to grab it. I’m not a fan of glass in bathrooms over all anyways.
The view from our rooms wasn’t so great, the view from the pool side was better.
A standard room here costs 38,000 points and as a Club Carlson Visa holder, I could have had an extra night for free but I choose to spend more time birding instead. Even on a point stay, we got a free breakfast buffet and free internet which I was up to 2am using after being off the grid for almost a week! We did check out the spa hoping for a massage but found it too expensive so relegated ourselves to the sauna in the restrooms which was free to guests.
The location is the main downside to this hotel. There is nothing interesting in the area for tourists. The main landmark that taxis will know (if they don’t know the hotel) is the Innovative Complex cinemas. Luckily I have a friend in Bangalore who came to pick us up and take us to a local wildlife sanctuary, otherwise we would have been bored with the area. I think this hotel probably appeals more to business travelers as there are a lot of companies around here and Bangalore is the techie capital of India.
One other thing to note if you are paying your incidentals with a Club Carlson Visa. The hotel bills as “Charishma Hotels”, not Park Plaza or Carlson Rezidor or anything he system recognizes as triggering the extra points for using the card at a Club Carlson property. I did finally get the points as a manual transaction from Club Carlson. Also be aware that you don’t get points for incidentals on award stays. I am used to IHG where you do get points for incidentals and didn’t look at the T&Cs too closely for this program. I would have gotten some points for the dinner we had in the Indian restaurant if it had been a cash & points stay.