Muscatel Springburn — Hotel in West Bengal

THIS IS A BOARDING LODGE & NOT A HOTEL, as per definition. They don't serve food - not even drinking water bottles. Unless this is a typical feature of West Bengal "hotels", all across the country, lodges at the least stock good drinking water bottles. Here, one has to pay the front office executive to go out, buy bottles and deliver to rooms.

The rooms are not maintained - the windows don't close fully. the bathroom window remains open there is so much dampness and moss on the walls - it is evident that there no upkeep nor is there any inspection of such unhealthy environment. This is an absolutely wrong choice of room to rest. The hotel is on a main road with vehicles plying and honking all the time. With windows that don't close, I barely slept for an hour or two every night. For the 3 nights I stayed here - the sleep quality was terrible. The shower hob is clogged and water from the tap barely trickles. There is no space to store luggage. They have a small covered shelf, for additional pillows. The room is equipped with two chairs and a centre table with a minimal leg space...

The food delivered by the QR code based food outlet is less than palatable - we ordered for a chicken-dopiaza (e.g.) & what came in was a concoction of few pieces of chicken, and a whole lot of spicy masala topped with 20~25% oil floating over a few pieces of onions... And I am pretty sure that they serve the same gravy for anything they need to chicken out..

There's a small stout with a library stocked with. books n periodicals from yesteryears. Guests are free to scream over mobile phone conversations here.

So - in a nutshell .. this is absolutely a NOGO !! As for the rates .. it can vary anything from less than 2000/- to 6000/- bucks per double room per night,...

We recently stayed there for 4 days and i must say we had a very pleasant experience all together. Its a nice comfy stay at a prime location ..its right next to mall road beside the big clock tower amidst all the great spots.. the USP of the property is the location no doubt.. its a walking distance from the taxi stand and in famous keventers & glenarys.. the room (305) was clean spacious and quite apt... Kudos to receptionist Miss Prashanti for providing the apt suite from where you can get a clear view of the kanchenjunga peak ( yes ofcourse if its a clear sky and yes its a not a direct straight view) ..luckily we got the chance to see kanchenjunga from our room every single day.. I've added some snaps for the same but trust me pictures wont do justice.. You have to be here to get the experience... One demrit or scope for improvement I would say is that they dont provide complementary breakfast which i think should have been there considering the charges rest all is fine and I would definitely recommend the place...

Additional tip: probably you already know but still i would say if you wanna do breakfast then go for keventers(try to get as early as 8 to avoid line) and for dinner its glenarys. For snacks or for authentic momo try Kunga resturant just few minute walk at the entrance of mall.. and oh yeah keventers do serve the "Softy Icecream" ..try that once just for sake...

The check-in process was very smooth. It took us less than 10 mins to complete all the paperwok formailities and get the room. The room we got was on the ground floor. The room size was just fine for the 3 of us, my wife, daughter and I. The bathroom was spacious as well with all the facilities from hot water, to hair dryer and toiletries. The hotel has both room service and food available in the cafeteria. The staff is very cooperative, well behaved, cutomer obessesed. Special shout-out to Ms Prashanti who helped us to book our ride for our local sightseeing in Darjeeling. She is a very special Muscatel employee as she understands the true meaning of customer obsession. Not only she made sure that everything went as planned but was courteous enough to check-in regularly with us to see if our day was going on well and if we are enjoying the sightseeing. Over all we had a great time in our 3 nights that we spent in Darjeeling. The Mall Road from the hotel is around 100 Meters. You will see the iconic clock tower which is bang in between the hotel and the mall road. The Toy train station from hotel is a 10 mins walk (all downhill). Another employee who needs a shout-out is Mr Binod. he looks after F&B for this chain of hotels and is very polite and a kind man. Keep up the good work guys - Prashanti and Binod made our stay even more memorable...