Hotel Surya Shimla

We booked 3 rooms for 2 nights during a group trip to Shimla. Our Overall experience was not satisfactory. Hotel Surya's room service and customer service are the most annoying issues. It takes 20-30 mins on average for the hotel staff to respond to room service or other requests. Amenities are okay-ish. Some basic things are missing, though. For example - the Wi-Fi almost never worked during our 2-day stay. Good things: the location is good; it's on the main road. And they offer free parking depending on availability.

Hotel Surya is an old property and has about 12 floors. It has a new wing and an old wing with the restaurant nested between the two. One lift is there for the old wing for floors 1 to 8 and another one for the new wing. you exit one lift, cross the dining area and then enter the other lift. As soon as you exit the victory tunnel, you can see the board of the hotel so reaching it is very easy. They have parking at the hotel but it is limited and at the time of rush, you have to plan properly. Reception area is small but well laid out and clean. It has a small sitting area also with newspapers of the day available for reading. you have to take stairs to reach the reception area from parking/road. Rooms are adequate size and bathrooms are large. The hotel provides the toiletries ***** with clean towels. Hot water is available always and the room has a tv with cable connection. Bed is ok and there is a small seating area with two sofa chairs. Each room has a good size cupboard and ample tables to keep for luggage, items etc. Best thing is that the hotel provides you room slippers. In the new wing, you have a passage which leads to the mall road. But you have to climb some 30 odd stairs to reach the road. So you can visit mall road as many number of times you want by foot saving lot of time. If you are health conscious, you can go for an early morning stroll or jog as well. I used to go to mall road for morning walk, then to office for work and then for softy ice-cream after dinner. Watching the stars and the lit hills late in the night while licking your softy at the ridge is a memorable experience. The hotel provides breakfast but the spread is limited and fixed. However, the dining area is spacious, with nice view of the valley below. Food is good and we had nice dinner during our stay. You should try mushroom dishes if you are in hills. Service is top class. very friendly and prompt. you have intercom for dialing reception and room service. Service has an old world charm to it as some of the staff i guess have been there for number of years. The hotel has a wi-fi but it is not very reliable so always have a back up just in case. the room has ample number of power sockets so you will not be left wanting if you have number of devices to charge. Try to book get one of the bigger VIP rooms which are kind of suite rooms. They have some special room for newly weds also. I enjoyed my stay as my work was on mall road and i used to just walk and reach my place in 15-20 mins. As you go towards the mall road, a small detour of 5 mins takes you to the famous kalibari temple of Shimla. The temple offers breathtaking views of Shimla and surroundings. I will definitely recommend people to experience the hotel at least once.