I had misgivings from the moment I saw the place--the courtyard leading to the rooms was grown over with weeds, and the dining room on the ground floor of the building looked one of the shabbiest I’ve seen in over three decades of wandering about. Three moth-eaten mattresses were stacked against the wall of the corridor outside our room, and inside our room, things got--if possible--even worse. A couple of insects had died on the bedsheets (no bedspreads, by the way), and--horror of horrors--a former occupant’s swimming trunks were hanging on the bathroom rail. Ugh. What was worse was that we were shelling out all of Rs 1,000 a night for this trash.

As for the facilities--they were pretty meagre. Our room was moderate in size, with a comfortable double bed, table and chairs, adjoining sitting area with sofa and table; a rather grubby bathroom; and a balcony overlooking the beach. There was a TV in the room, so that at least was a bit of a relief.

Downstairs, the hotel had a huge dining hall--very ugly place, with loads of flies, as we realised when we had breakfast there one morning. The food was so-so, and we chose other restaurants to eat in for the rest of our stay.

All in all, this was a none-too-good experience. About the only redeeming feature of the Calangute Residency is its location (it’s right on the beach--less than a minute’s walk, and you’re on the sand). The staff at the reception is helpful--they’ll arrange for vehicle hire, offer fairly good advice on how to get about, and so on. The housekeeping staff, though, probably needs some refresher training--pronto.