I recently visited Hotel Sinclairs Darjeeling on 26th Jan 2008. The hotel was selected as part of recommended places to stay (by my organisation). The hotel has nice, decent sized rooms giving magnificent views of the mighty Kanchanjunga and other peaks from the viewing gallery. We raveled through the magnificent views again and again during our stay.
The food is excellent and reasonably priced as well. The tea is great and yes they serve it hot :)Since it was near freezing temperature, the staff would serve hot water bottles and there was a heat convector provided in the room to make the chill manageable.
It snows in Darjeeling once a year and generally the weather God choose special dates to snow in Darjeeling :) in 2003, it was 1st Jan, In 2005 it was on Netaji Bose Birth Anniversary; 23rd Jan, Last year it was on St. Valentine’s Day and this year on 26th Jan. The staff was courteous enough to gave us couple of reminder calls to encourage us to venture out and see the sight of snow flakes coming down.... breathtaking stuff (for any first timer)
The hotel has good reception area and a competent staff managing across the counter. What I liked most about the hotel amidst other things were the meticulous and detailed out Photographs of Darjeeling and surrounding Circa 1880 and ther on....Real stuff to make you go back in those good ol times...
Strongly recommended