soccr

Looking for a reasonable hotel for short overnight near DEL airport (arriving late-ish - 9:45 pm one night, depart early-ish 10:15 am the next morning for Chennai). Not sure my friend can handle the sleeping-pod set up in the hotel itself (doesn't seem to have showers, among other things) and/but doesn't really want to have a night in a fleabag. Trying to stay around $150/night but doesn't seem to be anything between $75 and $200 that's not rather far toward downtown.

Suggestions? (will also post on air travel board)

CaliNurse

Hotel Saptagiri is fine for your purpose. It is clean, modern, air conditioned room,comfy beds, big flat screen TV, huge enclosed shower! Perfect place for overnighter.
Didnt have time to use restaurant for bkfst, as flight left very early a.m.but heard from others it is ok.
Street is urban crowded noisy one, but once inside hotel, total quiet. Some rooms have windows, others(ours) not. Thought that would feel strange, but for our pupose-sleep and a clean place to shower, pack and change- didnt mtater at all. Five minute ride for us to airport in average traffic.
We already had a driver, but I think the hotel can book someone for you.
Price in June was about $75plus tax (travel planner booked it, which might have made it less) Website shows 5000 inr--about $100.

Cicerone

I think the Country Inn & Suites Gurgaon is a solid little hotel, rates are usually good, see http://www.countryinns.com/hotels/indcigs. I would also say that any of the three Lemon Tree hotels in Gurgaon would be fine, the Udyog Vihar location is probably the closest to the airport, see http://www.lemontreehotels.com/.

If you have any hotel points (or want to earn some), there is a Courtyard by Marriott, a Crowne Plaza and a Westin quite near the airport. That may be a good use of points. The airport is in the suburbs which are also home to numerous corporate business parks. Rates can be high at hotels which are of a good standard, esp on weeknights.

A small family B&B which always looks very interesting to me is Cinnamon Stays. This is probably 30 minutes from the airport. I don’t know anything about it, but it seems to get good reviews on tripadvisor.com, see http://cinnamonstays.in/. It’s also only about US$75 per night.

Amy

The Udyog Vihar Lemon Tree mentioned above worked really well for me; it's not super close to the airport, but quite reasonably near and not in the downtown direction, of course.

Jaya

Uppal Orchid is another choice. I stayed there once when I had to do just what you're doing and liked it a lot. It's 3km (and a 5 minute drive) from and on the same highway as the airport in a quiet, green area. The website is a little amateurish, the hotel is nicer in person.

They provided airport transfer and a good breakfast buffet. It's more upscale and had western style bed mattresses, which I didn't mind after a 14 hour flight! One night on an Indian "mattress" and you'll know what I mean.

http://www.uppalhotels.com/

soccr

Thank you all for your great suggestions. I will pass them along to my Chennai-bound partner.

soccr

Thanks to all - he's booked into the Saptagiri. Will report back to me.

CaliNurse

We found Saptagiri to be an excellent, decently priced brie stay pre-airport. Tell your friend not to be put off by its glass-front industrial appearance, or the very basic lobby. The room was fine..which is what counts! Please reprt back on what he says.

soccr

An update re: Saptagiri. The hotel was serviceable but my friend got zapped by the "airport transfer fee" scam -- paid at the time of reservation for round-trip airport transfer, but the hotel steadfastly refused to answer emails with flight info and request re: how to meet the driver/shuttle/whatever. Sure enough, no one there, no way to call the hotel (cell phone unactivated at the time), etc. so he had to take a cab and sure enough (as predicted on tripadvisor), they refused to credit his account for the airport-to-hotel transfer.

But it was certainly handy to the airport and probably less seedy than some of its neighboring motels.

CaliNurse

Thanks for the update on the hotel, Soccr. Oh no!!! One more example of why it's often best not to use the hotel's transfer service--or in this case--NON transfer service!
We came via a car hire so didnt know about this. Thanks for the warning.

Did your friend pay by credit card? If so, have him question that part of the charge.The cc company will take it from there.