We stayed in Hotel Malligi during a trip to Hampi in March end, 2024. We booked by visiting the hotel in person after going through reviews on Makemytrip and getting a general sense of the property.
Our main choices were between Hotels Malligi and Krishna Palace. Both hotels had good reviews on the Internet. However, we decided to checkout Malligi.
The stay was for 1 day.
Our overall rating (4.5/5)
Awesome, friendly experience!
Gallery
Oops! Sorry, we missed clicking snaps here. The pictures of the hotel on booking.com give a much more glamorous presentation of the hotel than in person. However, our stay was very pleasant. The food was excellent (all vegetarian food), breakfast was generous, staff was courteous.
Below is more detailed review.
Location
The hotel is located in Hospet, the nearest large town to Hampi.
The location is generally closer to a lot of city facilities. For example, we needed access to a medicine shop for a paracetamol. A 24×7 Apollo pharmacy was available at a 300 meters distance at night 22:30. Petrol / CNG stations are close by.
It is about 13 kms from main Hampi locations, which is easy to cover.
Nearness to tourist sites (4/5)
The hotel is located in Hospet, not Hampi. Hampi is a small, old town. The only accommodations in Hampi are mostly smaller homestays. Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari is the only larger hotel in Hampi.
If you like to stay in a larger hotel with most modern amenities, this is a great choice. The roads are not congested as in large cities, so traveling 40-50 kms is simple.
Food (4/5)
The food was fantastic. We did have only vegetarian food, so cannot comment on the non-vegetarian preparations. We saw 2 restaurants: Temptations and Blue Mist. Though their website does list others.
We had all meals on Temptations. The food was great, the staff was courteous, the servers and waiters went out of their way to make the meals enjoyable.
The one interesting bit of experience was how they served Fresh Lime Soda. In my experience, the drink is prepared in the kitchen and served on the table. Here however, a server actually comes over to your table and prepares the drink in front of you, and leaves back the soda bottles and other ingredients so you can add ingredients as and when you need! The soda bottle is always with you, 1 serving of the drink is actually one full bottle of soda! This was a pretty honest and transparent way of conducting the restaurant.
Rooms (4/5)
The experience in the room was fantastic. Cleanliness, AC quality, Television, Phones etc were all in great working condition.
The electricity seemed to come and go briefly at some points of time. This could possibly be due to electricity supply in the city in general rather than the hotel. The power supply within the hotel however was not hampered beyond a few seconds.
Bathrooms (3.5/5)
The bathrooms were decent, clean. There are no specific reasons to complain. Complimentary guest packages were also pretty standard, clean and nicely presented.
The plumbings sometime can give a feeling of being old. However, it is not as bothersome in the overall experience.
Staff Help (4/5)
The staff in the hotel was generally courteous and helpful. I had not booked my room over the Internet. I had instead paid the hotel a visit to look at the rooms before booking. I did the same with Mayura Bhuvaneshwari. Interestingly, while the front desk and Mayura was reluctant to show around (perhaps the hotel was actually full – though it seems unlikely in an off peak season), the front desk at Malligi was super helpful and voluntarily had us taken to rooms without us having to ask for the same.
The restaurant experience was very similar. Staff was kind, helpful and dutiful.
Flexibility (3/5)
We did not have too many requests for the hotel staff. The only one being asking for our breakfast be packaged at morning 6 AM because we had plans of visiting the Anjanadri Hill that morning and would miss the breakfast time that started from 7 AM.
The hotel staff volunteered to have a breakfast packed and ready for us to carry instead.
Sadly, they missed packing it. However, it seemed to have been a genuine mistake rather than a miss of intent.
Overall Experience (4.5/5)
The overall experience at Hotel Malligi was fantastic. If you do not mind spending an extra Rs 1000 than a homestay, then Malligi is an excellent place to stay during your Hampi visit.
FAQs
Do they serve breakfast?
Yes, as of the writing of this post, it is served between 7 AM and 10 AM. The breakfast is an unlimited buffet.
Is the swimming pool open?
Yes.
Which tourist attractions are there nearby?
All tourist attractions in Hampi are in about a 15 kilometers range. The roads are generally free of bad traffic as in bigger cities. So travel is generally not a hassle.
READ here about Places to See in Hampi.
Visiting Kishkindha, will take slightly longer as you have to cross the Tungabhadra river from further up the north.
READ here about Places to See in Kishkindha.
The Tungabhadra Dam and Gardens are also located nearby.
Is there a restaurant?
Yest. We have seen 2 restaurants: Blue Mist and Temptations. The Malligi website lists a third restaurant that we did not see during our visit.
Refer here: https://malligihotels.com/dining-delights
Are there rooms with private bathrooms?
Yes. I would imagine this would be the case for all rooms.
Is there parking space for my vehicle?
Yes. There is a fairly large parking space at one end of the hotel. At this time (March) there was sufficient parking space. It will be a good idea to check with the hotel staff if you are visiting in peak time.
What are the check in and check out timings?
If you are booking through an online portal, then the check in-checkout times are fixed. Based on Internet research it seems to be 11 30 AM – 12 noon.
However if you are booking directly with the hotel, then you get a 24 hour stay window from the time you checked in. So if you checked in at 5 PM in the evening, then your checkout is next day 5 PM.
This came as a real life saver for us since we were traveling in the second half of the day and wanted late check ins / check outs.
