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Accommodation
India has a very wide range of accommodation possibilities beyond straightforward hotels. Some hotels operate on a 24-hour system (i.e., your time starts when you check in). Others have noon, or earlier, checkout times. It pays to check first. Some hotels request an upfront fee based on your estimated time of stay. If your expenses don't match the prepaid amount you will receive a refund at the time of checkout. If you have a credit card, you may be asked to sign a blank impression of you card which will be destroyed when you pay your bill at the end of you stay. The hotel may be acting with honest intent but such practices should not be encouraged. If they do insist refuse to sign it. If they insist then write in an amount that will be less than your estimated expenditure.
Some of the very cheap, very basic places won't take foreigners because of the hassle of the foreign registration C forms (these have to be submitted to the local police station within 24hours of the foreigner checking in).
Youth Hostels
Government accommodation
Tourist bungalows
Railway retiring
rooms
Railway waiting
rooms
Cheap hotels
Expensive hotels
Homestays
Other possibilities
Taxes and
service charges
Seasonal variations
Touts
Youth Hostels
Indian youth hostels( HI-Hostelling International) are generally very cheap and sometimes in excellent condition with superb facilities. They are, however, often some distance form the town centres. You are not usually required to be a YHA (HI) member (as I other countries ) to use the hostels, although your YHA/HI card will generally get you a lower rate. The charge is typically Rs 15 for members, Rs 30 for non-members. Nor do the usual rules about arrival and departure times, lights-out or not using the hostel during the day apply.
There are also some state government youth hostel in main cities but they tend to be very badly run.
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Government Accommodation
Back in the days of the British raj, a whole string of government-run accommodation units were set up with labels like Rest houses, Dak Bungalows, Circuit Houses, PWD (Public Works Department) Bungalows, Forest Rest Houses and so on. Today most of these are reserved for government officials, although in some places they may still be available for tourists, if there is room. In approximate pecking order the Dak Bungalows are the most basic; they often have no electricity, the bare essential equipment and are in out-of-the-way places. Rest Houses are next up and at the top of the tree comes the Circuit houses, which are strictly for travelling VIPs.
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Tourist Bungalows
Usually run by state government, tourist bungalows often serve as replacements for the older government-run accommodation. They are generally excellent value, although their facilities and level of service vary enormously.
They often have dorm beds as well as rooms. The rooms have a fan, two beds and bathroom; air-con rooms are often also available. Generally there's a restaurant or 'dining hall' and often a bar. The local branch of the state government tourist office is often at the tourist bungalow.
Almost every state has some towns where the tourist bungalow is definitely the best place to stay. Their biggest drawback is that, in common with state-run companies virtually anywhere, the staff may be less than 100% motivated - in some cases they are downright lazy and rude - and maintenance is not what it might be.
In tourist bungalows, as many other government-run institutions in India, such as the railways you will find a curiously Indian institution: the 'complaints book'. In this you can write your complaints and periodically someone higher up the chain of command comes along, reads the terrible tales and the tourist bungalow manager gets his knuckles rapped. In disputes or other arguments, calling for the complaints book is the angry customer's best weapon; it's the one thing which minions seem to be genuinely afraid of. In many places the complaints book can provide interesting and amusing reading.
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Railway Retiring Rooms
These are just like regular hotels or dormitories except they are at the
train stations. Too stay here you are generally supposed to have a railway ticket or Indrail Pass. The rooms are, of course, extremely convenient if you have an early train departure, although they can be noisy if it is a busy station. They are often very cheap and in some places they are also excellent value. Some stations have retiring rooms of definite Raj furniture to do up a flat or apartment back home. They are usually excellent value, if a little institutional in feel, and are let on a 24-hour basis. The main problem is getting a bed, as they are very popular and often full.
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Railway Waiting rooms
For emergency accommodation when all else fails or when you just need
a few hours rest before your train departs at 2 am, waiting rooms are a free place to rest your weary head. The trick is to rest in the (usually empty) 1st class waiting room and not the crowded 2nd class one. Officially you need a 1st class ticket to be allowed to use the 1st class room and its superior facilities. In practice, luck, a 2nd class Indrail Pass or simply your foreign appearance may work. In some places your ticket will be checked.
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Cheap Hotels
There are cheap hotels all over India, ranging from filthy, uninhabitable dives (but with prices at rock bottom) up to quite reasonable places in both standards and prices. Ceiling fans, mosquito nets on the beds, private toilets and bathrooms are all possibilities, even in doubles which cost Rs 200 or less per night.
Throughout India, hotels are defined as 'western' or 'Indian'. The differentiation is basically meaningless. Although expensive hotels are always western, cheap ones Indian. 'Indian' hotels will be more simply and economically furnished but the acid test is the
toilet. Western hotels have a sit-up style toilet. Indian ones usually (but not always) have the traditional Asian squat. You can find modern, well equipped, clean places with Indian toilets and dirty, dismal dumps with western toilets. Some places even have the weird hybrid toilet, which is basically a western toilet with foot pads on the edge of the bowl.
Although prices are generally quoted in this book for singles and doubles, most hotels will put an extra bed in a room to make a triple for about an extra 25%. In some smaller hotels its often possible to bargain a little if you really want to. On the other hand these places will often put their prices up if there's a shortage of accommodation.
Many hotels, and not only the cheap one, operate on a 24 hour system. This can be convenient if you check in at 8 pm, as it gives you until 8 pm the following day to check out. Conversely, if you arrive at 8 am one day it can be a nuisance to have to be on the streets again by 8 am the next day. There are, however, considerable regional variations. Some hotels maintain a noon checkout; hill stations often operate on a 9 am (or even 7 am!) checkout. Make sure you know the checkout time at the hotel. Some hotels will offer a half-day rate if you want to stay a few extra hours.
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Expensive Hotels
You won't find ' international standard' hotels throughout India. The big, air-con, swimming-pool places are generally confined to the major tourist centres and the large cities. There are a number of big hotel chains in India. The Taj Group has some of India's flashiest hotels, including the luxurious Taj Mahal Intercontinental in Mumbai, the romantic Rambagh Palace in Jaipur and the Lake Palace in Udaipur. Other interesting hotels are the Taj Coromandel in Chennai, the Fort Aguada Beach Resort in Goa and the Malabar Hotel in Kochi (Cohin). The Oberoi chain is a well known outside India as within. Clarks is a small chain with popular hotels in Varanasi and Agra, among other places. Other hotel chains include Welcomegroup (affiliated with Sheraton), Ritz, Casino, and the Air India0associated Centaur hotels.
In addition, there is the government operated ITDC group which usually append the name 'Ashok' to their hotels. There's an Ashok hotel in virtually every town in India, so that test isn't foolproof, but the ITDC places include a number of smaller (but higher-standard) units in places like Sanchi or Konark where accommodation possibilities are limited. The ITDC has been under attack in India for some time about its overall inefficient operation, financial losses and poor standards. Privatisation was mooted at one stage as a way of raising capital and improving service, but this is still yet to happen and standards remain unchanged.
Most expensive hotels operate on a noon checkout basis.
You may be able to negotiate a discount on air-con in December and January since air-con often isn't necessary then.
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Homestays
Staying with an Indian family can be a real education. It's a change from dealing strictly with tourist oriented people, and the differences and curiosities of everyday Indian life can be very interesting.
Homestay accommodation is organised on an official basis in Rajsthan. The cost is anything from Rs 50 upwards, depending on the level of facilities offered. The Rajasthan Tourism Developmet Corporation (RTDC) administers the scheme and main city offers have comprehensive lists of families offering this service. It's known as the Paying Guest House Scheme. Chennai and Mumbai have similar schemes, as do Calcutta and Chennai.
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Other Possibilities
There are YMCAs and YWCAs in many of the big cities - some of these are modern, well equipped and cost about the same as a mid range hotel (but are still good value). There are also a few Salvation Army Hostels- in particular Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai. There are a few camping places around India, but travellers with their own vehicles can almost always find hotels with gardens where they can park and camp.
Free accommodation is available at some Sikh gurudwaras (temples) where there is a tradition of hospitality to visitors. It can be interesting to try one, but please don't abuse this hospitality and spoil it for others.
At many pilgrimage sites there are dharamshalas and choultries, places which offer accommodation to pilgrims, and travellers are often welcome to use these. This particularly applies at isolated sites such as Ranakpur in Rajasthan. Jain dharamshalas usually don't allow leather articles inside.
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Taxes & Service Charges
Most state governments impose a variety of taxes on hotel
accommodation (and restaurants). At most rock-bottom hotels you wont have to pay any taxes. Once you get into the top end of budget places, and certainly for mid-range accommodation, you will have to pay something, and top-end places can really load on the tax. The tax varies from state to state - these are detailed in the regional chapters.
Another common tax, in addition to the above, is a service charge which is pegged at 10%. In some hotels, this is only levied on food, room service and use of telephones, not on the accommodation costs. At others, it's levied on the total bill. If you're trying to keep telephone use to a minimum if you know that a service charge is levied on the total bill.
Rates quoted in this book are the basic rate only unless otherwise indicated. Taxes and service charges are extra.
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Seasonal Variations
In Popular tourist places (hill stations, beaches and the Delhi-Agra-Rajasthan triangle), hoteliers raise their high season prices by two to three times the low-season price.
The definition of the high and low seasons obviously varies depending on location. For the beaches and the Delhi-Agra-Rajasthan triangle it's basically a month before and two months after Christmas. In the hill stations and Kashmir, it's usually April to July when the lowlands are unbearably hot. In some locations and at some hotels, there are even higher rates for the brief Christmas/New Year period, or over major festivals such as Diwali and Dusshera.
Conversely, in the low season(s), prices at even normally expensive hotels can be surprisingly reasonable.
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Touts
Hordes of accommodation touts operate in many towns in India - Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi in particular - and at any international airport terminal. Very often they are the rickshaw-wallahs who meet you at the bus or train station. The technique is simple-they take you to hotel A and rake off a commission for taking you there rather than hotel B. the problem with this procedure is that you may well end up not at the place you want to go but at the place that pays the best commission. Some very good cheap hotels simply refuse to pay the touts and you'll then hear lots of stories about the hotel you want being 'full', 'closed for repairs', 'no good any more' or even 'flooded'. Nine chances out of ten they will be just that - stories.
Think twice before agreeing to stay in a hotel recommended by touts or rickshaw wallahs, as some travellers have warned that they stayed in such hotels only to be subsequently badgered to take part in rip-off insurance and import schemes or to accept the sightseeing services of a particular taxi or rickshaw driver.
Touts do have a use though- if you arrive in a town when some big festival is on, or during peak season, finding a place to stay can be very difficult. Hop in a rickshaw, tell the driver in what price range you want a hotel, and off you go. The driver will know which places have rooms available and unless the search is a long one you shouldn't have to pay the driver too much. Remember that he will be getting a commission from the hotel too.
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