Luxury Hotels

ITC Hotel PARK SHERATON & TOWERS
TTK Road
TeL: 24994101; Fax: 24997101/24997201

The high-profile hotel enjoys an enviable reputation. Its 283 rooms offer a wide variety of choices, from the top-of-the market Presidential and Park/Towers suites, the Sheraton Towers and Executive Club, to the popular Corporate Floor. The hotel’s lobby and porch have been expanded, and an underground parking has been added to accommodate 250 cars. Its Dakshin Restaurant is legendary and has inspired the creation of a number of not-quite equal clones. The Park effectively captures the massive grandeur of a southern palace in a contemporary idiom.

• Restaurants, coffee shop, barbecue, bar, health club, swimming pool, business centre, shopping arcade, bank, travel desk, discotheque, complimentary buffet breakfast, cocktail hour and transfers for Sheraton towers and suite guests. It has a number of conference rooms – Mowbrays, Chamiers, Lloyds, Arcot, Elliots, Wallace, Hamilton to hold more than 500 people, plus two halls of 800 capacity each.

LE ROYAL MERIDIEN
GST Road, St. Thomas Mount
TeL: 22314343

If fantasy is the hallmark of a great hotel, the 240-room Meridien should score well. The lobby is saved from being overpowering by the view of the twinkling stars on its dome and the splashing fountain in the enclosed garden beyond its lobby. The rooms overlooking the free form swimming pool, set in the garden, are plush and would have delighted the French Empress Eugenie. This was the first Le Royal Meridien in India and is run in partnership with Nikko Hotels.

• Restaurants, coffee shop, speciality sea food and grills, bar, health club, swimming pool, salon. Complimentary breakfast, butler service, tea, coffee, soft drinks in lounge, cocktail hour, meeting room for five guests for half-a-day and exclusive lounge for Royal Club guests. Conference ballroom with pre-function area, nine meeting rooms and additional smaller capacity meeting rooms for 800 people.

The Park
601, Anna Salai
TeL: 52144000; Fax-52144100

The Park is Chennai’s first luxury boutique hotel situated in the heart of the city. This elegant urban haven with 215 luxurious rooms stands on the historic premises of the erstwhile Gemini Film Studios. The entrance leads dramatically into a stunningly single lobby. The Residence Floors on the seventh and eighth floors are targeted for the high-end executive. The tariff is inclusive of complimentary airport transfer, express check-in, free masseur service and DVD players in each room. It has three restaurants: Six-O-One, the all-hours international and Indian cuisine restaurant, Lotus, the Thai food restaurant and Aqua, the poolside restaurant on the eighth floor with a dramatic view of the city.

Taj Coromandel
37, Nungambakkam High Road
TeL: 55002827; Fax- 55002089, 55002098 

This 205-room hotel captures the wood, palms and tall windows atmosphere of a colonial governor’s townhouse. The entrance gives the impression that there’s a herald stationed behind the door! Fittingly, the check-ins are done with the guests seated. Particularly reminiscent of the British era are the Tea Lounge and the Patio, both of which could have been transported from a stately home. The Coromandel offers eight distinct types of spacious rooms. The the third floor is a non-smoking area.

• Restaurants, tea lounge, bar, swimming pool, health club, beauty parlour, complimentary airport limousine transfers, club floor check-in, continental breakfast, personalised valet service and bottle of French wine, high tea in club lounge, unlimited cocktails and canapes in club lounge for Taj Club floor, Conferences: Ball room (800-1000 capacity), Clive (75-100 capacity), Duplex Hastings (50-60 capacity), Willingdon boardroom for 20 people.

Deluxe Hotels

WELCOMGROUP CHOLA SHERATON
10, Cathedral Road
Tel: 28110101; Fax: 28110202

A 92-room select hotel with an understated elegance, tailored for those who have ‘arrived’, and prefer to be away from the glitz, razzmatazz and hustle of those who are still striving for their place in the sun! Its USP is its duplex rooms. They are as big as suites, and by closing their folding doors, can be converted into independent working and bedroom units complete with telephones and TV sets. These are ideal for those who want a quiet, private, living and working environment. Reassuringly, while guests can see the traffic flowing past on Cathedral Road from the Lounge, they can’t hear it. The Chola is both centrally located and cocooned against the intrusion of the city.

• Restaurants, coffee shop, bar, residents lounge, swimming pool, health club, beauty parlour, art gallery. Complimentary happy hour and airport transfers for duplex and suite guests. Conference hall, a board room and a lounge.

TAJ CONNEMARA
Binny Road
Tel: 55000555; Fax: 55000000

Chennai’s original heritage hotel. It was first a garden house bought by British surgeon-turned-merchant John Binny in 1815. Today, the 150-room hotel retains its Heritage block – two wings divided by a glass-roofed atrium. The second floor is a non-smoking zone. The Connemara’s imposing staircase is made for grand entrances and its landing is guarded by wooden carvings said to have been taken from a temple chariot. Its Raintree Restaurant, set under an extensive rain tree serves delectable Chettinad cuisine.

• Outdoor speciality restaurant, coffee shop, bar, swimming pool, beauty parlour, fitness centre, five banquet rooms, including the Binny Hall (200-250), two meeting rooms.

THE TRIDENT
1/24, GST Road
Tel: 22344747; Fax: 22346699

Part of the Oberoi chain, this 167-room hotel is ideally located near the airport, the business areas of Sriperumbudur and Maramalainagar and the Guindy Industrial Estate. It is an elegant low-rise hotel, spread hacienda-like, with a red-tiled roof. Its grounds have been tastefully landscaped and an enormous old rain tree adds to the charm. The Trident’s rooms are elegant and uncluttered.

• Restaurants, bar, swimming pool, fitness centre, airport transfers, complimentary breakfast, valet service, conference rooms catering to 50-375 people, theatre seating with modern communication facilities.

RADISSON GRT HOTEL
355-C, GST Road, St. Thomas Mount
Tel: 22310101; Fax: 22310202

The clean, unfussy lines of this 101-room hotel capture an era when the British empire was at its zenith peak and neo-classical architecture popular. The décor captures the Raj era in a tastefully understated way. The lobby, bar, café and restaurant draw from the eclecticism of a period when exotic influences were brought in by traders and explorers. The roar of jets from the airport, only 3 km away, is excluded by effective soundproofing.

• The Great Kebab Factory offers five varieties of kebabs with a selection of breads. Besides, there is a coffee shop, bar, swimming pool, beauty parlour, gym, complimentary airport transfers and drink coupon, frequent flyer mileage. Royal Court banquet hall for 400 people.

Residency Towers
115, Sir Thyagaraja Road, T.Nagar, Chennai – 600017
Tel: 28156363, fax - 28156969

Residency Towers is strategically located 10 km away from the airport in T. Nagar, the financial hub of Chennai. It has exciting thematic restaurants like Southern Aromas that serves ancestral southern delights and the all-night Main Street that is reminiscent of a bustling European Street. Bike & Barrel is the restobar with pub memorabilia from Europe, including a pool table.

• Exclusive ladies floor and lounge, six convention halls (6-900 capacity), airport transfer, health club, 24-hour restaurant, Southern Aromas – speciality restaurant that offers ancestral recipes from southern states, a bar and a swimming pool.