Niyati - Boutique Stay

Beautifully restored heritage house and nice friendly staff! I really wish that I stayed more than a night. Was assigned the upper floor room facing the road (wasn’t a problem for me as I’m a deep sleeper but light sleeper might find it an issue). The high ceilings and wooden beams are gorgeous and it’s a room that one can relax in. The bed is huge and generous, nice rain shower in the bathroom. The boutique hotel is right in the center of fort kochi but on a slightly quieter street.

Niyati is an adorable boutique hotel located in the center of Fort Kochi. The rooms are well designed and have personailty. The staff is excellent. We stayed there for a week with our five-month old daughter, and they made sure we had everything. They even moved us to a slightly larger room to have enough space for her. Everyone at Niyati would play with her and ask about her. There is also an attached bar which has a good restaurant. We often grabbed a beer there at the end of a hot day. I definitely recommend staying there.

Cute boutique hotel but staff was very lethargic, indifferent and non-accommodating. For same price, one room was big and one room was small. The big room (Room No. 1) had too much dampness on walls and was smelly and stuffy. Also, even though it is by the road, the window is not sound proof and all the noise of people partying and shouting outside till late night, even at 2 AM was heard inside the room clearly and it becomes very difficult to sleep. Then again after 6 AM, the street starts to get busy and you get woken up by the noises. Main advantage is location, being right in the heart of Fort Kochi. But overall, not worth staying. Must visit Princess Street which is 200 meters from the hotel, to shop and to eat.

The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly and the property was perfectly positioned in Kochi. It is nicely presented, clean and good value for money. A little noisy on the road so pack your ear plugs!

I don't easily give negative reviews. And admittedly, my experience is into a large extent related to Niyati not being what I was looking for. That is not the hotel's fault of course. I should have done my research better. It was very hot in Kochi and I had some writing work to finish, for which the hotel does not have any (outdoor) sitting spaces available. Not the hotel's fault. I needed some kind of terrace or garden to spend a part of the day. Hence, I decided to leave earlier than planned. They were nice enough to only charge me for the time spent. For it's price, in Kochi, this is probably good value. The location is also excellent. The place looks like it was once well designed, but the maintenance is not so great and the pictures in my room were very mouldy for example. I had one of the larger rooms on the first floor. Nothing wrong with the room per sé. It's basic, but that's ok. There is an extreme lack of privacy as one 'wall' consists entirely of glass and looks directly into the other rooms (and vice versa). So during the day, you are either on display for everyone to see, or you need to keep all curtains closed. The bathroom did not feel particularly clean, but was also not particularly dirty. The sheets on the other hand had blood and other stains all over. I think they had been washed, but the stains remained. Also, there were clothes and underwear of another (previous) guest in my wardrobe ... doesn't really speak for the cleaning services either. I arrived relatively late in the evening. Somebody brought me to my room without any information being provided whatsoever. After asking, I learned that it's not possible to have breakfast at the hotel. Something that I should have checked before. In any case, this was not the right place for me.

Niyati hotel was a great base for our group of four friends to explore the Fort Kochi area and greater Kochi city. The hotel is in a beautiful restored historic building, with high-ceilinged rooms, extremely comfortable beds, a cool inner courtyard, and a top floor bar (not quite rooftop, but enclosed and airy) which is a nice feature, as alcohol is not easily available at most other establishments. The hotel location is perfect, within close walking distance to many cute shops and restaurants and the waterfront. It is a 15 minute walk to the ferry to Ernakulam, which is the more modern and populated, less tourist/historic main part of Kochi city--highly recommended this. The gracious host, Sanjeev, was extremely welcoming and friendly. He was consistently available to give us great travel advice for our Kochi exploration, share interesting stories, and to share an afternoon chai while waiting for our evening flight back home. He arranged transportation for the four of us, all flying out from Kochi airport at different times while the whole city was shut down for a political visit (budget 1.5h travel time for this). Mohammed was also a very friendly staff member. He helped make us comfortable and showed us some fun Malayali songs.