Among the host of hotels burgeoning in the city of Mumbai, Alan D’Mello profiles two properties in the business hotel category ...

Hyatt Regency - Check Out The Check-In Options

The Glasshouse

The Lounge

Stax

All four-star and above hotels are essentially round-the-clock service centres, The Hyatt Regency, Mumbai has added a little zing to the concept – it would love to be known as the 24-hour hotel, 12-to-12 billing has been shown the door and the 24-hour clock starts from the time you check in. It may not have an effect on Indian arrivals but is quite a relief for all users of the international airport without a Mumbai address.

What I see as being useful to the native traveller is the hotel’s eight-hour facility. Come in, freshen up, go about your business super quick, freshen up and wave goodbye. But the price difference is not proportionate to the difference of hours between the two facilities (only around a thousand rupees).

Broadband internet access is available in all rooms although surprisingly, they do not have in-room TV menus. Food and all other services follow the same 24-hour concept. The line goes ‘Breakfast for all time zones’. A good line, but basically, it is an a la carte breakfast menu with no time frame. Never mind that breakfast is always free. Business centre facilities and secretarial services, laundry and such business requirements are available even at unearthly hours. In the evening, the Regency’s multi-purpose restaurant Stax is a good address to have with its Italian cooking, two bar areas, multiple lounges and even a cigar room.

On the whole, the property is neat and contemporary in its lines of design. Glass in all forms and shapes is used to great effect. Check-in and checkouts are just a few minutes both ways. For the more privileged, there are two floors of the Regency Club, with separate check-in and lounge facilities. The stakes are upped on these floors, with better-appointed rooms, a lot of freebies like the 24-hour cheese, snack and drink buffets, cocktails between 18:00-20:00 hours, pressing of one set of apparels, etc. It also entitles the guest to make use of the meeting room for two hours per day. The good thing is that you can accumulate individual and group time if travelling with others for optimum usage on the same trip.

The Hyatt Regency also has regular promotions such as the just finished American Express and the ongoing Master Card programmes, where you can get one free night from every two visits, if the bill is paid through their services.

Gordon House Boutique-Style Business

In Mumbai, think boutique hotel, think Gordon House. Just 29 rooms, inclusive of one suite. Tucked away in a by-lane near the Gateway of India in South Mumbai, the property is like none other in the city. It is an atypical business place if you like, one which thankfully takes you off the business mindset. Only one other ‘hotel’ had the same wonderful effect on me, but then that was a pure leisure property (with seven rooms) and that too in Goa. To combine business with pleasure, well you have attention.

Ideally located, Gordon House is a very business-oriented hotel with facilities including free Hathaway connections, ample work area in each room and an ably provided business centre and conference facility.

But it is more than a business hotel. What the place does to you is take care of those neglected nerves (or shall we say frayed senses) of yours after a long business day. For starters, the first floor, not the lobby, is where you check in. If you’re not alone, you could do away with even that formality. The papers come to your room. It is advisable to make your reservations fairly in advance, as Gordon House is popular with the corporates and almost everyone who has ever stayed there becomes a repeat client. First timers can take a guided tour of the three floors before making a decision. This is an important feature of Gordon House, which has three room themes (Country, Scandinavian and Mediterranean), one to a floor.

Yes, the room is a key aspect to Gordon House. These are period rooms, so everything from space, colour and artefacts are well thought of here. Take, for example, room doors; they are designed like residential doors with woodwork and simple design. Also the rooms are well stocked. Each room has an audio system, replete with CD, VCD, audio and radio, where CD and VCDs can be borrowed from the house library. For business usage, a complete stationery kit comes with the room. Reading material, the standard English newspapers and magazines, other language publications are provided free of cost on request. If you want more than the the exercise equipment in the hotel, you could avail of the upmarket gymnasium Euphoria just down the road free of cost. The only thing about the rooms here is that the bathrooms are small, purely functional.

Entertainment is in no short supply at Gordon House. It has two able restaurants; Oriental cuisine at the All Stir Fry, the coffee shop-cum-bar Tides and one discotheque-cum banquet hall, the famous Three Flight’s Up. Down the road, there is also Tendulkar’s (now you know who he is!), managed by the hotel’s owners. Do not forget to explore the area, as it has got a high concentration of restaurants, cinemas and entertainment centres, besides, of course, the waterfront along the Gateway of India.

Three Flights Up, Club & Bar	Room on the Mediterranean floor
The Versailles Suite