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The grandeur of Grand by GRT, TNagar Chennai

Grand by GRT is a premium business class hotel in T Nagar, the heart of Chennai. This hotel is flagship property of GRT Group, who also run a chain of Jewelry stores by the same name as well as other hotels such as Radisson Blu Temple Bay Mahabalipuram, Regency in Kancheepuram, Madurai, Great Trails in Kodaikanal and Yercaud, Vibe in Coimbatore, Hyd and few more across South India. (We were told Bengaluru property is coming up soon near Ulsoor lake). GRT Group also has interests in retail, education and other sectors.

Interior view of a hotel featuring corridors illuminated by warm yellow lights, captured from an upward angle.
Interior view of the hotel showcasing various corridors.
Interior view of the hotel with corridors illuminated by warm yellow lights.
Facade image of a hotel with multiple windows.

As part of GRT Hotels bloggers meet 2 weeks ago, we got to spend a night in Grand by GRT and got to experience its uniqueness and features first hand. This post aims to explain the salient features of Grand by GRT to you.

An image showing the entrance of two elevators with a stand in the centre.

The history: This hotel, currently the best luxury business hotel in T. Nagar, Chennai, was formerly known as GRT Grand. It was the brainchild of G Rajendran, the founder of the group. T stands for Thangamaligai which roughly translates to shopping complex. The hotel was set up in 1999. During those days, a hotel with tall vertical atrium in the centre was a revolutionary idea. Many reportedly said it is a bad idea given the impact on Air conditioning and wastage of space which could have been used to add more rooms. But Mr Rajendran stuck to his concept and soon the hotel was talk of the town for its innovative interiors.

Rooms and Suites:

Grand by GRT has about 133 rooms including 6 suites, spread across 9 floors. 9th floor is smoking rooms, rest of the hotel is no smoking area.

The suites are spread across multiple floors. Suit rooms come with large living area with mini toilet, a full body massage chair, spacious bedroom and bathroom. Check the photos below. Suits are of two types- Deluxe suite and theme suite.

A bedroom featuring fancy beadboard lighting with warm yellow light and a table with water bottles.
A living space featuring a long sofa adorned with multiple pillows.
An image of a room featuring a sofa set, a table, a work desk and chair, flat screen TV, and a dining table

Our stay was in the next category of rooms- Grand Club Rooms on 8th floor, which had leg massage units, nice view of the city and access to club lounge.

An image of an electric foot massager in a room.
Aerial view of the city with multiple buildings.
An image of a room lighting controller featuring multiple options for adjusting brightness, colour, and mood settings.
A person standing in front of a mirror, gazing at his reflection.
An image of a bedroom with with a fancy headboard.
Sunrise with hues of yellow and orange illuminating the sky.

Serene and Business Class rooms are the other two categories.

The 2015 floods: GRT Grand was affected by the December 2015 floods like rest of Chennai. Water entered basement and many services including electricity supply were disrupted. However the hotel guests who were in the campus at the time of floods were well taken care of and the hotel also helped other civilians who wanted help. As a result of flood impact the hotel had to be shut down for 3 months, during which several innovative improvements were also commissioned, besides just restoring the damaged facilities/services.

The culture of Tamil Nadu depicted on each floor:

As the best 5-star hotel in T. Nagar, Chennai, we believe first impressions shouldn’t stop at the lobby. The show starts the moment you step out of the elevator onto your floor. Positioned as an art-focused hotel, each of our floors has a story to tell. Exclusive space is provided on each floor for this purpose. These creatives are managed under the brand, “The art bristo”.

The 9th floor has artwork depicting the Pamban bridge of Rameshwaram, LIC building, Kapaleeshwar temple and other places of significance.

A stone carving of Thiruvalluvar, with intricate details.
An image of an artwork mounted on a wall beside a door

8th floor is dedicated to Kollywood- the Tamil Cinema Industry,

An image showing MGR movie poster.
An image showing a neatly arranged stack of vintage film rollers.
An image of a clapper-board and other wall hangings hung on the wall

8th floor also gets an exclusive club room, with red colour theme- a library, billiards table and sitting area.

An image of a pool table placed in a room which also features sofa sets and other furniture

7th floor is for textiles of Tamil Nadu

An image of a lobby wall where multiple images are hung with the room number signboard is also mounted

6th floor depicts folklore

A close up shot of a wall mounted art frame with different sculptures made on it

5th floor is dedicated to Tamil Literature and so on.

An image of a wall featuring room number plate along with Tamil letters besides it

4th floor is for dance and traditional jewelry

An image of a women in a traditional attire

Note: Because each floor is access controlled by your keycard, you can’t explore other floors on your own. Take help from hotel staff, who will be happy to give you a quick walk through.

Banquet Halls- Second floor has multiple banquet halls

The designer washrooms in lobby level: Lobby gets a designer washroom, built keeping in mind various things women do in restrooms (identified after a brainstorming session with several women). I will stop with this, as I didn’t enter the same and not qualified to comment more. Mens room is also tastefully done. Though there’s Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor guarding the doors with their murals, many guests often get mixed up and enter the wrong restroom, so GRT deploys a staff here to ensure that men don’t enter women’s restroom or vice versa

Cloth painting depicting Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.
An image of flower pots mounted on either side of two pillars

The restaurants:

Bazaaris a 24 hour dining facility in Grand by GRT. Great food with grand colourful display- check my earlier post onthe same.

Hindis a specialty restaurant with very colourful interiors. The central chandelier is designed keeping in mind women’s earrings. The walls are adored with artefacts from various havelis and ancient buildings. The seats and curtains are specially designed. We had our dinner here which was a memorable experience. Chefs made live ice creams, served a great range of signature dishes one after another that kept us busy from 8 PM till 11 PM. Unfortunately by expertise with food is bit limited to describe all those we ate.

An image of a dining area featuring chairs and tables in an ambience with is warmly lit with decorative lighting
A collage image of two chandeliers hanging from the ceiling which is lit with warm yellow lighting
A collage image of the restaurant area and a window frame with sculpture
A close up shot of a beautifully presented food platter and in the background a man can be seen
An image of a restaurant with seating arrangement and warm decorative lighting hanging from the ceiling
An image of a group of people gathered together
A close up shot of the seating arrangement of a restaurant
A small statue of a tiny horse.
An image from a different angle of the restaurant featuring cutlery and crockery laid out on the table
An image of a dining area featuring chairs and tables in a warm lit ambience
An image of group of people posing for a picture at the restaurant.

Gym and Pool: Gym and Swimming pool is located in the basement. Accessible via a separate lift from lobby level.
Bodhi Spaoffers rejuvenating ayurvadic massage and health treatments.

Grand by GRT is very close to US Consulate, shopping hub of T Nagar. Other attractions of Chennai such as Marina beach, Kapaleeshwar temple etc are within 5-10 km radius. Airport is about 25 kms away.

A bunch of lights hanging from the ceiling.
An image of a lobby space with a fancy ceiling emitting warm yellow light.

The very spacious lobby, with an excellent view above (as seen in the picture above this paragraph), offers a wonderful first impression. With our friendly staff at your service, your stay at Grand by GRT—the best luxury hotel in T. Nagar, Chennai—is sure to be a memorable one.

A group of people posing together for a picture.

Rentals: Grand by GRT range from about INR 4000 for business class rooms (single occupancy) to INR 12000+ for the most expensive theme suite. Breakfast and WiFi complementary. You can refer to their official website to check availability and book. Alternatively you can use Booking.com widget below.

This post originally appeared on www.enidhi.net and can be read here.

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Srinidhi Hande enidhi - Srinidhi has been blogging since May 2006, for over 10 years now. An associate manager at a multinational firm, he manages to find time to write about travel, automobiles, lifestyle and product reviews.His blog enidhi.nethas been widely acknowledged and recognised with many distinctions over the years.

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