My wife & I booked a flight to Delhi(from Kolkata) with a 4-day stopover on the way to Mumbai, with the express intent to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.
At first, a contact in Delhi recommended us another moderately-priced hotel near the airport, where we stayed for 2 nights. Being from America and not used to the water, we succumbed to diarrhea at that hotel, so we were anxious to move to a cleaner hotel for the rest of our 2 night stay, even if it meant paying more.
Unfortunately, when we read reviews of even hotels priced 3 to 4 times higher, but we found inconsistencies in reader satisfaction versus the star ratings and the hotel’s price. So we decided to focus on reader reviews for cleanliness as one of the prime criterion for our hotel selection in addition to price.
We found that Hotel Clark Heights had high marks from most readers on this score *and it was reasonably priced! The con that most of these readers had to say was that it was hard to find as it was down a narrow alley way in the old part of town. *
We, therefore, ensured that we had the hotel manager talk to the taxi driver on our mobile phone(we got a pre-paid Airtel phone as soon as we could in India), and have his person meet the taxi at the entrance to the lane where the hotel was.
Aside from this, and the fact that the hotel is about an hour(or more depending on traffic) away from the airport, we were thoroughly pleased with the hotel, including its cleanliness, its food, and amenities, etc.
It must be said, that we picked the most expensive room (Rs. 1800 per night(double occupancy) on the top(3rd floor) of the hotel with a window view of the old city), by-passing the lower priced ones entirely as we needed to rest and recover from our "tummy problem" and the overpowering heat at this time of the year.(The monsoons were delayed this year.)
The desk staff booked us an airconditioned private taxi to take us to Agra and back(a full-day trip to see the Taj Mahal, and definitely worth it). The train or A/C bus would have been cheaper, but you are at the mercy of their schedule and availability of reservations(which at a moment’s notice can be hard), else we were open to that option, but couldn’t avail of that mode of transport.
We found the room to be spacious, the bedsheets and towels and the bathroom to be clean and bright(with enough lights), and, of course, a remote controlled A/C(we had to put in a new set of batteries) and a ceiling fan. There was bathtub, the bathroom was clean with a hot shower.(Although, the normal cold water was comfortable enough for a shower, as the outside day temp. was up to 47 deg. C.) The floors were of inlaid marble, and the entrance door to the rooms were of inlaid marquetry wood. Really gorgeous!
Room(food) service was 24/7. The food was good.
We enjoyed our stay at the hotel and would recommend it to most foreigners traveling on a budget.