Hotel Review: Taj Santacruz Mumbai, India

By | May 27, 2023

I recently received a Taj voucher worth Rs.10,000 from American Express Platinum Travel Credit card for reaching its milestone spend and ever since i received it, i wanna get some nice experience at one of the best Taj hotels in India. I had a short business trip to Mumbai and felt the time has come to check out the Taj Properties around and that’s how i came across Taj Santacruz.

Taj Santacruz Mumbai
Taj Santacruz Mumbai

The hotel is ideally located right after the arrival area of Mumbai Domestic Airport (T1) and it has two entrances – one from airport itself and the other from city side. As its gonna be a short stay for me, went with this property as its easily accessible to the city and airport.

Taj Santacruz Booking & Entrance:

I initially reserved a Twin Bed City view room for 3 adults (with one extra bed) through Taj worldwide reservation desk. Cost was around ~Rs.18,000 per night, and i was said i can utilize my Rs.10,000 Taj voucher while check-in and rest to be paid while checkout.

As soon as me and my friends arrived at the airport, we had some coffee at Starbucks inside airport and moved on to the Taj Santacruz. This airport side entrance seems to be less used and hence we got in ourselves without much of formalities and here comes the paradise.

Maserati showroom
Maserati showroom inside Taj

The entrance leads to a small yet gorgeous Maserati showroom on the left. We then passed through security check and arrived at the main entrance which is fitted with stunning high hanging chandeliers.

Taj Traditional Welcome and Check-in:

We presented the Taj voucher during Check-in process and it took some 5 minutes overall to complete the formalities. We requested for a Airport Runway view room which was said available and our Room #448 was then allotted. We were then given a welcome drink which i had until last sip 😀 and then comes the unique Taj Traditional welcome.

Taj santacruz mumbai entrance
Taj santacruz mumbai entrance

They welcomed us like they do so in Temple with aarthi, kumkum etc.. and they finally put a small flower set on you like what they do in South Indian Marriages. Heart beats fast when this is done by a beautiful (really) girl, all these left us with few mins of embarrassment and joy. 😀

I’ve been to Taj Hotel in Goa before, but this is the first time to experience such welcome, maybe as that was a full business hotel, this formality was not followed.

Room with a View at Taj Santacruz:

We were then escorted to the room by a lady and she explained all the amenities, switches etc in the room. She was really a nice person that she helped us with details of all places we can see nearby, timings, etc.

She gives instant long brilliant answers to anything u ask without giving a sec of thought. Such a high IQ lady she is, never seen such people in recent times.

We then spent enough of time looking and snapping the entire room. Every single part of the room has its creativity mated with luxury. The highlight of the room is, you can see the flights take off & land almost every five minutes.

Taj Santacruz Runway view room
Taj Santacruz Runway view room
Taj Santacruz bathroom
Taj Santacruz bathroom

The hotel’s structure was designed in such a way that you won’t even hear a bit of noise of those Airplanes. I figured out that the window has double layer of glass which makes this pin drop silence possible. We then went out to enjoy the beauty of Mumbai at night, we were then back to Taj and slept in the lap of luxury.

Sleeping in this room watching the flights take off at night was the most romantic thing in this visit.

Breakfast at Tiqri, Taj Santacruz:

Taj Santacruz has multiple restaurants with each of it having its own specialty. Our Breakfast was served in Tiqri restaurant which has a huge wall with brilliant eye-catching artwork of a tree. We had a sumptuous buffet breakfast that morning after which we explored the rest of the hotel. They had almonds out there which i ate a lot and is my alltime fav part of the breakfast. 😀

Taj Santacruz breakfast
Taj Santacruz breakfast
omelette at tiqri restaurant
Omelette at Tiqri restaurant
Tiqri
Tiqri
tiqri during day
Tiqri during day
Tiqri at night
Tiqri at night

After a nice breakfast, i had a short business meeting in the lobby and by the time meeting got over i realized i don’t have access to the lift as the key was with my friend who went to room. I went to the reservation desk and asked for a 2nd key. By the time i was giving her my room no details etc, she already got my key ready in less than 30 secs. Damn, my room number was right on her mind (that same lady).

My Overall Experience at Taj:

I believe these are some of the WOW experiences Taj provides. I’ve even got wow’ed during my last visit to Goa Taj, where the manager himself in suit carried our luggage’s to the car as he realized the attendants weren’t available at that moment. Awesome guy he is!

We finally came to reception to check-out and met a Kollywood celebrity out there who was also waiting for check-out along with us. One of the priceless benefit of staying in Taj is, you can always spot a couple of celebrities every day 🙂

Finally that's Me

That sums up my experience at Taj Santacruz, Mumbai. I had always looked at Taj properties as a kind of overly priced thing but the experience i’ve received here went beyond my expectations.

Considering the investment they put in building such a wonderful property with breath-taking interiors, the price you pay is worth every penny as far as this property is concerned. If i haven’t signed up for American Express Travel Card, i wouldn’t have been to this place. Thanks Amex India !

Following this, my next Taj visit is more likely to be the Iconic hotel of the country – Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai that you see near the Gateway of India. Or, suggest me if there is any other better property worth visiting.

  • Cardexpert Hotel Rating: 5/5

I hope you enjoyed the post as much as i did. Feel free to share your views in comments below and do let me know if you’re interested in having more Hotel reviews on the blog 🙂

Author: Siddharth

Helping Indians to choose right credit cards, pick right offers and enjoy luxury vacations for less. Day & night exploring the spiritual reality of our human existence.

15 thoughts on “Hotel Review: Taj Santacruz Mumbai, India

      1. Pranay

        I would say Taj ripped you off.

        Rs.18,000 appears to be the rack rate and not the best available rate.

        A place like the Taj Santa Cruz would be Rs.10,000 per night tops, even cheaper when paid regularly.

        Rs.18,000 per night is the average rate for a great room at Oberoi (Nariman point) or Taj Gateway of India. This with a strong chance of a Suite upgrade.

        Reply
        1. Siddharth Post author

          Pranay,
          Its 10k when paid online.
          Its 12k when reserved without payment.
          As we had 1 extra person in room, 3k+tax got added up and it came to 18k all together.

          Reply
          1. Raulnayak

            Siddharth,

            Can you essentially, book a room online using online portals; use the pay at the hotel option; turn up at the hotel, and then present the voucher?

            If this is possible, then you can get the best rate and still get to use the voucher.

          2. Siddharth Post author

            I haven’t tried it but the terms says it can be used only on Best Available Rate from Taj reservations.

            Anyways AFAIK, the rate is usually same with OTA’s when it comes to Taj.

  1. Chandrasekar Ramakrishnan

    Well – you conveniently missed to answer my query – which amex card is worth to spend money on? even if you can’t answer, it would be a good gesture to publish it .Anyone who has the knowledge would have answered.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Plat travel card is the best upto 4L, then Gold charge card. Else Jet card. It all depends on what benefit you want from the card.

      Reply
  2. Mrinal T

    just an update on the platinum card , i recently used it at Taj Hari Mahal Jodhpur

    the 10,000 voucher can be set off against total bill irrespective of the package/room rate you choose

    Reply
  3. Mouli

    Sid,

    Rates may be same but you get additional offers, for example if you are MMT Black member then the hotel booking will add to your spend for the particular year and through that you can achieve the milestone

    I have booked for Taj Bekal using AMEX voucher(remember somewhere you mentioned that as your targeted Taj property through that only I came to know about it),Thanks for that

    Reply
  4. Ronit

    How was your bekal experience.. did you book through OTA and get to redeem the taj vouchers 10k from amex?

    Reply
    1. Mouli

      Bekal was a good experience and I booked through Taj only and even if you book through OTA and opted to pay at hotel even then you can pay though AMEX vouchers but better to cross check before doing it

      Reply
  5. mel

    On checking out of the hotel on 28th March, 2019, i was informed that i had no extras to pay and my pre-auth amount would be release. While in Dubai, on 30th March, 2019 at 1400 hrs that an amount of INR 46,287.30 has been deducted from my account by Taj Santacruz without any authorization from my end. I immediately called the hotel and yelled at the staf and at 1500 hrs this amount was reversed. I thought, this was the end of my story but no, again at 1700 hrs on the same evening, I receive another message that the same amount of INR 46,287.30 has been deducted from my account. I had to call Taj Santacruz, twice from Dubai to tell them to reverse it, all i get told is that finance closed for the day and open on Monday and hence the same would be reversed. To my utter dismay, it was shocking to see that only the Duty Manager, Ms. Priyanka responded to my email and was following up. Even though the General Manager was copied he sat silent watching the drama.

    Reply

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