Hotel Royal Arabia — Hotel in Jammu and Kashmir

Rude Restaurant Staff, Pathetic Food, Good Room Size

Long review but this is needed *

This hotel is located in a small lane beside Khyber hospital. There is only one board with the name of the hotel placed at the entrance of the lane which you might miss if you are driving from the left side of the main road towards this lane. The Hotel façade looks promising and glitzy and you might start expecting a lot immediately. They have luggage trolleys like 4 star hotels and the bell boys are helpful. It has only a single lift, so when the lift became dysfunctional we had to climb up and down the stairs which might be a problem if you are put up in higher floors. We were in second floor in the corner most room facing the backside of the hotel. The best thing about this hotel was the size of the room and bathroom. Quite big at the cost you pay. It seems they had setup a lot of provisions but whether those are functional or not is a different question.

The worst thing probably was the staff manning the buffet/restaurant. There was this particular staff who was snapping at anyone and everyone. A lady sitting beside me told him when will the papads be refilled to which he said, "we dont keep papads on the table, do u think thats a papad bowl (pointing to an empty bowl) , that is the roti bowl ( which was untrue becoz roti was kept in a separate place) You need to order papad only then we make it, got it? Do you still want that papad now? " The lady obviously didnt ask for any after this. Then there was another man who asked him to clean the table because it was not cleaned even after waiting for long to which he responded - " Kar raha hu, mere saar pe hi baith jaoge kya?" And finally when i asked him politely for a bottle of water to be taken to my room he looked at me with disdain and said, "it will not be free hope you know that" (as if after spending lakhs on the trip we will not be able to cough up Rs 20 for a bottle of water!). There were many such episodes during the dinner buffet which kept us entertained because otherwise the food was so bland and pathetic that it was inedible. Dal, subzi, chicken everything was the most pathetic tasting.

Pros: Room size Location is near to market

Some of the major cons: Extremely rude restaurant staffs - arrogant as hell! Food was pathetic - never had anything so tasteless in my overall travel history. (don't know how someone can even make chicken taste so tasteless!) The pillow covers were not clean, they had old stains Coffee station was there but they didn't provide tea/coffee/sugar etc. at the station. we had to ask them and only then they provided Hot water timing is 7.30 to 10 both morning and evening. This is super inconvenient for travelers checking out early morning. Ideally such a big hotel should have hot water 24x7 or at least a storage geyser. The TV only showed pixalated hazy pictures. The boy informed this is how it is! then what is the point of even having a TV? The wifi password didnt work for me, and I didnt have the heart to ask again because the first time I asked twice, the person at the reception gave a very irritated response. A weird incident happened to top all of this - me and my mother were getting ready in the room to go out, and suddenly the door to our room flung open and there stood one of the staff of the hotel and asked are u the one who asked for extra sheets? we were like no we didnt and how can u just barge into the room like this without even knocking??? We felt super unsafe after this incident the whole night. So make sure to lock your door and maybe put some chairs against the door to feel safe!!

Overall I am giving 2 stars just for the room size. Nothing else was even worth mentioning.

Final Words: I would not recommend this hotel. Even smaller hotels in Srinagar provide better food and...

A Shocking and Horrible Experience – Stay Away from this hotel.||One of the worst hotel experiences we have ever had. We chose this despite reading several negative reviews, trusting our travel agent’s assurance that past issues had been resolved. Unfortunately, our stay was filled with problem after problem, making us deeply regret booking this hotel.||Let me break it down:||Breakfast was inedible. The food was either burnt, cold, or both. |Despite repeatedly informing the staff in advance that we were traveling with a child, there was absolutely nothing suitable for kids. We were forced to check out without eating — that’s how terrible it was.|||Load shedding (power cuts) occurred multiple times, unannounced and at odd hours, making the stay both uncomfortable and unpredictable.|||On arrival, we were told about limited hot water hours. This is completely unacceptable for paying guests – we don’t expect to schedule our showers around hotel convenience on a holiday.|||Only one working charging point in the entire room. For a family trying to charge phones, tablets, and essential devices, this was a huge inconvenience.||Security breach: The most horrifying moment came at midnight, when another guest opened our room door with their key and walked in — while my daughter was changing. I screamed in shock. When we contacted reception, we were casually told: “Any key can open any room.” That is not just shocking, it’s dangerous. How can such a blatant safety risk be allowed at any hotel?||The next morning, we found animal bones lying outside my parents’ room. We reported it immediately. Four hours passed — still no one came to clean it. This speaks volumes about the poor hygiene standards and utter lack of responsiveness.||And as if all that wasn’t enough — the final straw:||GROSS MISCONDUCT OF THE STAFF -On the day of checkout, hotel staff entered our room without knocking or permission, while I was changing in the bathroom. They came in with a music system, laughing and joking as if it were their personal entertainment space. My young daughter was in complete shock. When questioned, they casually said they came to "clean" the room. This was a clear violation of privacy and basic human decency. I cannot even begin to express the distress and humiliation I felt in that moment.|This hotel is unsafe, unclean, poorly managed, and completely lacking in basic professionalism.||It does not deserve even 1 star, let alone 3. I genuinely wish we had never stayed here. No family should have to go through what we experienced. Please do not fall for false marketing or glossy photos — the reality is entirely different.||Avoid this hotel...

Pathetic experience, below is my experience with this hotel. All hotel staff are big time liars When you check in they say your room is ready but room is same unclean, unhygienic, dirty bedsheet, dirty pillow covers, dirty blanket covers so in short nothing is changed for upcoming guest. When you complain as I said big time liars they say give us 5 minutes to clean it with a fake and annoying smile on their faces. When you are staying more than a night and you want your room to be cleaned then they will ask you to submit your room keys and when you return late evening thinking your room would have been cleaned by house keeping but you are wrong you need to again go to reception and spend an hour explaining and understanding why your room was not cleaned in the day. Then you will try to get your room cleaned in front of you but again they will leave cleaning in between and then again you need to go to reception and again they will say sir 5 min in short you have to do JAAGRAN to get your room cleaned but you booked this hotel to rest but you won't be able to. No toiletries (shampoo, soap, hand wash etc) in the toilet. Uncleaned towels and what not. Before check in my room key was with some other guest and that guest only opened my room infront of me and took out her luggage from my room. There was no room number on my friend's room so we were worried that like the way other guest had my room key, we hoped we were not going to open someone else's room with our key. Hot water has timing so if you think you can sleep a bit late and then take a bath you are wrong you need to plan your sleep according to the hotel else you can go out without bath or else take a bath in chilled water. There is now way I can give rating in -ve that is why giving 1 star otherwise this hotel doesn't deserve a single star. My advice to not to waste your money and peace of mind by booking this hotel. People come to enjoy not to argue and loose their...