Boho's Hotel — Hotel in Kerala

We stayed here from April 14 to April 19 and unfortunately, our experience was far from what was expected. We had booked two rooms (Room 4 and Room 5) with terrace access, hoping for a peaceful and comfortable stay, but right from the moment we arrived, the experience was stressful and frustrating.

When we reached Varkala around 4 PM after a long day of travel, we were informed that there was no electricity or water in the rooms. We couldn’t shower or use the washrooms on the first day. To their credit, the staff did arrange alternative accommodation for that night and helped us move to another property (In Da Hotel). However, one of the rooms there also didn’t have running water, and due to the Vishu festival, no plumber could be arranged. We were then shifted again to another property (Novella Hotel), where we were given only one room for the night. We had to check out by 12 PM the next day, which meant spending the entire day moving around with our luggage until we moved back to Boho the next afternoon.

Once back at Boho, we stayed until the 19th, but the issues continued. Room 5 had no lock on the washroom door, and Room 4 had a non-functioning AC, which meant we had to be moved again (this time to Room 6, which did not have terrace access). The AC was fixed the next day.

The overall maintenance of the property was very poor. We encountered multiple insects throughout the stay – lizards, cockroaches, caterpillars, ants – both inside the rooms and around the property. The mirrors in the hallway were dirty, and the rooms barely had usable mirrors—just small one in Room 5 and none in the others except for a dimly lit ones in the bathroom. The place also didn’t feel very secure. There was only one security guard on duty, and we hardly saw him during our stay.

Housekeeping was completely absent. The rooms were not cleaned even once, the bedsheets were never changed throughout our 5 days stay. At no point was room cleaning communicated or offered to us. We also had to manually clean and refill our water bottles from downstairs.

While we appreciated the staff’s effort to provide updates and assist with moving our luggage, the overall lack of maintenance, hygiene, and basic functionality made this a highly uncomfortable stay. This was not what we had expected when booking, and unfortunately, I cannot recommend this property based on...

Had an absolutely terrible experience staying at this property. It isn’t a hotel but a homestay. The staff were unprofessional and lacked any sense of hospitality. We had requested a pickup service and they outright refused to arrange for any. They couldn’t help us with early check-in, we had to wait for hours, we ended up unwillingly killing time at a cafe. It felt like there was no one in charge to attend to guests.To make matters worse, the stay lacks basic security measures, which is a significant concern. There was no reception staff available when we needed assistance. We had to communicate regarding our needs / inconvenience on a call since there was no one responsible present at the reception for a long time. The person on call was also rude while interacting. The room door locks didn’t feel secure at all, which made us uneasy during our stay. We were highly disappointed to discover there was a single old fashioned door latch to keep the room locked. I wouldn't recommend this place, especially for female travellers. The so called rustic charm did not work for us, room was dusty and poorly lit. Do not rely on the photographs of the property shared online, they are misleading. No TV available in the room. There is no in house restaurant, hence you will have to rely on cafes / restaurants outside for your meals. Overall an unpleasant experience. We were just relieved to leave...

The decor of the room was really tasteful, and unique. However there were a few things that let it down. Firstly, we didn’t really find anywhere we could simply sit. The outside area was quite dingy and full of insects as it was on the ground floor, and the cushions were a bit stained which was unattractive. There was nowhere to sit in the bedroom, and the roof was in use for yoga classes every time we ventured up there. This meant that we had to spend money in cafes rather than having a place to retreat to. Unfortunately our room also smelled really bad. It was very clean, but I think they have a problem with damp in the walls. Because of the insects, we didn’t feel we could open any of the windows to air the room, so we had to have the bathroom extractor fan on all night. Finally, both the other rooms on the ground floor were being renovated, so it felt a bit like we were staying in a building site, though there was no noise from the works. Once the works are finished, and with clean cushions and a good clean of the outside area, and dealing with the damp issue, this could be a really nice place to stay. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite yet, so we went and stayed in another hotel for three nights. For an extra 5,000 a night we got a much bigger, bright room with a sea view balcony, a pool, breakfast and a shorter walk...