Hotel Pokhara Grande — Hotel in Pokhara

This is an independent and honest review from a well travelled “Westerner”. Please read below n to understand why this hotel is reviewed as being 2/5 - also when reading other reviews PLEASE watch out for those which are not independent and written by local guides who have a vested interest.

Firstly, this is not a 4 or 5 star hotel by any stretch of imagination. This is somewhere between a European 2 or 3 star standard (hence the 2/5 review). I completely understand this is a remote part of Nepal but you cannot claim to be the "only 5 star hotel in Pokhara" and charge 5 star hotel prices for what we experienced.

I'll start with the highlight of the hotel, the staff, they cannot do enough for you, they try their best within their means to make sure the people spending the night in their hotel are comfortable. They all clearly take great pride in their work and that really melts your heart when it’s juxtaposed against the standard of the hotel... And that ladies and gents is the end of the highlights.

The only reason we choose this hotel was due to its apparent high rating and its proximity to Lakeside which is where the hub of tourist attractions / restaurants and bars / shops are. Its no more than a 10-12 min taxi ride which should cost 300 NPR each way. Furthermore, price wise this was the only hotel which was reasonable for a 4/5* hotel but in all honesty the management team need to invest heavily into the hotel to bring its standard up. As mentioned the staff are gold, but give them good facilities to work with and they will elevate this establishment.

Rooms including bathrooms are dated, think 90s Travelodge (UK) standard. Everything from the kettle and rattling fridge to the furnishings are old. Granted this means there is some decent wooden furniture but honestly you would never use it, I mean when was the last time you unpacked into a sideboard? Room doors and windows are super thin which makes it absolute bliss (sarcasm) when you've got a neighbour with a late check in at 1am near you - or more common, the noise from the entire hotel going to Sarangkot at 4am for sunrise.

Not that a robe / gown means much, but just as a matter of principle, I’d rather not have one in the room than have one that looks like it’s been worn by each person in Pokhara before being left for me to try on.

WiFi is non existent throughout the hotel so communication by whatsapp or email is very (honestly very) painful. Its done through a WiFi access coupon which you need to enter the code each time you want to use the internet, (on iOS that meant every hour or so). I was told by an engineer that the hotel has a 1mbs WiFi connection which goes through one router for an entire block of rooms (probably 20 or so rooms). So when running a network speed test I got a whooping 0.06mbs - good thing Netflix wasn’t on the agenda.

Gym - in one word, dangerous. The electric machines are around 15 old, the weights probably north of 20. It’s very hard to use and really a waste of space considering how its just a lot of scrap metal. Treadmills have eroded away but worst still the electric motors and mats aren’t functioning properly which means when you try to run the mat slips and jolts meaning you’re playing roulette with your legs.

Breakfast - small buffet, more akin to a roadside B&B, egg station is the best bit but aside from that its not a buffet you’d look forward to the night before when tucking into bed.

Shower temperature goes cold after 10pm but we were warned about this by hotel staff before hand.

The staff are the saving grace of this hotel, aside from that management really need to take out their chequebook and invest in this hotel if it’s to stay in business in the...

I have never had such a bad experience at any property like I had here at this property. I am on a 2 day stay at Grande Pokhara and I booked this after seeing 4.5 rating of thia property everywhere. However, to my utter surprise, right from the moment I reached here everything turned out bad. To start with, once we reached our rooms, ACs were not working. After coming from an exhausting flight journey already, the least that we expect is comfortable room but ACs were not working in all our 4 rooms. Next that happened was that the flush in the bathroom got over filled and all water came out. Imagine the plight of a customer who has paid such a huge amount for booking a so called 4.5 star hotel. BTW it doesn't end here! The next issue we faced was with lunch. When we reached we requested if can get lunch by 2pm. While the hotel manager agreed and accordingly after getting late due to ACs nit working and a power cut in the hotel just after that, we managed to reach for lunch by 1:50pm and when we began eating, all food was served cold. After having spoiled our experience, we requested hotel to give us our refund for 2nd day so that we can book a decent stay for us atleast for a day. However the hotel clearly refused not only did they understand or resolve our issues but simply refused to accommodate us inspite of such major gaps on their part.

I would also like to mention that in the night I ordered for a pastry as it was my husband's bday and the pastry was stale. When I called up to inform the hotel, I got an amazing response I.e. but you didn't pay for it.

Never seen such major lapses in hospitality at any hotel specially the ones with 4.5 ratings. I am wondering are these...

Bathroom and showers were excellent. Nice and Hot water flows within 60 seconds. I sensed that my room was probably cleaned at least twice a day, and in the evenings you get a surprise tiny bouquet on top of your blanket and blankets kept ready to tug in. Indeed gives a pleasing feeling. The garden is small for a resort but is nice and view of Mountains are great. Peaceful quiet location away from the happening crowd. Over all - Yes! Its the LUXURY (almost)!

Needs improvement (specially if Hotel wants to claim as 4 Stars). I was confused where to park as I was not guided. But never had an issue on finding a space. The Front Office staff are nice and courteous, maybe little too serious that masked their warmth. The room that I was check in at first night was nice but small. And the luxurious big furniture with King size bed made it look even smaller. I could hardly walk around without stumbling here and there. I threw away the soap cover and toilet seat cover into the dustbin in the bathroom, only to find out later in the evening floating in my toilet. No wonder plumbing jammed problems to expect in future. Closet doors need little tuning and fixing for smooth opening and closing. I was shifted to bigger room and my luggage was transferred as well while I was away at work. Later in the evening I get a call asking that 2 Kimonos (bath robe) were missing from the previous room (which I had not even seen them). No issues though. During my deep sweet sleep at 4am one morning a phone rings in my room. I thought someone got sick or some kind of emergency. I walked to the phone and a voice of front office says happily- “Good morning Sir! Wake up call”, which I have...