Indian Style Budget Hotel

Date: 2010/10/18

Picture a dark hallway leading into a ramshackle building. The hotel
sign points down the hallway. it is the sort of hallway that looks
like prime territory for muggers. Fortunately muggers are few in
India. Almost every hallway looks like this. Steps at the end lead up
to the lobby. The staircase is dusty and littered with cigarette
butts. The walls are covered in dried red spit.

The lobby looks remarkably clean. Almost clean enough to forget the
disgusting entry. The man at the desk hands you a couple keys and you
go check out the rooms. The first is tiny. The sheets are thread bare
with holes and looks like they may have not been cleaned after the
last few guests. The TV as usual is missing most of its buttons and
the remotes batteries are dead. The bed is hard and lumpy and you
begin to wonder how old the matress is. The fan works well and a
little ball of hair is swirling aroung the corner of the room
propelled by the overhead fan. Other then that the floor is clean even
though there is a lone sock under the bed. The walls however are
intermitently covered in spittle and the garbage can is stained red
with gobs of tobacco at the bottom. There are no windows and if there
are they look onto the courtyard.

The washroom has no hot water, sink or shower. A dirty western toilet
with a broken seat doesn't flush.  A bucket and a tap serve as your
sink, shower and toilet flushing device.

This describes your worse case scenario standard Indian style budget
hotel. Remarkably most are cockroach and rat free.  With the help of
Lonely Planet I usually avoid these types of places but some times
they are unavoidable. As long as the fan works and the place is bug
free I will stay if there is no other option.

Deluxe hotels aren't always too different. At one place I found the
manager smoking with the bellboy in the shared communal washroom. They
laughed as a rat ran over my feet. The facility in question was
expensive and described as deluxe and ISO 9001 certified.  The rest of
the hotel was terrific and unusually luxurious for that part of India.
It even had AC!!