Hotel Shivanta Residency

The room was clean and furnished well, and the hotel had a relaxing feel. Staff were friendly, quick to respond, and made sure my needs were met. Service was efficient and prompt. A comfortable, enjoyable stay, and I’d recommend it.

The rooms are shabby, and there’s no lock on the main room door. Traffic and honking, along with loudspeaker noise from nearby hotels, came right through the doors and windows, so sleeping at night was very difficult. Staff were rude and unhelpful, and after checkout they wouldn’t even hold my luggage for a few hours.

I stayed three nights, and on the first night someone repeatedly jerked my door handle, apparently trying to get into my room. I had locked it. Just beforehand I’d heard men outside, and afterward I heard the person go into another room on my floor. There was no peephole. The room phone didn’t work, though I’d already reported that and been told it was working, so I couldn’t call reception. The next morning, three staff members banged loudly and aggressively on my door and told me to leave because someone else had booked the room. I’d reserved three nights, so they had double-booked it. One worker then tried to charge me extra for those same nights because of their mistake. I refused. Don’t pay charges that weren’t disclosed at booking; to me, that’s a scam. The place was also too expensive and dirty. The electricity worked maybe half the time and WiFi perhaps 20% of the time. I spent over an hour cleaning when I arrived. I went down to reception to order coffee because the phone was broken, but the coffee never came, so room service wasn’t available either. The photos I took were after I’d cleaned, and it had been much dirtier. Very bad, and very dangerous for women. UPDATE: They created a new Google account, disabled all the reviews, and deleted all the images on the old Google account.

They wouldn’t help load my luggage, and when I asked questions, they didn’t even answer. The staff were rude, arrogant, careless, and had no manners when dealing with tourists. It’s ruining Uttarakhand tourism’s name. My first experience in Rishikesh was not good.