Hotel Swagath

Our stay at Hotel Swagath felt like a shot out of the 90s. It is a cozy little thing tucked away in Kolkata's Ballygunge. It is easy to find even in passing on Hazra Road with a prominent name board. They have parking here but don't count on it because it can barely accommodate 2 vehicles at a time. What the parking space affords is the luxury to unload baggage at leisure without being hurried on a road. This is mostly a haunt for SBI Service Personnel and serves primarily as a Holiday/Convalescence Home for them so any bookings from non-SBI folk are treated separately. We were a mixed group with both kinds of bookings (and why we were there in the first place). The check-in process was elaborate and took time. We had to wait for the rooms to be cleaned. They has an elevator but there were notices mentioning operational issues during the monsoons. We had none during our stay of 3 nights. The rooms were passable for the price that is charged and it ought to be possible to get better for the same price. The management could look into the cleanliness of the linens, towels and the surfaces within the room. They were reasonably spacious though. The washrooms were clean. We relied on the in-house restaurant a lot during our stay and this proved to be the winsome aspect of our stay. Given the culinary needs of our party, the restaurant's inclusion of South Indian dishes helped. Even when I had other dishes, the quality of the food was never in question. From what I could gather, they provide laundry service if required. We enquired but opted not to use it. They also helped arrange for a taxi to Mayapur and back. The operator they connected us with proved to be a good one and gave us a Kia Carens along with an excellent driver. In all, a stay option from a bygone era of Indian travel - the quintessential budget, family hotel.

Our stay at Hotel Swagath felt like a shot out of the 90s. It is a cozy little thing tucked away in Kolkata's Ballygunge. It is easy to find even in passing on Hazra Road with a prominent name board. They have parking here but don't count on it because it can barely accommodate 2 vehicles at a time. What the parking space affords is the luxury to unload baggage at leisure without being hurried on a road. This is mostly a haunt for SBI Service Personnel and serves primarily as a Holiday/Convalescence Home for them so any bookings from non-SBI folk are treated separately. We were a mixed group with both kinds of bookings (and why we were there in the first place). The check-in process was elaborate and took time. We had to wait for the rooms to be cleaned. They has an elevator but there were notices mentioning operational issues during the monsoons. We had none during our stay of 3 nights. The rooms were passable for the price that is charged and it ought to be possible to get better for the same price. The management could look into the cleanliness of the linens, towels and the surfaces within the room. They were reasonably spacious though. The washrooms were clean. We relied on the in-house restaurant a lot during our stay and this proved to be the winsome aspect of our stay. Given the culinary needs of our party, the restaurant's inclusion of South Indian dishes helped. Even when I had other dishes, the quality of the food was never in question. From what I could gather, they provide laundry service if required. We enquired but opted not to use it. They also helped arrange for a taxi to Mayapur and back. The operator they connected us with proved to be a good one and gave us a Kia Carens along with an excellent driver. In all, a stay option from a bygone era of Indian travel - the quintessential budget, family hotel.