Hotel Daawat Palace, Agra, India

If you choose to visit the Taj Mahal then this hotel is one of the closest you'll find. It's about a 700m walk to the entrance. It's on a main road, check in was quick and efficient. We paid extra for a Taj Mahal view room. The room wasn't easy to find in the dark and a hotel worker we asked for guidance from wanted a tip and we had to be quite forceful to get rid of him. The room was anything but a palace the name describes. It was old and dirty. The Taj view was just about visible from a pokey window but wasn't what we expected. The food at the rooftop restaurant was amazing but due to the time of year we were eaten alive by insects. The restaurant had no zappers or incense. The food was delicious and fresh prepared, in fact this is the only thing this hotel has going for it. We requested the bill and left a small tip, the waiter opened the bill wallet before we left and exclaimed very rudely, "oh so small!". Had I not been staying at the hotel I would have snatched the tip back and walked out. The wifi was up and down and very slow. The air conditioning unit in the room did not work and the evening temperatures were still 25+ degrees. We raised this with the hotel but nothing was done to fix it. Next morning, we were woken at 9am by porters, cleaners, more porters knocking on the door all wanting tips. Each barged into the room, despite us half clothed. I had to be quite forceful to get rid. I wouldn't recommend this hotel.

Unfortunate I had gone down with a bad case of Delhi Belly the day I arrived so nothing to do with this hotel but it put a downer on my experience of Agra.The hotel was fine and in an excellent location .From the roof terrace you had a good view of the taj and the red fort.as I was not eating much I cannot comment on the food but the room was comfortable. The owner and staff were great feeding me curd and banana. Cheap and cheerful hotel

Positive: Let me check in early. Negatives: Wifi didn't work in the room; had to go outside the room to get a weak signal, or down a flight to a patio. Hot water didn't work either. No tank in the bathroom. Was later told that I could've called down to the front desk about it, but not sure if that would've worked. Overall, it was good for the money, but I'm sure some other places for just a small amount more would've been better.

Really good location for the attractions around

Excellent service.