We thought we had found the perfect place for a one night stay in Udaipur when we found Zade house ! How wrong were we ☹. It turned out to be a terrible place to stay.
We called around 4 pm to inform Zade House that we would reach in about half hour to 45 minutes. I asked if a simple dinner could be prepared for us – dal, chawal, roti and subzi. The first red flag went up right away ! Mr. Kamal told us that the food will be ready only around 6 pm. We ignored the red flag because we felt it was an odd timing for dinner in most places on Earth so maybe they weren’t prepared.
Once we parked the car around 4.50 pm, other red flags popped up. As is the norm, Krishnan went in to register us and look at the room while I parked and got our bags out. We probably missed the red flags because as soon as we parked the car, we found two mongooses playing nearby. It was such a delight !
Krishnan came out and told me that there was just one room in the ground floor. Everything went south from that moment onwards. When I spoke to Mr. Kamal before booking Zade house, I told him we wanted two rooms and on the ground floor because Amma is almost 80 and cannot climb stairs. He said they had two rooms in the ground floor ☹. We realized that was an outright lie.
Zade House – The Rooms
The ground floor has just one room and a large one with an annexe. Mr. Kamal tried telling us that Amma can stay in the ground floor room, while we stayed on the first floor. Again something that never worked for us as my mother gets anxious in a new place. She is fine to stay in an adjoining room so long as we are right next door. I had explained that to Mr. Kamal. He then told us that the first floor had a guest in one room and he could give us the other room. We declined. Krishnan started to see if some other nearby hotel had rooms available.
Finally Mr. Kamal offered us two adjacent rooms on the 2nd floor. I was livid but there was little that I could do with that feeling. I just sulked and remained grumpy the whole evening. This experience ruined all the happiness we felt while driving on the new highway.
Amma had to trudge up to the 2nd floor.
The tiny silver speck in all this was the stay-in helper at Zade House, Sunil. He carried every bag upto the second floor rooms, brought water and mosquito repellants etc. If you are wondering what happened to the food, …. We got it finally by 6.30 pm after multiple reminders. Thankfully I had not seen the kitchen before climbing upto the 2nd floor …. Would have never ordered any food.
Ignorance is bliss, indeed ! We liked the food and thankfully Indian food is eaten “hot” both temperature wise and the spice levels, so any bacteria or virus doesn’t survive the heat. Another silver speck, was the fact that dinner had been prepared freshly, not some recycled food.
The Problems Continue
As we were eating dinner we discovered yet another problem – the room which Krishnan and I had chosen, had a faulty airconditioner. Water dripped from it and thankfully we hadn’t kept any of our gadgets or other things on the table below the AC. When we tried to call Mr. Kamal on the intercom, the phone didn’t work ! Wow, it was like Zade house had taken the decision that we should never come back. I called him on the cellphone and Sunil brought a thick towel to keep on the table. Mr. Sunil tried telling me that these were electrical things and could get spoilt at any time …
I was past caring at this point of time. Amma realized that the duvet and bedsheet in her room were dirty. Sunil had to change them twice as the ones he got the first time were also soiled. Amma exchanged rooms with us as she doesn’t use the AC. We shifted into Amma’s room and as I went into the bathroom, I found the pot was stained. Again we got Sunil to clean up both the toilets before using them. The Zade House saga just doesn’t end … we found one all the towels in both the bathrooms torn ☹ . Sunil managed to find us a couple of clean, less torn towels.
We just slept off and the next morning, we woke up early and got ready to leave. I wanted to get the Milton hot water dispenser filled so walked down to the kitchen. That’s when I saw the state of the kitchen and nearly puked. There was grime everywhere and broken plates, rotis from last night’s dinner thrown in a heap, dirty dishrags and dirty plates in the sink. Sunil to the rescue once again ! He filled in a clean pot with water and set it on the stove to boil. The saving grace was there was no rotting food. I guess they take out the trash everyday but never bother to clean the kitchen.
We left by 8.50 am after paying the balance amount for the rooms and dinner. We did tip Sunil generously as he truly tried to help. Stopped at a BPCL Petrol Pump to refuel and we were on our way.
Make My Trip should not feature this homestay at all … Zade House has to be cleaned up and the facilities must be updated if it has to continue as a homestay. The Location is great, and the only person who should stay is Sunil as he tries to genuinely help guests. Either the owners have lost interest or the negative reviews have not been posted or worse, the negative reviews have been barred.
Disappointed and very upset with the Zade House saga. Coming on the back of the outstanding experience (as always) at Om Niwas, this was a little more painful.
#BharatBhraman