The Pune Dining Room: Courtyard Marriott, Chakan.

Courtyard Marriott has opened a new property in the heart of the auto manufacturing hub in Chakan, Pune and invited a few bloggers to check it out over Christmas. Since it's impossible to cover the 2 days of awesomeness in 1 post, I've decided to split my post in 2 parts - so below is the post about the property, accommodation and the cheese factory visit. You can check my post about the food here:- Momo Cafe

Courtyard Mariott, Chakan is their 10th property in the country and along-with the two other Courtyards located at Bund Garden Road and Hinjewadi, it marks a very strong presence of the chain covering the business hubs located in Pune. The target clientele of the the hotel are well-heeled business travellers seeking affordable luxury that caters to their needs of comfort and fine cuisine. That, this hotel does superbly well.

The lobby of the hotel is minimalist but classy and it extends to their all-day dining restaurant, Momo Cafe. The hotel has 175 rooms including 12 suites and is LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council {USGBC} which basically means that the hotel is environmentally friendly. The rooms are spacious, comfortable and plush with necessary amenities like a work station and high speed internet connection. They also have an iHome device in which you can dock your Apple devices and play music, set alarms, etc. What I really loved about the room though, was the window-side couch over looking the hills and offering breathtaking view of the sunset and the rain-shower in the bathroom. The suites too are very impressive with a large seating area to accommodate meetings as well as after-work drinks with colleagues.

They also have a large pool-side area with a well-stocked bar and and al fresco lounge where one can spend relaxing evenings. Every Wednesdays they have a BBQ by the pool which sounds like a great way to spend a winter evening. Their banquet hall would be perfect for conferences as well as wedding celebrations away from city limits. A fully equipped gymnasium and spa ensures that you can burn off the calories consumed on the buffet table.

It was also great to see that the hotel spared no effort create a beautiful Christmassy ambiance. Right from Christmas trees and gift boxes to very thoughtfully hanging a stocking stuffed with marshmallows, jejubes, Christmas cake and chocolates outside our rooms at night so we returned to our rooms to a gleeful surprise.

The front office and house-keeping teams were extremely efficient and I would like to assume that this was not just because we are food / lifestyle bloggers but because Marriott has this extremely strong culture and ethic of customer satisfaction.

We checked-out of the hotel as very happy customers who sure were well taken care of and pampered with all our demands being met.

More details and booking information about the hotel can be found here:- Courtyard Marriott, Chakan

Govardhan cheese factory visit:

The Marriott guys also arranged a very informative and interesting cheese factory visit to Govardhan dairy where we were witness to the highly complex procedures of manufacturing different kinds of cheeses at an industrial level. The precision of temperatures and the amount of care that needs to be taken while manufacturing cheese left us spellbound. We also tasted a few of their products like cheese, yoghurt, cheesey dips and flavoured milk. The dips, especially the garlic and herb & olive flavours, were quite delicious.

We were also taken to the unit where their 'Pride of Cows' brand milk is processed. The cows here are treated like absolute royalty and the entire milking and bottling procedure is carried out using the latest equipment without any human touch. Obviously, the resultant product tastes great and is beyond comparison to any product available in the stores.