Stayed a night with family, mainly to see the bird sanctuary. Got there around 3pm and checked out next morning. Pros: Beautiful grounds and rooms. Buffet at dinner and breakfast had a lot of variety and wasn't spicy for our non Indian tummies. They had room heaters in every room. Had a very comfortable stay. Cons: No facial tissues anywhere in the rooms/bathrooms. No elevators to the other floors if you can't do stairs. Food is only served at certain times during the day. Breakfast is 6:30am-9:30am. We arrived around 3pm and thankfully had packed food from another place. Their lunch closes at 2:30pm and they have afternoon tea with with light sandwiches and cookies from 4:45pm-6pm. We didn't look into room service.

Spent two nights in December attending a ring ceremony. The hotel is actually a part of the original palace . Good large rooms and facilities. The rooms have antique furniture and old door closing systems. It's interesting. Both Buffet breakfast and dinner menu were good. However, service is slow . No room service except snacks. The snacks ordered for room service came cold, very cold. Hot water only on fixed timing in the morning & evening. Staff very courteous & helpful. No lift . The puppet show in the evening was nice. Returning late night to hotel is difficult as gates are locked and there is no call bell. We had tough time at 11.30 pm.

Hi! - The Hotel is well located close to the sanctuary (though I did not visit the sanctuary). - The Hotel has 2 wings the old wing rooms are little worn down but the new wing (made 3-4 years back) is well maintained... I was in the new wing... - We were a group of 70 people (35 odd rooms) we had taken in December 2018 - Engineering/Hardware point of view Hotel was very good.. each room had a heater (not centrally heated) which kept the room warm.. The shower pressure and hot water in the the room was exceptional.. - Service wise as we were a big group was not exceptional and we also had some issue with the Management (one of case I hope),,, Maybe the service staff is more equipped for smaller groups,,, But they were flexible in music timing etc - The Ayurveda massage, next to the pool side, was small (only 2 interconnecting rooms) but was nice - The lawns and public are are well maintained... I would visit this Hotel again but in a smaller group ..

Over all a great place to stay. Big rooms, very neatly maintained property. Huge and beautiful pool and great room service. Best experience was to sit around the bonfire near the bar and have a few drinks. They also arrange for a puppet show and live folk singing in the evening which is a great experience for travelers from overseas. I would have given it 5 stars but nicking off a star due to these two reasons: 1. There was no a-la-carte food available. Buffet was the only option which we did not want since we were not really hungry and not in mood to book an entire buffet per person. 2. Reception staff seemed a little rude and uncaring. I thought it was a one-time thing but had the same experience again with a different person when I went there a second time. Maybe the receptionists are underpaid and grumpy(?)

On entering, Laxmi Vilas looks impressive. It is set in the midst of large gardens and has all the trappings of a palace especially when contrasted to the places around. The website where we made our reservations did not mention that the property has two wings. The new wing is more recent, has better amenities and many more suites than the old wing so keep that in mind when booking. However, the old wing has a lot of character. We stayed in the family suite which was a bit of a waste given there were only two of us. It was clean, very very large and well appointed. I did notice that many classic rooms did not have windows so if you are particular about light remember to specify that. We had a couple of issues that put a slight dampener on our stay- a bathroom that leaked, a TV that malfunctioned and the need to get some linen changed as it had been overlooked. Also,the hot water stops at 10pm which means that if you have visions of soaking in a bath, forget them! The house keeping staff are helpful so these problems got resolved but took some time. There is no elevator so it can be difficult for those who cannot climb stairs. The restaurant has decent food- the Indian is better than the continental. The staff are very forthcoming and try to cater to whatever preference food you might state. The sanctuary is marvellous. Dharmender Sharma was our naturalist for the day. He is caters to all kinds of knowledge levels and makes it interesting and possible to remember names of several birds. All in all it was a lovely two days and we hope to go back sometime.