The Royal Orchid chain is a known chain in India, so when my local contacts gave me a list of hotels to choose from, I selected the Royal Orchid Central location. That was my criteria for going there. The Arrival: The lobby has a lot of glass windows and marble, which in India is easy to come by. It was quite clean. At least walking in had a good feel. There is no ramp / incline on the front steps so you will need to pick up your luggage for those two steps. But of course, the bell hops will rush to get your luggage for you. One of the elevators is currently under construction, so there is only one working elevator. When I arrived, this elevator was on service, so I had to go and use the service elevator in the back area in order to get to my room. The Room (I was in room 217 - single King bed): The room is basically ok. It is a basic room, no thrills, bells or whistles. There are light switches to control everything, but it was not labelled, so knowing what to turn on and off was not intuitive for some of the switches. The closet to hang your clothing is not very deep. In fact, it is not as deep as the hanger is wide. So if you put clothing in there, you cannot close the closet door. I ended up just hanging up my suit and jacket and not closing the closet door. The TV channels were not that great. The Indian channels came through clear, but the English channels were choppy on both the video and audio. BBC Newsworld was cutting out 50% of the time. Amenities: There are only two restaurants on property. A buffet restaurant – Pin(xx) and an international cuisine restaurant – Paparazzi. I went to the buffet for the first lunch and felt it was just a normal buffet. Not a whole lot of selection...just very basic. It was pretty much the same for breakfast, just plain. Of course there is a mix of Indian and western foods. For breakfast, they have the grill making eggs to order as well. I spent dinner eating at Paparazzi. It is a dimly lit restaurant. It creates a great mood for the bar– restaurant. It is on the 9th floor and has glass windows all the way around so you have a great view of the city. Not having tall buildings around makes it easy to see quite a distance. The food itself was ok. It is better than at Pin(xx). If you are staying in to eat, I would suggest you eat there. The price is not cheap though. Well, for western prices, this is a steal. I ended up spending about US$40 each time. I had a drink, appetizer and main course. As many international flights out of India take off during midnight, I wanted to wash and clean up before I left for the airport. The hotel was nice enough to offer me an hour to use a room to shower and clean up. Basically, I checked out in the morning, stored my luggage with the hotel. Then when I returned in the evening after my work was done (around 7:00pm), they opened up a room for me to take a shower before I headed to the airport. In summary, the hotel is not the worse. The price I paid was just average. It worked out to about US$150 per night + all the taxes and such. For this price, this is about what I would expect. It is clean enough to stay in, but it has no special features that would make the stay any better.

I stayed at the Royal Orchid Central for about a week in early November. This is by far the best business hotel in town. The rooms were clean and modern, flat screen TVs, sitting area +desk. I paid half of the cost any of the Taj/ITC/Oberoi and got free wireless internet, free breakfast and inexpensive car service with a driver that knew his way around town and spoke sufficient english. I've paid alot more at various hotels in India and then had to pay up the arm for all the extras. Additionally the location is great, central and easy to get around from. Most importantly, as a single woman traveler I felt safe here and am definitely staying here again on my next trip.

Stayed at the Royal Orchid Central for a business trip. The room was the best I've had in India--very clean with a king-sized bed, flat screen tv and other furniture. The location is great--very close to a major shopping area and easy to navigate. While I did not eat at the rooftop restaurant, the food at the Pinxx 24 hour cafe was pretty bad. They were out of most things for breakfast, the cold milk was room temperature as was the coffee, and the taste of what was available was not great. Nonetheless, the selection was extensive so ultimately you could find something. My major complaint was the staff. Upon arrival at the airport the person there to meet us from the hotel was planning to take us to the wrong location even though I had a confirmation for a reservation at the Central. In speaking to the duty manager at the other location, she insisted that my reservation was at the Airport Road location and told me I would have to come there. I booked the room through a travel agent, as well as my airport pickup and it turned out that the agency's representative was actually waiting outside to pick me up but that the hotel apparently frequently sends their own staff to try to keep the agency from getting the profit of the pick up. Thankfully, the agent was there and took me to the appropriate location where I was told by the hotel staff once again that my reservation was at the other hotel even though I had a pre-paid confirmation for the Central. I ultimately let the travel agent work it out and he did, so was able to stay at the Central. Additionally I had constant problems with incoming calls, and ended up missing quite a few important business calls as a result. Even though I was in my room, the staff told the caller that there was no answer. The phone would only ring once on my end and then stop. The hotel staff won't take messages, so there was no way to know that I had even missed the calls. I requested repeatedly for the problem to be remedied to no avail. All of that said, I think that having a nice hotel room to come back to at the end of the day turned out to be one of the most important things during my trip in India, and the Royal Orchid definitely offered that.

Excellent stay. The staff were attentive. The location was near the airport, yet not far from MG road (shopping complexes and bars). The room was very comfortable and nicely laid out. The attached restaurant and bar were both great. Will choose this hotel for my next stay in Bangalore.

Just stayed a week at Royal Orchid Central in Bangalore. The staff were friendly and my room on the 8th floor was fine. My colleague first had one of the not-yet-renovated rooms that was not so nice, but he was able to change that easily after the first night. The hotel is located a little way from the busiest streets so it is reasonably quiet (although nothing in India is quiet by western standards so if you anticipate this would bother you, do the sensible thing and take a pair of earplugs with you...)