Review of Casa Mia Homestay 2*

Home Stays like thes are over-rated. Meant for budget or "helpless" travellers. Foreigners or indians. Our experience: Perhaps it's because we thought that a home-stay would be a good experience; after we went by the reviews and ratings in a booking com site. We locked ourselves for a few days stay to experience what home-stay will be like. Firstly, the two rooms we booked were so different from each other. One was a nice spacious room with a varandah. The other one was a chicken coupe, without any place to walk around the bed. The rates for both the rooms were the same. Maybe there is no regulation from the authorities, about classification of room sizes / standards and amenities provided. One has to keep one's shoes / outside the house, before entering in. I can understand the mentality of the foreigners, visiting an relatively unsure place like Kerela (unlike Goa, where people have a more western outlook and everyone speaks English) ; wherein, they need 'assistance" and the help of some local host. This could be an "airBNB" kind of place and I think they are registered online, with ABnB. But at the prices, there are so many "proper hotels"! There are dozens and dozens of proper hotels which are in the same price range, and most of them give amazing services. I am not refering to lodges / hostels / domertries. There are plenty of resonably priced proper hotels with top class facilities, which are not a home stay. Well, again, it's the mentality of the foreigners who need "someone to protect them" kind-of-thing, that gives the kind of ratings that one sees on the booking sites. Around the place that we stayed we stayed, we saw over 40+ home-stays (awch, there are hundreds and hundreds of these all over the place), and they are not bookable online. To be honest, almost every other home offers home-stay, and some of them at very cheap prices. Good for budget travellers. We were there during the peak season, December Christmas / New Year 2018 but it wasn't too booked around the place. Again, our first experience of a home-stay in traveling the whole of India (in hotel stays), and 65+ countries globally… this was a disappointment. It was a forgettable expereince and perhaps our last one in HS's. Like mentioned earlier, it may be good for a helpless foreigner who needs a good safety-feeling-protection, and "support-back-up", which I think a local resident can do for you… Let me not generalise too much. The owner of this place, Usha, was nice to us and helpful. As polite until it touched her achilies heel. When we pointed out some things like the discripancy of charges between the two rooms, and the pricing being the same for the "chicken coupe", she was quite dumb-struck. A foreigner may accept it as an "Indian Experience", but for experienced travellers, it was what we said, a discripancy. They should have rates that match the room facilities / size / amenities. Well, like I mentioned, the owner was a nice person and the family too. It's just business to everyone, so I cannot blame anyone and say that it was a totally bad experience. If there was an option of going 2 to 3, I would rate it as 2.5. But since there's no halves-option, I have moved a notch further and want to say that the saving grace is that the lady is nice and genuine. Her ratings mean a lot to her and she will do everything to help keep the numbers high. She even helped us to get a cab when Ola or Uber were not in the range, being far from the city. Excellent owner. Average place. For heavy-duty and roughed out travellers, a good hotel can be available for the same price around town. For those who are helpless, these kind of home stays may be okay. It's their occupation and livelyhood, and your option to talk to someone about "local things". All is well. Live is a whole gamut of experiences. Love every moment, live every monent. Grateful for our one-time experience, which was not okay for our standards, but it may be okay for someone else.