The story of the unwelcoming inn… the Old Courtyard in Cochin

We’ve already sung the praises of some of the hotels we’ve come across in the last nine months. Beds soft as butter, pillows light as whipped cream, hosts sweet as Sachertorte… sleeping in the Indian tourist industry has been an experience that can stand the comparison with the shop window of a Parisian pâtisserie.
It was inevitable that we would sooner or later have a burned toast experience. Well, we are happy it happened later rather than sooner, because it is tougher to digest than the hottest curry.

It happened when we had high expectations: charming building, early booking, promising promises by a (seemingly!) forthcoming owner and a price that should entitle us to a comfortable Christmas stay… It turned out to be a B horror movie where we were treated as criminals and one skeleton after another kept falling out of the closet.
Thus, hereby a friendly word of advice to innocent travelers looking forward to a tranquil stay and a decent treatment in Fort Cochin, Kerala and who would – just like we were - be seduced by The old Courtyard: strap on your best running shoes and put them to the test. Run, traveler, run!

We were so perplexed that we even wrote our first review on Tripadvisor. Being the victim of a dishonest and arrogant hotel owner is like seeing your first crocodile: you know they exist but they are not part of your world.

But no yin without yang. There is a bright side to everything: in the lobby we found the most helpful, forthcoming, integer, service minded and experienced travel agent you’ll find in Kerala: Quality Tours. And so even the burned toast turned out to have a Pierre Marcolini chocolate coating.

The irony of fate: on Christmas day we had to run from an unwelcoming inn and found refuge elsewhere … The story rings a bell?

www.tripadvisor.com
http://qualitytoursindia.com

This post is exceptionally in English. Apologies if my use of the English language is somewhat peculiar.