Houseboat Jewel In The Crown

I booked this houseboat after reading travellers reviews on goibibo and other websites. I checked in houseboat at 8 Pm with my family as went to Gulmarg that day and stayed at Batra hotel previous night. Check in was smooth. Good points: 1. Room interior was good and bathroom was of good quality ( equivalent to 4 star hotel with bath tub). 2. Towels were provided in bathroom and hot water was available in morning . But I am highly disappointed with the service . Will suggest Mr Asif. to take care of below points and all other travellers who will be reading my reviews , please note : 1.You will start felling as if you came for free in this houseboat - When I entered the houseboat , I was welcomed by man called Bashir. As he showed us the rooms , he warned us not single time but 2-3 times to use bathroom and other stuff very carefully ( told many time while taking bath water should not fall outside bathtub ).This is very humiliating when you are travelling with your parents. What the hell is this - we are not coming from village and neither we are taking deluxe houseboat 1st time . If you are so concerned about your property , have a board outside bathroom or room to use it carefully ( that should be enough for travellers instead of poking them again and again ) . There was no notice board . Please note you are not providing us the room free of cost , we are paying more then **** for it. 2. On asking for wi-fi , first we were refused that wi-fi is not available/or device is busy with other guests . After requesting , they gave us wifi device ( dongle with idea sim) . Now the story doesn't end . Speed was very slow less than 2G and was breaking continuously. So moral of story after paying **** , you will not get internet also. Mr Asif , as you were already aware that I have made a booking 10 days in advance , you should have taken care of net speed instead of waiting for my call 3. For Guest information - Coming to breakfast - It was limited for 2 persons ( for Veg- limited poha, 8-10 fixed pieces of bread with butter and tea.) So will suggest all whoever coming to this houseboat take only room , don't go for room with breakfast option ( no use of paying 300 bugs extra). Tea charges are 20 Rs only. Mr Asif , please try to include more items in breakfast . We were not provided any welcome tea on arrival , instead we were charged 20 RS per cup of tea. Breakfast menu was fixed with no juice ( only tea ,Poha and bread with butter) 4. There were no toiletries in bathroom except for small soap and towels. 5. Houseboat was not Centralized heated , no electric blankets inside room and no TV inside room. 6. Common TV in lobby and in that also DTH was not working. TV seemed to belong to 1990 generation. When hotel management claims that it is deluxe houseboat , not budget one ,we expect either LCD or big screen TV with at least DTH working. please see attached screenshot for TV 7. Hot water was available in morning only as there were no geyser in bathroom and they have to burn wood to generate hot water which can be available in morning only 8. For travellers - if you are staying near Dal lake , you have to spend min. of 180 Rs in auto to reach Nageen lake where there is this houseboat. Whole purpose of writing this review is for travellers like me who wants to read genuine feedback before booking . One more thing , I would like to share that there are 2 houseboat of this owner ( one was under construction and one in which we stayed - bathroom was in construction in 3rd room ). So Mr Asif , would suggest you to work on above mentioned points and please take my feedback in positive manner as I regularly books hotel from goibibo and my reviews can be read from there for other hotels.

I stayed with my wife and my son for 3N/4D. The rooms were beautiful & big. We booked through Goibibo. This is an extravagant property beautifully maintained and surrounded by tall trees & mountains. The friendliness of staff is visible the moment you get off before the entrance. we were given complementary shikara ride which again was blissful. breakfast & dinner was amazing and Mr Asif (Owner of the houseboat) himself was personally present interacting with us. Our first trip to Kashmir proved to be extremely memorable and we thank all the staff including Bashir Bhai for the same. So for everyone who goes by reviews - The Jewel in the crown is definitely a luxurious place to stay in an absolutely divine Srinagar. A big thumbs up! I would recommend this definetly, this was my first time in houseboat and it was really worth to stay and have a great experience, will stay again soon in houseboat. This is something different in Kashmir you should try it, it is unique experience. One of the best houseboat in Nigeen lake.

I had selected this houseboat based on the reviews however it was a disappointing experience. This place is overhyped and the photos of politicians staying there adds to the hype. I had booked luxury suit however what was promised in the room description was not what I got. Room didn’t have TV as was mentioned in room description. Instead of the king size bed I booked , I got a queen. Shikara wouldn’t pick you from the ghat after 6:30pm in winter. Hot water comes only at 7:30am. Food was just ordinary. People stay at houseboats for an experience however, it seemed it is taken for granted that the experience of being on houseboat will overweigh all other shortcomings. Facilities wise, to me this didn’t appear to be anything over a 2 star stay. Many have said this, and I agree that if you have a short stay, Dal Lake may be a better place to book houseboats. There is nothing around Nigeen and you would pretty much be a captive for the duration of stay.

As one of our friend was getting married, we planned to gift the couple a honeymoon package. After exploring many websites, I finally locked their stay at Houseboat Jewel in the crown. I spoke to Mr. Asif to make the couple's stay very comfortable and special as my friend and his wife were visiting Kashmir for the first time. When they returned, I spoke to my friend and he was very very happy with the services provided by the staff. Not only they served good food, but also helped in hiring a cab for sightseeing at best possible price and suggested places to visit. Thank you so much for making our gift more special. Next time I visit Srinagar, will definitely book a room in this houseboat. Highly recommended.