HolidayIQ Reviews Top Karnataka Home-Stays

Today tourists are slowly getting more comfortable and feel at home in Karnataka Home Stays compared to hotels. While the boom started in Coorg and Chikmagalur, the concept has now gained momentum in Bangalore Home Stays, Mysore Home Stays, Hampi Home Stays, Hassan Home Stays, Sakleshpur Home Stays and Dharmasthala Home Stays. The Karnataka‘s Tourism Dept. is putting in place a certification process for HomeStays. HolidayIQ has been rating HomeStays through traveler reviews for the past 3 years.
HolidayIQ rates HomeStays on a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 being Outstanding/near perfect/with many excellent features and 1 signifies a place that you should avoid (Terrible/not acceptable/number of major problems)
The overall rating of a homestay is the average of all travellers' ratings for that homestay. Travellers rate a homestay on 9 key parameters:
----Destination
----Service
----Location
----Appearance
----Bookings & Front Office
----Service
----Room
----Food & Drinks
----Activities

Top Karnataka Home Stays

Polycad Bungalow – Home Stay - Coorg

Georgia Sunshine Village – Home Stay - Mandya

Woodway – Home Stay - Chikmagalur

Honey Valley Estate – Home Stay – Coorg

Nature Craft Home Stay – Chikmagalur

The Vacationer on Home Stays - In a recent article has covers some of the best home stays in India through the eyes of HolidayIQ reviewers.

Karnataka Home stays - tariff, quality ratings and reviews.

Tariff and Reviews for HomeStays at Coorg, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Bangalore, Mysore, Hampi, Mangalore and Dandeli.

Karnataka and especially coorg have pioneered the concept of a Home Stays in India. The idea of giving the traveler a home away from home has started to gain momentum across the state.

Homestay facilitate you to get an insight into local people and their traditions. It gives you an opportunity to mingle and enjoy the local culture and hospitality. Homestays give tourists easy access to local cuisine, colorful festivals and intricate handicrafts of the local people. Home Stays are good options for single travellers especially females or women offering them great security. Some homestay’s allow the guest to be even share activities such as cooking in their kitchen. From the exapnsive coffee estates of Coorg, Chikmagalur and Shimoga to the tiny ancestral homes in Hampi Home Stays they are changing the way people in Karnataka experience places in our state.

Karnataka latest guidelines for HomeStays exempts taxes for Liquor served in Home Stays.
HomeStays are considered environmentally friendly since they promote commercial activity that does not disturb the fragile ecosystem of regions such as the Western ghat.

Finally, in a true HomeStay the families offering home-stay facilities to tourists will have to stay with the tourists and share their homes. It is not the spirit of home-stay when the family that owns the house stay away leaving the tourists to fend for themselves.

No standardization or ratings model yet for Home Stays - Reviews only solutions.

One problem with Home Stays is how do you research about their quality and standards before you travel. It will be a while before there is a model to certify home-stay facilities or classify them into categories which could be used by tourist to choose the good ones from the not so good home stays. A popular internet travel site HolidayIQ has evolved a model where they provide reviews from real travllers you have stayed in home stays and have rated them based on various parameters from food to service. Using these review travelers can make sure their chosen Home Stay is well-equipped and maintains minimum hygiene standards.

There are currently around 800 homestays in Karnataka. The goal is to take the number of homestays to 1,500, this will work out to 7,500 new room options for tourists.

Some of the popular home stays in tourism hotspots are covered below to guide you on your next stay away from home.


Top Home Stays in and around Coorg

Coorg HomeStays Costs and Reviews

In Coorg instead of constructing luxury hotels more coffee estates and traditional houses are being converted into HomeStays where tourists get to know the culture and tradition of the area. Previous post on how Homestays are the fastest growing hospitality sector in coorg.

Top Home Stays in and around Hampi

Hampi HomeStays Costs and Reviews


Top Home Stays in and around Mysore

Mysore HomeStays Costs and Reviews

You can find more about Mysore homestays in this few post a few months ago



Top Home Stays in and around Hassan or Sakleshpur

Hassan HomeStays Costs and Reviews


Top Home Stays in and around Chikmagalur

Chikmagalur HomeStays Costs and Reviews


Top Home Stays in and around Mangalore

Home Stays in Arecanut plantations coming soon in Mangalore


Top Home Stays in and around Bangalore or Nandi Hills

Bangalore HomeStays Costs and Reviews


Top Home Stays in and around Kabini Wildlife Reserve

Kabini HomeStay Costs and Reviews


Top Home Stays in and around Gokarana

Nimmu Guesthouse


Top Home Stays in and around Udupi

Apna Holiday Home Stay


Top Home Stays in and around Dandeli

Dandeli Home Stay

Top Home Stays in Mysore

Home stays a recent trend in Mysore are fast becoming becoming a viable budget stay option for travellers. Mysore Dasara a seasonal event and the year round Mysore Palace attraction ensure a steady stream of Tourists to this Royal Heritage city. This creates a year round demand for quality budget accommodation.

Homestay facilitate you to get an insight into local people and their traditions. It gives you an opportunity to mingle and enjoy Mysore's culture and hospitality. Homestays give tourists easy access to local cuisine, colorful festivals and intricate handicrafts of Mysore.

Some of the Homestays listed below are new stay options and few such as Gitanjali Farm, Mysore Karnataka have been there for a few years.

List of Home Stays in Mysore

Gitanjali Farm, Mysore Karnataka

Mauve Orchid

Premchand & Sons or PRS Calmn # 25/65, Lalithamahal Palace Road, Mysore

Contact Phone : 0821.2475900

Palysden # 252, A Block, 3rd Stage, Vijaynagar, Mysore

Contact: B. G. Den Thimmiah Phone : 9343558795, 0821.2416633

Hill View Farms, Chikka Hally, T. Narasipura Road, Mysore

Contact: Mrs. T. Suguna 9880481001, 0821.2901841

Women making Karnataka’s HomeStays great stay options for budget travel

Women have always been involved in large number of activities that contribute to powering and serving Karnataka's tourism industry indirectly. Karnataka has been an early starter in attracting women to the tourism sector when it extended 5 percent financial assistance to women entrepreneurs who intend to start hotels. This was initiated in 1992 under Tourism Policy to open HomeStays in Karnataka especially in Coorg Coffee estates and Plantations. Today, Women entrepreneurs are the forefront of the concept of home-stay springing up in Kodagu or Coorg and Mangalore districts. There are nearly 600 home Stays in Kodagu and around 75 in Chikmagalur districts that are being operated currently in many cases by Women. They provide tourists a homely experience through local food, cuisine and awareness to Karnataka’s culture. Coorgi’s and especially women folk are great hosts and they like meeting people and socializing.

New Home Stay options in Mysore for Dasara 2007

Home Stays are accommodation options that help the local community to showcase the ethnic culture and heritage to Tourists both domestic and international. Home Stays were launched during the last Mysore Dasara to help bridge Mysore's peak Tourist season accommodation crunch. Unfortunately Mysore Tourism has not been as fortunate as Coorg or Kodagu when it comes to creating sustaining affordable Home Stays which have become symbols of Eco-Tourism in Karnataka State. The Mysore Tourism dept.’s initiative derived from the age old Indian tradition of Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is an embodiment of God) has never really taken root in this Tourist friendly town. The reason reasons being clearly linked to the new Boom town that Mysore is fast transitioning into very similar to the Bangalore of the early 90’s. Unlike Coorg where there are few options to monetize one’s house or space, in Mysore Home Stays are less sustainable when compared to other commercials options available to property owners. Most of last year's Home Stay property owners in Mysore have rented/converted their Home Stays to Corporate Guest Houses.

Mysore’s peak Tourism is just from October to February unlike Coorg which is popular round the year. This results in property owners having to sustain the long tourist lean period when there are few takers for Home Stays. There is tremendous short fall in accommodation during the Dasara period and Atithi or Home stay options are a boon for budget travelers. Here are few functioning Home Stay options in Mysore that will let you experience the local culture and authentic Mysore food. Home Stays for Dasara 2007.

In addition there are more expensive Top Rated Hotel and Resort options at Mysore for this year’s Dasara.

Wind Flower Resort & Spa, Mysore

Royal Orchid Metropole, Mysore

Regaalis Hotel, Mysore

Ginger Hotel, Mysore

Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel, Mysore

Have a great Dasara.

Coorg Home Stays and not Destination Resorts key Tourism driver in Karnataka

If you think of Coorg Tourism today, after coffee estates and misty hills what comes to your mind are the 100’s of Home Stay options that are fast becoming the new Signature of Coorg Tourism. (There are around 300 Home Stays at last count in Coorg).

When you think of a Coorg Resort, you first think of Orange County. Orange County is the benchmark for a Destination Resort that all new upcoming Resorts would have to measure up to or differentiate to create new destination properties in Coorg.

Destination Resorts are those which are not near a large town or tourist attraction but instead contain all the ingredients and attractions to become destinations in their own right. (All the entertainment and activities required to keep you engaged are built into the Resort). Club Mahindra, Coorg is a recent addition to the Destination Resort category in Coorg. In a very short period of time the Mahindra property has been able to match the benchmarks set by Orange County.

While quite a few new Destinations Resorts with attractions such as Golfing are in the offing, surprisingly Home Stays are stealing the thunder from Destination Resorts and fast becoming the poster child of Eco-Tourism in india.

Home Stay’s in Coorg, while sharing a common lineage in that they are usually formed by re-purposing some portion of a family owned Coffee Estate, they have come a long way from these simple roots. Home Stays today have evolved beyond this simple premise, offering various formats and variations to cater to an emerging trend where travelers demand personalization and not mass tourism.

Coorg Home Stays have achieved an additional objective of promoting eco-friendly tourism in Kodagu and set a role model for Eco-Tourism in Karnataka. This has helped protect the eco-system from degradation through invasive or mass tourism.

Here are few variations of the Home Stay format that have evolved to carve a unique niche for themselves in the competitive Coorg Tourism market. Quality, Standards and themes they cater to vary widely.

• Type of Activities – Estate Walks, Fishing, Birding, Boating and Trekking.


• Target Group – Different Home Stays specialize their offering ranging from Kid Friendly activities to Corporate Team Building and special interest programs.


• Luxury Levels – From being very basic back to Nature Living to full-fledged Spa facilities they vary in the level of create comforts provided

Top Home Stays in Coorg as rated by Holiday IQ and Enjoy Images and Photos from Coorg Tourism

• Rainforest Retreat,Coorg,Karnataka - Reviews, photos, packages

• Polaycad Bungalow,Coorg,Karnataka - Reviews, photos, packages

• Jade Hills,Coorg,Karnataka - Reviews, photos, packages

• Cicada Trails,Coorg,Karnataka - Reviews, photos, packages

Home Stays are here to Stay and hopefully spread beyond Karnataka's Tourism circuits and create multiple success stories for sustainable Eco-Toursim in India.