Samskara & Samsara

We had booked a Standard room by paying ~6k INR but were in for a shock when we saw the room in reality. Yes, we had seen the pictures of the room on Booking.com prior to booking but there was a significant difference between the pictures and what we actually got. The Standard room was dirty (for lack of a better word) overall with dirt marks on the ceiling, walls and the floor. There was clear dampness on the ceilings which resulted in a weird smell in the room. The floor was covered with a brown laminate which looked like it had not been cleaned in years. We obviously did not have the heart to check the bathroom. It was such a dimly lit room that even with all the lights on (during peak day time), it was dark with almost no ventilation at all. The little corridor outside the room was also equally bad with little cleanliness and upkeep. Upon complaining about the room and highlighting the fact that we were certainly expecting better (and we were not expecting the moon and the stars) for the price paid, we were told by the booking desk that the room details were clearly mentioned on the Booking.com page ! We spoke to the on-ground facility manager (Mr. Vipul) who heard us out and highlighted that booking was handled centrally by a seperate team (Ms.Priyanka) and there was not much he could help with from a booking point of view. He offered to upgrade us to a Swiss tent for an additional charge of 3500, which to me (after having looked at the tent) did not seem reasonable on top of what I had already paid (eventual price would have been 9.5k for which I would have got much better room elsewhere). Ultimately, Mr. Vipul spoke to the owner and he managed to upgrade us for free to the tent. The overall summary is that we had a good stay in the tent with decent bed, AC, hot water and a sit-out area. However, I would like to raise a red flag (deep red !) here to someone booking the Standard room which clearly is not livable & worth the money being charged.