Palace on Ganges - Heritage Hotel

The hotel is reasonably well located, within walking distance of the Ganges. However, it is situated on a very busy street corner, and the noise level is substantial—both outside the hotel and inside the rooms. The rooms are marketed as luxury rooms, and even if *Palace on Ganges – Heritage Hotel* were to be reborn in Nirvana (to stay spiritual, given that we are in Varanasi), it would never come close to qualifying as a luxury hotel or luxury rooms. The property is worn down, and even a loving touch would not be sufficient—what is needed is a complete renovation. Most rooms have no windows, and hot water has yet to make its way to *Palace on Ganges – Heritage Hotel*. If I am to praise *Palace on Ganges – Heritage Hotel* for anything, it would be the restaurant, which serves simple but quite decent food. The restaurant staff genuinely do everything they can to ensure a good experience. One can only wish that this level of service had spread to the rest of the hotel staff.

1 - this hotel has a fake misleading modern building photo in its business google site. It's really an old colonial building. See photos below. 2 - the "upper level" room I reserved is not "up" either in hight or in quality. "Upper" means only that it's not on ground level beneath the entrance / reception. 3 - upon arrival late at night we were assigned to the worst possible room: Right next to reception; windows right next to honking cars. I had reserved four months in advance, paid in full, and booked for seven nights. One would expect some kind of better treatment. 4 - upon my demand the next morning we were assigned a room on the 2nd floor. My request to speak with the manager was ignored. 5 - four out of seven nights there was no hot water. It comes and goes. 6 - one day we returned at 9:00 pm, to find that the room had not been cleaned. By way of 'apology', they added a third water bottle to the two daily complimentry ones... 7 - I then asked the reception manager for the 2nd time to speak with the manager. He promised to arrange it; nothing happened. 8 - I also told him I have a bitter negative feeling about this hotel. He wasnt impressed. 9 - the next day I told him I expect some kind of compensation. Again he wasnt impressed. 10 - on our final day the receptionist forgot a 4:00 am wakeup call. 11 - at checkout, my two credit cards (no prblms all over india and varanasi) were rejected by the hotel's three charging instruments. Location: 100 meters from Assi Ghat. For immediate face2face interaction most of the staff are VRRY service oriented.

This property was well located but the rooms were not as clean as I would like, there is lots of dust and because they are renovating there was a paint smell. Breakfast area is quite poor and needs to be renovated , the food was great from the kitchen and the staff friendly