Name: Hotel Nilketha
Address: Helambagaswela Road Tissamaharama 82600,Helambagaswela Road, Tissamaharama, Tissamaharama, Tissamaharama, 82600, Sri Lanka
Rating: 8

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Heating

Newspapers

Garden

Terrace

Dryer

General

Room service

Family room

VIP room amenities

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Wardrobe/Closet

Linens

Mosquito net

Slippers

Toiletries

Rooms

Iron and board

Ironing

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Dry-cleaning

Wake-up service

Iron

Services and amenities

Restaurant (buffet style)

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Car rental

Transfer

Bike rental

Barbecue grill(s)

Recreation

Free Parking on Premises

Parking

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Cycling

Sports

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Weerawila Airport

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport

Hotel Nilketha

Tissamaharama

We arrived at the hotel having already completed a safari that day, arranged independently; however, the owner of the hotel kept asking if we will do a safari, booked with himself, the next day. After telling him no thank you, he proceeded to accost me later in the evening asking me to write down on his phone how much I had paid for my safari trip and then getting annoyed that I had arranged this cheaper than he was charging. He then asked what time I wanted breakfast the next morning and suggested we had breakfast at 5:30 am, when I told him this was too early and 8:30 would be more suitable, he told me that would be too late for the safari!!! He was still trying to get us to go on his safari trip the next day, despite me telling him on several occasions we did not need a safari excursion!
At dinner we ordered two plates of noodles, there was no menu to order from and so we had no idea of the costs of these meals. Whilst eating our dinner, the hotel owner came to our table and discussed the price of our room with us, he suggested that we should actually pay extra for our room as the exchange rate between USD and the Ruppee had dropped!! We laughed this off as we felt very uncomfortable by this point. We decided we did not want to take breakfast at the hotel, and wished to check out ASAP, I informed the man at the desk early in the morning (6am) of our change of plan and all was ok. However, once we went to check out at 9am the owner again asked us to have breakfast before we left and was persistent, which we declined. On receiving our hotel bill we had been charged 10,000 Sri Lankan Ruppees (£25) for our 2 plates of noodles!!! As well as being charged extra for our room, despite booking through booking.com!!
On leaving, we told our driver about our experience and he told us that the previous evening, the owner had shouted him for driving up the driveway to drop us and our luggage off. Also, the staff at the hotel seemed very afraid of him. One final note to add, our bed sheets and towels were stained yellow, and we felt we were sleeping in dirty sheets.
Read all the reviews on booking.com, I wish I had before booking. Many people faced the same issues as us!! 


Avoid, greedy and money scamming owner!!

The hotel itself seemed good, the rooms were clean and the aircon worked well. We seemed to have a double and a single bed, but the double bed was not much bigger than a single and wouldn't fit two normal sized people. So if you are a couple keep this in mind as you will be sleeping a apart. Also the double bed only had a mosquito net and not the single bed.
The pool was also clean and surrounded with a nice garden. Tissa in general has a lot of mosquitos, as there is a lot of rice fields around that  act as a breeding ground, so be prepared with repellent.
Didn't appear that anyone else was staying at the hotel, so the so called restaurant was closed. Not a great variety of food options in town, but there is one or two restaurants.
Breakfast was ho hum, prob due to the lack of people staying at the place, and consisted of 8 slices of toast, orange coloured jam, butter and some fruit. I would have much preferred a Sri Lankan breakfast.
Overall if you are staying for two nights for a safari, it would be an okay base.

It's an okay base for a safari

Friendly staff, reasonable rates, tasty foods, clean room, clean swimming pool, well maintained garden and hotel building, open 24 hours, foods can be arranged according to your choice. Highly recommended for short or long stay.  Upali, Pilimatalawa.

Good holiday

Hotel Nilketha is a great place to spend your vacation with a good quality service and a helpful staff. The swimming pool was brand new and amazing! The environment was really calm and relaxing, good spacious rooms with a beatiful view. Food was prepared in a well personalized way according to our preference. The cost of stay was very bearable and reasonable. They can arrange you safari jeeps to visit Yala National Park. 
Highly recommend the place. ❤️

Highly Recommend

Excellent service provided by the owner. He is very helpful. Clean rooms. Helpful staff. Small hotel garden but we'll maintained. Clean pool.
Only issue is there is no chef in the hotel. So it is not possible for you to have snacks,bites or any western meal. But they serve delicious sri lankan food. Located in a calm quite environment.
Great hotel !!!

Great value for money.

Our stay at Hotel Nilketha was beyond our expectations and requirements. Ranjith, the owner, took extremely good care of us. After our late check in, he came on his bike to show us the road into the town and a recommended restaurant. He also organised a great safari tour and woke up at 4am with us to ensure the pickup went smoothly. The rooms are very clean and tidy, and pool, outdoor areas maintained well. Would stay here again and recommend to others. 

Great accommodation with an amazing host 

We are very experienced budget/medium travelers that have spent years traveling SE Asia. We spent a month in Sri Lanka and almost everything was great. Except for this place. It’s beautiful with a nice building, pool and landscaped gardens. There’s so much potential, but unfortunately, it’s lost because of personnel and poor communication. Here’s just a few worth mentioning;
The pool is big, but water is murky and looks terrible. The manager said “water problems”.
They worked on very loud hotel renovations everywhere on site from before 7am until about 9.30pm.
They booked us onto a terrible safari experience with an unlicensed/unnamed business (our rude and unsafe driver drove twice the speed limit and even crashed into another inside the safari park.)
They said 5am pick up for the safari several times, then woke us up 3.50am and said it’s now 4am.
The “restaurant” is just one old woman that reluctantly cooks up something if asked. From what we were told, it was noodles with vegetables or with chicken for 850LKR. Yes, the instant ones you can buy for less than 100LKR across the road! But without a kettle/hot water, you have to buy from them unless you want to walk to the closest restaurant is 900m away.
The room does not have kettle as specified.
The wifi has “router issues” and only works every now and then.
The manager constantly misunderstood most things and was a very poor communicator. He was mostly keen at selling you beers and booking you on tours whenever you saw him. The girl at the reception was great and saved us from even more stuff-ups, but as she had only worked there for 3 days, she had to chase people down for information.
As stated, the place could be great, but do to the above and many more issues, the overall experience is really bad, which is sad. If you book this place, make sure you bring huge amounts of mosquito repellent as the landscaped gardens have millions of mosquitos. 
To finish on a good note, they organised a great driver and car to take us to Ella which was our next destination.

A big disappointment with numerous mishaps.

My experience at Hotel Nilketha was a positive. The facilities are solid and decent. Clean rooms and spacious surroundings. I went with my father and the staff was extremely helpful and were keen to make our stay a comfortable and a memorable one

Clean and decent accommodation with friendly and helpful staff

We went there last night and the owner was there to greet us and get us everything we needed.
The room was very comfy and the bathroom was very clean.
And we got our bed tea on time, sent to our room.
And in the afternoon we wanted to take a nap and chk our early.everything was really great and great price and value for money.
Thanks Gamini

Nilketha stay

Very nice, big hotel a close walk from town and the bus stand yet very quiet and set in beautiful gardens. Good location for setting off on Yala safaris. Rooms are basic but very clean. Some have A/C. Bicycles are available for rent. They are building a pool which should be finished by June 2019.

Hotel Nilketha

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