I spent almost all of 2009 working in Chennai in the IT Mall area over by Ascendas. I stayed at the Hotel New Woodlands for months at a time and was really appreciative of what they delivered as far as quality of food, comfort, attention to my needs. I ate most dinners at the Krishna Multi-cuisine restaurant in the front and enjoyed it immensely; but the location is really good! If you desire non-veg a short walk to Copper Chimney will get you decent food. My favorite Bar in Mylapore is Zara which is right by the Copper Chimney.

The attraction for me at the Hotel was the room quality, the cleanliness and the ease of spending longer term stays there with the value-added services like decent laundry, good location for food at the hotel, and the fun of watching the weddings and receptions.

My last stay in 2011 was for a week and nothing had changed since 2009 when I first stayed for a total of almost a year there. I enjoyed the food and took friends there a number of times for lunches and dinners. We enjoyed the food and coffee each time. The coffee there is something I really miss and I always think when I first land at the Chennai airport of the coffee at the Hotel waiting for me.

If you are looking for a longer stay place, in a great location, and want to see a vast mixture of local and non-local customers; this is the place.

The simplicity , cleanliness, location , size of this property and its Classical South Indian ambience never cease to impress me. I have been visiting this Hotel since 1975 and in the last 36 years, it has always lived up to my reasonable expectations.

True, it cannot be called a "Business" Hotel. It has limited Room Service Hours and being a Pure Vegetarian Hotel, definitely has restrictions on what kind of food would be served as well as permitted inside. But that apart , the Hotel has all the modern conveniences in moderate measures, eg Paid Wifi, Swimming Pool, Aircon, sprawling car park, spacious rooms with excellent housekeeping, superb & very popular vegetarian restaurants with predominantly South Indian cuisine.

All of this for a Brilliant Value of approx USD 40 for a double room. Well, it certainly one of MY top rated Hotels.

Situated at prime location in chennai, woodland hotel does offer comfortable stay, good food and quality service. Marina beach is about 2 kms from the hotel, so a morning walk to the beach is really enjoyable.
For North indians travelling to chennai, while staying at hotel , you can enjoy the south indian thali at Amravthi restaurant near the hotel & for north indian great food, you must visit restaurant called "Tadka"nearby the hotel.

Th only drawback is the television channels. The hotel television doesn't have north indian channels to watch, so you have to spend days watching only 1 or 2 north indian channels.

The New Woodlands is an old established hotel of Chennai and has been in its current location for many years. It has a large base of Indian clientele and unless you have prior reservation made well in advance it may be difficult to get a room during the December music season. Besides, it is located centrally with excellent access to beach, shopping malls, and other points of interest. It is a strictly vegetarian establishment and no smoking is allowed.

South Indian vegetarian food is a strong forte of New Woodlands. There are two restaurants. The lunch/dinner Thali at barely $2 is a steal with rice, poories (deep fried bread), different kinds of soups and vegetable curries, two desserts etc. The morning buffet breakfast consisting of Idlis (steamed rice cakes), vadai (deep fired lentil patties), upma and pongal, poories, fruit cups, toast, cereal and coffee is one of the best in town.

Rooms vary from non AC rooms to air-conditioned cottages. Though the buildings are old, much renovation is taking place with upgraded bath rooms, LCD TVs, nice window shades etc. The rooms are comfortable but not fancy. Those looking for those should look elsewhere.

The General Manager Mr. Babu ably manages the place and always sees to it that our stay is always a pleasent one. We have stayed at other hotels in the past but none comes close to providing the most value for the money.

It is a few minutes walk to the Music Academy and we choose to stay here whenever we are in Chennai. The people at the reception, Messrs Anand, Mani, Rajesh, Ms. Selvam are always cordial and pleasant trying to make our stay a comfortable one. We have become regulars enough for even some of the other staff to recognize us and greet us. We stayed for a week and it was one of the best stays ever. Our room was an air-conditioned deluxe suite with breakfast included. Including food and laundry in cost us roughly around $500.