Small Guesthouses in Nepal-What You Need to Know-What You Can Expect

Especially Americans and Europeans from more developed parts of Europe, you'll need to understand a few differences in accommodation and the standard of care you'll receive in countries like Nepal.

As much as it pains me to admit, we recently had a couple of guests who were disappointed in the quality of our little guesthouse. The first one swore she paid Booking.com online when in reality she did not. She actually didn't pay and I think I even paid for her taxi ride here because she didn't have Nepali money. The worst part was that she gave us a 3.8 review for our room with a TV, private bath and a lovely view of the Himalayan foothills. Yet, she never complained while she was here. Now I realize it was probably a well-thought-out scam to get free housing. If you lie first you can blame the other person of making something up because of a bad review.

Small guesthouses usually have a stairwell right up the center of the building like ours. With 4 rooms on each floor it's difficult to walk up the stairs without someone hearing you and sometimes someone forgets what floor they are on and tries to open the wrong door. That happened to a guest, an older French woman who had a history of abuse; this caused a bit of anxiety for her-and a bad review for us.

Homes and guesthouses are often made with UNESCO building codes that may require wood framed windows and a concrete/brick exterior. The windows can leak horribly and you'll often think the noise is coming from within the building when it's really from the outside.

Our busy hilltop. This is where children play, families harvest crops and we celebrate festivals.

Our latest problematic guest had a similar story. The older couple came around dinner time, but did not order dinner. The woman was clearly in charge of the relationship and took one of our nicest rooms. She convinced one of my staff to give it to her for under $10; I was in Kathmandu for the day. We had a full house that night and the guests were still awake at 11:30 pm. No one was playing music or arguing, but many cultures tend to have 2 volumes when they talk and both sound like yelling sometimes.

Instead of this guest letting us know she was stressed from jet-lag or something she waited until 11:30 to knock on my door to tell me it was too loud. But it wasn't that she let me know. I always want to know if our guests have a problem. But her exact words after waking me up were, 'I'm not paying for this room. It's too loud!' I was on the same floor and had only heard a bit of noice with a door banging at one point earlier. Come to find out, a door lock got stuck and people were stuck in their room, so they banged the door to get out. This wasn't something that could have been avoided, nor will it be repeated. This older couple left the next morning without paying approximately $9 that included room, organic coffee for two and two hot showers. That was just too much money to pay when other guests had their own needs that didn't include them.

When tourists read that people in Nepal live on less than a dollar a day it doesn't mean everything is free in Nepal. One time a guest took a motorcycle guide around the valley for an entire day and paid the guide 50 NRs. that included petrol. That was basically about 40% of one Euro.

If you have a need to control an entire guesthouse please book all the rooms for yourself. Otherwise, you need to expect that Nepali guests, as well as tourists from all over the world will also be enjoying the guesthouse and may not want to go to bed at the same time as you. If that's a problem check to see who else is here on that day. We can ask people to turn off the lights at 9 pm if requested.

We offer a staff of 5 who are always available for our guests, an open kitchen if we have a cook on staff, extra blankets, a room heater and even an electric blanket if our guests needs it, organic coffee anytime-all at no extra charge. We even have meds for a headache or stomach issue at no charge or a robe. When a guest leaves things we share with future guests. We even have a Ham radio set-up for our guests.

Sometimes a stray dog will park itself outside and bark at the moon all night. What can your guesthouse manager do? Should we kill all the street dogs? Most people would say, 'no.' We have an ongoing sterilization project so the dogs don't have so much to bark about, but we cannot do much more. Suggestions are most welcome.

How to have a great experience at a small guesthouse in Nepal:

1. When you book at a small guesthouse and have an issue like jet-lag you need to tell the guesthouse manager when you arrive or even before. Find out if there is a festival going on late at night or anything that will need special care.

2. Bring ear buds from home or complimentaray earbuds from your airline; they are often provided at no charge. Additionally, you could download some sleep music onto your mobile and play it at night if there are dogs barking or some other craziness going on outside. We can provide you with a pair if you like.

3. Get on a 'dusk til dawn' sleeping pattern as soon as you can. Realize people start their day at 5 am in many countries. People are up and ringing bells, calling their children and even giving small children cold baths on rooftops because they wet the bed. Most families do not have hot, running water in their homes.

4. Talk with the guesthouse manager. You'll find he/she is a valuable resource for connecting with good, honest, local guides. They can tell you those special things to see that only locals know about and help you with things like transportation. We have a traditional Hari Krishna devotee family who provides a lovely musical night with indigineous musical instruments, dancing and singing. It's just magical.

5. Realize you are not in America or Europe. Enjoy the culture and relax. You will go home and have your drive-thru pharmacies and ultra-hygenic, double plastic wrapped processed food and such. It will all be there waiting for you. But for now, just enjoy being where you are. Sometimes that means things are not like they are back home, but isn't that the reason we travel?

Please don't let these points stop you from coming to Nepal. We try so hard and if you give a bad review for a small guesthouse you will really impact their income for the better part of a month. When you are looking at reviews and see a bad review, check out that person's profile for other guesthouses they've rated. You might relate to what bothered them and find a great reference for one that person liked. We got one horrible review one time because a young woman suffered from PMS and a staff member said something that hurt her feelings.

The good news for tourists:

1. There have been way too many guesthouses and home-stays built since the earthquakes in 2015. That's good news for you because you can have your pick of places to stay.

2. You will seldom need to book online for more than the first night after your arrival. Just walk up and negotiate for your room. They are an exceptional value right now.

3. If you have a problem with any of these points from the first list above, please know we have some amazing 5 star hotels and resorts. You can have golf, a bathtub, sauna and excercise room. There is even somewhere in Kathmandu where you can have an amazingly tender beef steak for dinner. Yes, all that is available in Nepal, too.

Nepali hospitality is world renown. There is a saying here that many of us take seriously, 'Guest is god.' You are most welcome at Star View and in Changunarayan Village. We promise to do our best to help you to have a great time.