My wife and I had reserved a two-night stay at the Megha Palace, including free airport pickup (which is offered if you stay two nights or longer). In our email we clearly specified the dates of our stay and the arrival date and time of our plane from Europe. The hotel confirmed our room and airport pickup bookings. But after going through the airport formalities and picking up our luggage (it was around 1:45 am), we found there was no one from the hotel to receive us. Lots of other hotels had drivers waiting for arriving passengers. You can imagine how bad we felt not seeing anyone holding a sign with our name. When I called the hotel up, they said they had no reservation for us for that night, but told us to take a pre-paid taxi to the hotel which they would reimburse. Naturally we assumed they had a room available.

The taxi driver had a hard time finding the hotel - and we ended up having to call the hotel on our cell phone, which meant a long-distance call from Europe to India!! We gave the cell phone to the driver so he could get directions. When we got to the hotel at about 3 am, it turned out they had no room booked for us for that night and told us we needed to wait until 5 am when one of the rooms was supposed to be vacated. Why didn't they tell me this on the phone when I called from the airport?? We were very tired and sleepy and naturally wanted a room right away. So they booked us a room in another hotel in the area, but it wasn't that close - and we were told we had to vacate the room by 8 am!!! Having no choice, we proceeded to the hotel in the same taxi.

After a sleepless few hours in the second hotel (accompanied by a few cockroaches and the constant noise of people talking, shouting and moving about), we went back to the Megha Palace (they sent a car for us). The second hotel had no rooms for the following night. The Megha Palace is adequate (though, like the other hotel, it was fairly noisy at night and there were some roaches in the room), and they did reimburse us for the taxi, BUT why did we have to go through all this??? We clearly specified the dates, and the hotel confirmed our room booking and the airport pickup. This is unacceptable. I was later told by an Indian relative that it is best to book by phone. I would recommend calling the hotel you've booked the day before to make sure they know you're coming. But...in Delhi please don't stay at the Megha Palace, Megha Sheraton or Madonna hotels (which belong to the Karmesh group)!