Melange

Let's give where the credit is due. Amazing location and all the best places are accessible by walk.
Now the room in and off itself was quite good. But the bathrooms were substandard for such nice rooms. Add to that the have no visitors in the room policy. I guess it's a new rule they have come up with and I can understand why they have it. But please post that rule in places you advertise as many plan to book a service apartment expecting visitors to come and leave on occasion. The manager was kind enough to refund the reservation partially but it just left a bad taste as an overall experience.

In the past 6 months my travel back to India has been frequent. This time we had some business meetings we needed to attend in Bangalore and were visiting for a day and a half. One of our group member identified Melange as the location based on reviews to be spot for us to stay overnight. Here are some of my observations from value for money and service perspective:

1. Basic expectation with most locations at stay especially if they are advertised as business friendly is availability of internet connection. Was there internet at this place? Yes. But one could only connect max of 2 devices per apartment. We had 2 guests staying per apartment (total of 4). With a min of one mobile device each and one laptop each makes the device counts required to connect to internet are 4. We struggled to convince the office staff basic expectations. Ultimately, they did enable 4 devices off which 3 could stay connected the 4th could not as they were bound by credentials and recorded MAC addresses of the devices. Someone in the IT department went a little overboard. Internet speed was poor.
2. Cleanliness - the apartment overall though looked clean, the washrooms were smelling like someone recently took a dump and did not flush. Curtains and other accessories were unclean.
3. Except for Airtel, other cell phone connections had no bars. So once you are in the apartment, you were at the mercy of having active internet connection via WiFi which as explained in the first point is already a challenge
4. Staff was willing to help when requested for anything and was generally welcoming, and the one star is contributed to their presence and willingness to support, else it would ideally be a 0 star rating.

Compare this with any other airbnb or hotel reservations you would have for short or longer term rentals, internet connectivity and cleanliness are basic expectations for anyone that is traveling and needs a place to stay. For these rental places, it is important to understand that experience a customer goes through as well and ensure they have aptly set-up to deliver that experience.

The good thing about melange Lavelle Road is that in a two bed room occupancy we get a separate kitchen which is the main USP of melange lavelle Road, whereas in majority of star hotels we get only room service no kitchen.

The place is centrally located and neatly maintained, though the staff is polite and helpful, they come and clean the rooms at their own leisure time, which is not so good as the guests can’t wait for them so long. The Wi-Fi is extremely pathetic. They have a small kitchen, which has a microwave & fridge, and good enough cut & cook.

Good location opposite UB city. Good for solo traveler or family. Near by to all tourist location.

We were 4 of us, taking two rooms in any hotel will cost us 8k. But we took one apartment with 2 bedrooms here at 7k. Further it had a kitchen and dining.