Hotel Ratings in India

Like any country in the world the hotels in India are rated by a number of stars to indicate their quality and standard of the rooms and service one is to receive. To break it down to you here is my star guide :

5 Stars(call it 6) – This would consist of the major groups like Oberoi, Leela, Hilton, Marriot, Sheraton, Lalit, The Taj Groups, etc these would be all as opulent as possible 16million count thread duvets, flat screen tvs, walk in closets alike. These hotels cater for and are frequented by movie stars and high end industrialists among the foreign tourist willing to splurge...

4 Stars – There is a big drop between 5 and 4, among the 4's some would be the Trident, Holiday Inn's and just a very few more, its a pity there aren't many more because the 5 star hotels seemed to be very expensive.

3 Star – We didnt stay at any 3 stars, maybe the houseboat would fall under this category, I'd say avoid this unless you are going to get really high on tobacco paan every night.

2 Star – You'd be better off sleeping in the back of a tuktuk that drives around the city all night

1 Star – Stray dogs will wake you up with morning pee while you enjoy sleeping on dusty streets...

A tip for booking accommodation in India – always book as ahead as possible because the prices just go up as you get closer. I've found the following website – www.hotelscombined.com which scours the internet to find the cheapest prices of each hotel from a number of operators and hoteldesks as well. Be careful though, once you chose these rates to ensure they include the country's taxes or else you would be billed an extra 15 or so % for that, basically take 5 minutes to read the fine print! Usually these rates are considerably cheaper on of the reasons being they are non refundable, so once booked they cannot be altered and are usually billed on confirmation. Some of the sites also have great membership programs, like hotels.com give you a free night stay at any hotel irrespective of stars after booking 10 nights at any hotel! At some hotels we chose the breakfast included option and it was awesome, others we didnt(even though there was an option which was more expensive) and on arrival the reception told us all guests have breakfast included.

One of the breakfasts we had the waiter had offered me some type of spice to give my omelette a kick, I asked him if it were chillipowder and he said “no! gunpowder” either this gun was a water pistol, or I am just too Indian for my own good, that spice didnt even tickle the hiatus! To be fair though I did see many chili sauces and curries that looked as strong as an ox and after just looking at it my eyes began to water and a tiny ulcer formed in my stomach. Most restaurants on exit serve “somph” fennel seeds, a kind of natural gaviscon which is all unhygienically placed in a bowl awaiting your curry stained fingertips, despite the thought of licking others palms I did have a few sprinkles of this stuff!