Spearmint Sandhya Hotel (Old Name: Peppermint)

Mint green and spanking new, this upbeat new place to stay at crowded Lakdi-ka-Pul area provides instant relief to the traffic-numbed and travel-weary nerves of a regular modern day jet-setter. A subsidiary of the Banglore-based Royal Orchid group of companies, Peppermint is a self-proclaimed "budgeted corporate" hotel.

And a corporate one it is, without the frills and fancies that primarily add to the room tariff, but with well-thought-out facilities more in line with the requirements of a modern-day gentleman (or lady) at work. Be it the Internet-enabled flat screen monitor computers at the very entrance, the cordless phone in every room, or the no-nonsense all-black uniforms of the staff - everything points towards an increasingly pragmatic approach to business travel.

Then again, things are not so very staid here, either. Their restaurant Takatak and the 24-hour coffee shop, managed by Cafe Coffee Day, are both cheerily done in refreshing green and exposed brickwork with wood and rattan furniture that exude a very alfresco-ish appeal.

On the same floor as the lobby, restaurant and coffee shop, is situated the smaller of the banquet halls, Mint, which can accommodate upto 60 people on a good day.

The rooms are on the next few floors, about 12 a floor for the next 5 floors, adding up to a reasonable 60 in number. They come in three sizes - jumbo, regular and compact. The jumbo rooms boast a little antechamber, a large-sized room as promised, a changing room and a decent bathroom - all for about Rs. 5,000.

The regular rooms are minus the foyer and changing room, but nevertheless good-sized. The compact rooms, however, are a tad too compact, but then again they did tell you so. All rooms have flat-screen televisions, tea and coffee-makers, safes, the aforementioned cordless phones, and in the rooms which have the space for it (basically barring the compact ones), a whimsical white wicker swing. How the swing ties in with the other corporate details is worth exploring - but we will currently just take their word for it.

They say all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Peppermint strives to not allow that to happen on its watch. It will arrange any sort of activity, be it stimulating water sports on the Hussain Sagar or a relaxing round of golf at the Golconda Golf course, on request. So if you are in town and have a few spare hours, do take the offer up to remember your Hyderabad trip for its lighter moments.

A quick conversation with their front desk will also reveal that they offer butler service and in-room retail. While butlers have been around for a while now, in room retail is a rather new concept, a sensible one albeit, geared towards that time-bound executive to help him buy small gift items like chocolate and pearls or perhaps even a disposable camera for the family back home.

All said, Peppermint is a cogent approach to meeting the needs of the new-age businessman, without the additional and sometimes rather superfluous frills but incorporating facilities that would certainly add considerable value.