The Red House

Please believe the bad reviews, we have regretted not believing them and booked this property at a crucial time and lost a lot of money. It's run by an elusive owner, very unpleasant and disrespectful about the guests. The property is managed by Amit, again, an extremely irresponsible, inexperienced person. It was our wedding in December, 2023. We booked the entire property for two nights, several months in advance. They knew we were booking it for our families to be in one place, and they also knew it was our wedding. We made the mistake of paying the entire amount in advance. We had no idea that the owners run these quack businesses to cheat people. We reached two days before the wedding day, and they decided to renovate, the entire front porch was broken and being redone. I didn't know what to do, we were two days away from our wedding and urgently needed an alternative. The rooms were smelling of mould and there was mould all over, under the bed, in the bathroom, literally in every room. It was impossible that our families of senior citizens could stay there. The shocking part was the downstairs rooms were smelling of pee and alcohol and I have no words to describe how dirty and unhygienic it was. Ooty has plenty of budget heritage properties and it's difficult to maintain them, we go to Ooty every year multiple times. And, we never stayed at the Red House because of the bad reviews. And, I still can't remember why we made such a bad decision of booking this place, but the mistake was made. We had to paid a huge amount and book a different place for our family last minute. I told Amit to cancel 3 rooms out of 6, and our vendors were accomodated there. Infact even our vendors had to be moved out the second night due to construction dust, unclean drinking water, mould and dirty linen. When we asked for refund (at least of the three rooms we cancelled), Amit agreed, because he knew exactly what he had done. He had so many months to prepare for our arrival, and they did nothing. But, the owners were so cheap, probably they don't have their own money and live off by cheating people, even their neighborhood residents spoke of the owners so badly, that they were very cheap and miserly. And clearly that was the case. I decided to file an FIR, money lost is one thing, but money lost in fraud is different. They decided to return a measly amount, and my husband just wanted the ordeal to end. So I let it go. I won't recommend this place but if you must stay here, you should know the truth and hopefully they learn their lesson through other guests. Lots of excellent properties like Smyrna, Lymond house, manor house etc, where they treat guests as humans, not as dumb tourists to fill their pockets.

It was a comfortable stay for 3 nights at the Red House. Ameeth and Ashish were super cooperative and made the stay easier. Be mindful that if you are choosing the duplex room for 4 people, it only has 1 washroom. We immediately changed to 2 separate bedrooms and it made life easier (choose the green room if you have the option, it's quite spacious). The rooms don't get natural sunlight and ventilation, but you get the feel of staying in an old historic villa. Thanks to Ameeth and Ashish (super talkative but very friendly) for making the stay comfortable