Review : Peradeniya Rest House , Sri Lanka

Known as Peradeniya Rest House before and known as Royal Guest House under a new management, this is our accommodation in Kandy in our recent Kandy tour. When we were students of University of Peradeniya, we always found the Peradeniya Guest House as a beautiful and interesting place by just looking at it from outside whenever we travel along the Kandy Road. It is strategically located in front of the Peradeniya Botanical Garden and for us this seems to be the exact accommodation in our Kandy trip because our 2^nd day plan was to visit University of Peradeniya. Starting the day from a hotel near the University would be great, as we thought.

The Peradeniya Rest House was under Hotel Cooperation and now it is under a new management. We knew it as Peradeniya Rest House but we were confused with many different names when we were searching online before reaching Kandy.

We planned to book the hotel few days ago, but with confusion of names, we didn’t book and decided to book the hotel room once we reached there.(If you check TripAdvisor, you’ll find different names for the same rest house)

A Bit of History

Once this was the home for Captain Dawson who led the construction of Colombo Kandy Road in 1820 and this is a colonial type of bungalow which is more than 200 years old.

Just imagine, with such history and as a colonial type bungalow, my expectation was to view beautiful interior which highlight the colonial style and beauty.

Our Experience with Royal Rest House Peradeniya

We visited there at night and only 2 rooms were left. However we booked one of the rooms which were next to their new construction. At that time some renovation were going on, but no problem. We understand and no construction work at late night. So, we were not disturbed due to renovation work.

Good Experience:

Room view is attractive and one room was with beautiful pool view and a balcony area.

So, we selected to stay there. I like the furniture style which reminded me the colonial style architecture which I wanted to experience in this rest house.

Negative experience:

In our previous hotel experiences, we usually check out at 12 noon. With most of the hotels we stayed in different locations of Malaysia, they use the same time. So, we have enough time to enjoy breakfast and prepare.

But, once we booked this rest house we got to know that check out is around 10am! OMG!With a toddler staying with us, it seems I have to use the alarm to wake up early in the morning!

But we understand, this is a rest house.

(Update: When I check Agoda.com for this Peradeniya Rest House,it states check out is at 12.00 – 13.00 hours,is it a sign of some unfriendly staff at hotel who asked us to check out before 10.00 am?? )

Room view is fine. But it smelled bad with fungus similar smell. Bathroom was worst with fungus smell and seems the door hasn’t opened for so many days. (However bathroom was clean and dry)

Then we found there were no towels provided. We were not prepared with towels, so we requested from room service. The towels were really worn. I used a face towel which I took with me for me and my son. Those towels provided by the rest house were for my husband because he was the one who really wanted to stay in this rest house. 🙂

Anyway we didn’t complain and stayed our night there planning to visit the University on the next day!

As a blogger and as someone who loves to take photography, I had a secret plan to visit around the rest house on the next day morning and to enjoy the views. But for me, the only admirable interior view is this Fish Tank which my son loved.

It is a colonial style hotel with no beautiful interior.

Exterior is beautiful; I must say. And it is with spacious parking area.

This rest house is Suitable for those who enjoy chatting and beer till late night because we saw lot of people enjoying till late night. Also this rest house is suitable for those who only look for accommodation for a night.

It is a really convenient place if you plan to visit Botanical Garden. Kandy Tooth Relic Temple is just around 10 minutes’ drive.

But, if you want to enjoy the hotel views and hotel facilities, then this is not a recommended accommodation.(my idea)

For me, this is not value for money we paid. Our room was around Rs.6000 plus for a night (Around SGD 60).But comparatively hotels we stayed before such as 11@Century Johor Bahru or Emperor Hotel Malacca which we always find good clean accommodation including breakfast for around SGD 60, this is not a good deal for us. But, I understand I am comparing hotels of two different countries.

Remembering some of our Sri Lanka accommodation in our recent holidays, still for me this is not value for money we paid.

Finally, I don’t have any intention to share negative thought of this hotel. I always promote Sri Lankan tourism to the best I can. But, I really cannot stay away from posting this. When I checked TripAdvisor comments and reviews, most commenters review about food and refreshing facilities along their trip. I couldn’t find many reviews on those who actually stayed there for a night.

Anyway as I want to keep this review as an honest review, I shared all my experience and ideas.

I am writing again, this is a good place if you look for accommodation just for a night stay!