Sky Palace Beach Hotel

After months of calibrating what I wanted, I finally settled for Sky Palace. I am happy I did. The place is run by two colleagues who perfectly complement each other. Wilfred, who handles mails, communications primarily responded to my mails almost immediately and satisfactorily. Their number on google belongs to the previous business owner so you should not use it until it is changed and instead use +91-99614 31746 (Wilfred) and +91-98955 10197 (Christopher). Be prepared, You cannot drive upto any of the Kovalam beach hotels near Lighthouse, which is where you want to stay. Sky Palace made sure we were met at the parking and were ushered and checked-in without any looking around. The place is perfectly located in a cool alley (extremely valuable at Kovalam where it is always summer) but can be on the beach virtually as you get out. Ideally, you shouldn’t stay ON the beach-front which faces west, because of direct sun, noise and if you prefer privacy. Sky palace is just right, not to too big so the team can give personal attention but still is spacious and like a small bungalow. It being Dec-Jan we stayed in the non-AC ground floor. The rooms were in good shape and kept really clean. Room-front seating separated by bamboo chiks offer an option of privacy or to interact with friendly neighbors if you choose to. They provide running hot water, basic shampoo and soap and nice clean towels and linen, and are flexible and generous with breakfast, tea and coffee and you can vary between South-Indian or bread-butter, omelette and juices which is all fresh and yummy  The ambience is a mix of easy-going and friendly yet efficient. On being requested, Christopher helped me arrange the sight-seeing with his inputs. I later discovered that it was all great value for money suggesting auto-rickshaw or taxi, as appropriate. Christopher didn’t just arrange, but also followed-up and coordinated while we were on the trip if we found that something was amiss. The fact that Christopher is a qualified auto-driver with his own “tuk-tuk” on stand-by which comes in handy in emergencies like the time he drove us early morning for our return journey. Since we had a long stay (over 10 days), we got to see many aspects of their personalities and had the privilege of meeting and knowing about their families and even some guests who they know from past and came to visit them. Christopher and Wilfred are great people, perfectly suited for working in hospitality, very different from professional yet impersonal touch at the establishment run by employees and not business owners. My mom, who is almost an octogenarian, was showered special attention and she comes back with great memories of her stay. They fit in well with the whole range of types of travellers, adapting to their unique need for close attention or privacy. We had ample time to look around the area, and loved our choice of staying at Sky Palace even more. I would like to be back if I got a chance, and wish them all

The room is horrible for a family stay, the hotel owner was rude to my wife, refused to change sheets. The breakfast served was not even eatable, wife and kids had stomach upset after eating the half cooked sambar. Washroom did not even have a working shower, shower head was broken. It was priced at 3500 which is extremely high for the room it is offering, with no view no services and no comfort.

The best aspect of the stay was the hosts who were wonderful and very accommodating. We benefitted from being taken in a tuk tuk to see various areas of interest in the area by one of the owners, it was great. The room was very basic but comfortable.

We enjoyed our stay at this hotel very much. Although it's not directly on the seafront, it's actually an advantage as it's much quieter. The rooms are basic, clean and comfortable. The balcony in front of the rooms is swept clean every day. There's a line where you can hung your wet clothes when you come back from the beach (situated less than a minute walk from the hotel). There is a lovely smell in the evenings because of the incense sticks. We had a nice coffee every morning, made by Wilfred. We purchased additional a/c, as without it it was too hot, but some people were fine just with a fan.