The Fern Surya Resort Kasauli Hills, Dharampur

Good hotel for family outing

Fantastic experience. The best food Ive ever had in Kasauli. We booked a family suite and the service with nothing short of amazing

Booked this property due location advantage and with expectation of basic hospitality. What we got was of a learning / lesson in hospitality (pun intended). 1. Reservation and advance booking - Confusion at Its Best We arrived an hour late and our room wasn’t ready still. The receptionist wasn’t aware which room to allot. Next morning at check-out, The hotel asked us to provide details of the advance payment made as no entry was made in the system. Seemed like we were part of their reservation or front desk team. Very casually asked for the mail or screenshot for the proof— perhaps this explains why they don’t believe in giving invoices after checkout. So we had to provide the proof that yes we have 50% already. 2. “Pet-Friendly” – Far from Friendly for humans, let alone for a pet. They redefine the Pet-friendly concept. What they meant was your pet can stay inside the room and nowhere else — like a quiet, well-behaved inmate. Bring your own bedding/cot, feeding abd drinking bowls, and supplies. The pet is not allowed in the restaurant or anywhere near it. That was the first comment. Not allowed to relieve the pet anywhere in the property. Again casually expected the pet and us to go towards the highway out of the hotel! They were very kind to ‘allow the pet in the same room’ that’s all the friendliness they could afford. Yes, that was the remark made by the Manager on duty. For that they charge 1K per night. Pet allowed vs. genuinely pet-friendly difference on display. 3. No proper Porter Service. None offered as help too. Surprisingly, there is no porter service. However, the car is allowed to go up to your room. Good, right? However, help yourself offload the luggage is the policy I guess. Ironically, an 81-year-old gentleman showed more awareness and willingness to help than the more higher up hotel staff. 4. High-Tea – Concept Redefined “High-tea included” doesn’t mean that high-tea is organized. As per the staff/ Manager, it simply means you can always order tea in your room — at your own expense I guess. Very high tea indeed at 4800 feet above sea level! 5. Dinner = Our package included breakfast and dinner. However, Appetizers are not included in dinner. Pay extra if you want to start with some starters from the menu as their definition of dinner included only main course. At this point it was all too laughable for us. As we got lessons in hotel management. The only bright spot was Mr. Shashi, who made a genuine effort to make us feel welcome and supported. I hope I have recalled the name correctly. Breakfast wasn’t fully ready as well as per the time published. 6. Staff Behaviour Staff members were seen giggling, smiling and laughing when we made basic request for the pet & high tea debate. When this was brought to the manager’s attention, the response was simply: “Yehi hai yahan.” And he too was caught smiling and giggling with the other staff members. By that time though we had already decided to cut short our stay. We