A homestay better than a hotel. Review on Rheinberg Homestay, Munnar

The Background

Firstly thanks to MS for making my Munnar review https://mouthshut.com/review/Munnar-poosunnqmn an ROD.

Before I visit any place, I spend time on researching about the place, where to stay, where to eat, etc. Munnar was no exception. And before we left, first I searched for hotels on the net.

Most of the known hotels in Munnar are outside town and if you stay in these places, you will have to depend on the hotels for food and it is not easy to travel to town each time for food. And being pure vegetarians, we prefer to avoid eating at non-veg places. So, the choice was to stay in Munnar town, so that we could eat at any place of our choice and could also roam around the town.

For any info search, I start with MouthShut.com But unfortunately, the hotels I had in mind had terrible reviews on MS. And also, there were not many Munnar hotel reviews on MS. So I turned to Tripadvisor website and found a wonderful place to stay. A homestay called Rheinberg, located right in the heart of the city.

The Homestay

Rheinberg is a cozy little homestay in Munnar. Concept of homestays are getting popular nowadays and it involves a host letting out his premises to guests and taking care of them and of course charging them for bed and breakfast (& maybe even lunch and dinners). Homestays didn’t appeal to me, as it was not so comfortable staying at someone else’s house.

But Rheinberg was an exception as I learnt from various reviews that it offered total privacy to guests as the rooms were not a part of the owner’s house. Another point about Rheinberg was its surprisingly low tariffs and the fact that it was the preferred choice of foreigners. Now if foreigners prefer a hotel, obviously it must have good ambience and most importantly be hygienic. And that was the reason I decided to choose Rheinberg

The Reservation

Booking a room was a breeze. I sent a mail to the owner after going through the website. Got a prompt response with a very decent discount on the website rate for their best room. Exchanged a couple of mails and called up the owner Mr.Sherin Verghese. Paid a token amount of 500/- by online transfer to block the room and the reservation was done.

The Location

Rheinberg is located in the heart of Munnar town, but yet is away from the hustle and bustle of the town. It is located on a hill near a church, just off MG Road. You need to locate SBI and Federal Bank ATMs and enter the road and there you come across an arch, turn left to enter a private road. You can park your vehicle there and then walk s little distance past a little church (RC church) to reach the homestay. There is another road which is uphill and very tiring, so the road I described is better.

The Layout

As you enter the little homestay, there is a small and beautifully maintained rose garden at the entrance and in front of it is the residence of the host. The rooms are almost like cottages and located next to the house.

The Surroundings

People flock to resorts mainly because of the surroundings. For half the rate, I found a place in town which had the kind of surroundings one would find in a resort. If you step out to the garden, you can get a great view of Munnar town and the misty hills beyond. You can drag a chair outside the room and sit in the garden watching the hills. Behind the homestay is a small hill and if you are adventurous you can climb it to get a view.

Another treat for us was the presence of a song bird in the garden very early in the morning. It literally sang lovely songs for us. It was extremely pleasant to hear.

The surroundings ensure that you can relax in peace and enjoy your holidays.

The Rooms

There are three rooms in this place. Bamboo room is the biggest and the other two are the Sky Blue room and Wooden room. As I mentioned early, foreigners frequent this place because of all its plus points. The rooms are spacious, clean, have good furniture. There is also a carom board for recreation. TV with cable ensured that I didn’t miss out on IPL :)

The bathrooms are very clean and hygienic. Hot water is available 24 hours, courtesy a geyser. So the rooms are definitely 5-star for me.

The Ambience

The ambience of the place is real good and is on par with any star hotel. Of course, in star hotels you will have plush lobby and so on. But you don’t need all that in a cozy place like this.

The Service

The whole show is run by one young man Shibu who is friendly and will wait for you and take your luggage, get you coffee or whatever else you want. There is no restaurant and no food. Though an English breakfast is offered (not suitable for veggies). Don’t forget to have coffee here though - amazing fresh taste with a price and quality no one in Munnar can beat.

The Positives

Lots of positives about this place:

a) Great surroundings and ambience

b) Very neat, spacious and comfortable rooms

c) Friendly host, who himself served us coffee when Shibu was not around and took out snaps on our camera

d) Value for money in all categories

The Negatives

The only negatives are:

a) Accessibility : You can’t reach your room directly from the parking and have to walk for a few minutes. This would be a problem if there are disabled/elderly people.

b) Service : This is a slight issue and everything depends on one man. On our check-out day, Shibu was not available and I had to carry our heavy luggage to the parking lot, which was a slight problem.

The Recommendation

My overall rating for this place is 9.75/10. If you are looking for a place where you want waiters running at your beck and command, then this is not the place for you.

But if you want a great value for money place, then stay at Rheinberg, if you visit Munnar.