Booking a hotel without having heard or read reviews about it is quite a fearful experience, fearful obviously as we never know what we are going to get. Most of the times the photos, write up at the hotel web site are so exaggerated that they can make a old shabby hut seem like a room from a seven star hotel. We were forced to take upon one such fearful decision recently when we decided on going to Goa for an hastily planned vacation. We just had 10 days to make a hotel booking and October being the start of the peak season in Goa all the hotels which had good review reports were fully booked. Then we came across ‘Sun Kissed Beach Resort’ which had a few rooms left. It was an uncommon name but after having fooled many a time by ‘Hill view’ , ‘Valley view’ where the only view is the ugly toilet on a side and the neighbor’s door on the other side we were pretty sure this one too is neither about sun nor about kissing. So deciding that having any roof over our head was necessary than getting a good one, we went ahead and made the booking. Booking was not very difficult as we got hold of an agent who had earlier arranged for our tour at Kerala.
The moment we landed at the hotel, all our fears seemed unfounded and we were in for a pleasant surprise. The location of the hotel was very near to the main beach road and though it was of course not right next to the beach still it was just a 5 minute walk to the Calungate beach. It is at a short distance from some good restaurants and also if you are planning to buy some souvenirs there are plenty of shops nearby.
The front service is manned (or women-ned) by 3 people who are not too dumb. We had a tough time with them regarding our room booking, after about a 10-15 min hassle, they finally arranged for 2 rooms for us. We later found that they are not so dumb after all and they were quick enough in all other services which involve payment from our end. They quickly could arrange for taxi or bike and cars for rent. But any query on the tourist places or directions (which meant there was no payment involved) were answered so curtly that we never bothered to ask them any such questions again.
The hotel seems to have been designed well with there being 6 blocks with 4 floors each and 4 rooms per each floor. The blocks themselves were arranged with 3 blocks on each side and a really wide gap between these blocks. There was a garden, swimming pool and a restaurant in between (not squeezed in) these blocks. We then realized that the name was indeed appropriate , with the sun indeed kissing the pool and garden. All this meant plenty of air circulation, mind you Goa or for that matter any city with a beach can be suffocating at times ,but the hotel was good with right amount of sun and breeze flowing through. Just keep in mind that there are no lifts so if your room happens to be on the top floor then you will have to walk all the way up. I liked it this way as it gave at least some exercise (my mantra- think positively).
The rooms to came in as a pleasant surprise, they were clean, well maintained and spacious. The room had a double bed with a sofa and 3 chairs and of course an AC (which was necessary even though we were in the peak of winter) . There was a small fridge where we could keep all the bottles. Bathroom too was sparkling clean with towels and soaps all in place. But there was one flaw (or maybe we were expecting too much), which was that the balcony was too small with just the space for one chair, we ended up using that only to hang our clothes. The view from the windows too was not that good with they directly opening to the dust bins of the other resort beside this one, but it did not bother us much , we were anyhow planning to be in the room only at night.
The swimming pool was big enough and there were plenty of sun directly to the pool which meant the water was not too cold and there was facility to have a leisurely sun bath right beside the pool. There was an attached pool for the kids too. There is a restaurant right in the middle of the hotel where the breakfast was free. After having our first breakfast we never dared to try out lunch or dinner. Would suggest for all food needs to go to umpteen number of restaurants situated with a 5 min walk from the hotel. Adventure seeking can also try out the countless shacks right next to the beach. The food at the shacks is ok as long as you are a non-vegetarian and don’t mind an occasional fly or mosquito in the dish.
The rooms are cleaned daily provided you instruct at the front desk accordingly, else they will be left untouched. We were told it is to respect the guest’s privacy ( wonder which guest would not want his room cleaned ?). But the cleaning was done properly and the towels and soaps replaced daily.
Security is assured because there is only one gate to come into the compound and so theft if any would have to be an internal job. But we felt pretty safe even to leave the camera and few such valuables in the room.
So to summarize, the positives are
- Good location ,we can access any part of Goa from here very easily
- Well designed , airy and cool
- Rooms are clean (bathrooms too !)
- Good swimming pool
- Easy access to the beach
- Many restaurants within short distance
On the negative side
- Front desk can be more responsive
- Food at restaurant would have to improve a lot
- No view of the beach (though I doubt any other hotel in this range offers this privilege)
- No kids play area except for the garden
Would recommend it to anyone looking for a clean, neat, safe, easily accessible place, especially for those going with kids.
