Taj Coromandel

Those whose work takes them to India likely know the Taj hotel empire well — with an outpost in every major city they’re a mainstay of the high-end business-hotel market, where efficiency meets luxury, and traditional Indian style meets contemporary international design. And those with business in Chennai know the Taj Coromandel — the city is one of India’s industrial centers, and the Taj, one imagines, is where quite a lot of business changes hands.

It’s saddled with a slightly disappointing building, but the interiors, on the heels of a major renovation, are very much up to the current Taj standard: a contemporary take of the classic luxe-colonial look, crisp and smart but well short of anything you’d call design-y. Rooms start large enough and scale on up to absolutely massive — but you don’t have to book the presidential suite to get the basics, including wireless internet, plush bed and bath, and a very workable desk. And as is the custom in a hotel of the Taj Coromandel’s stature, an array of services are designed to keep visiting executives (and you) fit and fed, from the pool and 24-hour gym to the restaurants, one Indian and the other Italian.