The hotel presents itself as a 4-star property, but unfortunately, we did not feel that it met that standard. Some of the facilities, particularly the pool and the room, could benefit from updating and better attention to detail.
On the positive side, the reception staff were very kind and helpful throughout our stay. A special mention goes to Prabha at breakfast, who was truly lovely, welcoming, and always genuinely interested in how our stay was going.
The main issue for us was the way tours were promoted by the hotel manager. We felt quite a lot of pressure to book tours directly through her, including after providing our personal WhatsApp number. We were also specifically told not to speak with other people about tours, which made us uncomfortable. In the end, we booked a tour through the hotel. Despite being told otherwise, what we received was essentially a driver service, and the driver could not communicate in English. After that, we continued to receive messages encouraging us to book additional tours.
We subsequently discovered that arranging transportation ourselves through ride-hailing apps was considerably cheaper and gave us much more flexibility. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a hotel offering tours and additional services, but guests should not feel pressured to purchase them.
The location is also worth considering. The hotel is in Thamel, which is extremely busy and chaotic. As Western tourists, we found the constant approaches from people trying to sell tours, taxis, souvenirs, and other services quite draining. This is obviously not the hotel's fault. However, unfortunately, the pressure we experienced from the hotel manager to purchase additional services made us feel that this same dynamic continued inside the hotel. Rather than feeling treated primarily as guests, we sometimes felt treated as an additional source of income.
Overall, there were genuinely pleasant aspects to our stay, particularly the kindness of the reception and breakfast staff, but the outdated facilities and, above all, the persistent pressure to book tours significantly affected our experience.
