Spent 3 nights at the beginning of a tour with Saga, in room 515. This overlooks the garden, it's quiet and was in good, clean condition. Full bathroom with plenty of hot water at all times. Public rooms are smart though once you leave them things get shabbier. Food is very average and drinks are ridiculously expensive compared to elsewhere in Nepal. It does provide an oasis of calm just off the very hectic but endlessly fascinating streets of Kathmandu. From here we did the flight to see Mount Everest (put aside your nerves and do it!) and the wonderfully evocative town of Bhaktapur which was just stunning and highly recommended.

At the end of the tour we stayed for 1 night in room 510. It faces the pool and is not as quiet as the garden side. This room was nothing like as nice as 515 with a very grubby appearance, stained furniture and bedheads. Our experience suggests that standards are not consistent and the quality of the room will be the luck of the draw.

This is the 2nd time we stay in the Malla hotel in the last three years. The perfect location and the good service are the reasons we chose again this hotel. It is like a quiet oasis in the middle of the noisy Thamel. It is a nice place to be after a 2 weeks trek in the Himalaya but it will not be my first choice if I look for nice decorated clean room to spend a vacation. All the interior needs an argent renovation, nothing works well from the TV till the air-condition. Because the hotel is located in Kathmandu it received 3-4 stars. In the western world it should be a 2 stars hotel with the good potential to be a 4 stars hotel only after a total renovation.
The hotel has a beautiful garden and nice swimming pool which are in contrast to the poor interior.
When taking a shower you should be ready to do it in brown water… not clean, but definitely very worm with good flow.

Stayed at the Malla for a week. Spent one night on the ground floor - the rooms there are awful. The fourth floor was much better, but the rooms overlooking the swimming pool are noisy because of the hotel/guest house very close next door. The rooms overlooking the gardens are much better. Breakfast is pretty good, but otherwise meals at the hotel are very poor. Fortnately it is only a short walk into the tourist area of Thamel. On the fourth floor the rooms are cleaned well, and there are good bathrooms with hot showers, flush toilets, etc. The hotel is expensive by Nepali standards, mainly because of the Casino clientele I guess.

We trekked in Nepal in November/December in 2010 and used the Malla as our base at each end of the trek. This was the fourth time we had used the hotel. We love it! The staff are very friendly and the common rooms are spacious and kept very clean. We were on a a B&B basis which works well for us as we like to eat out while in KTM. At the end of a hard trek there is nothing quite like sitting in the gardens enjoying a cold beer! I look forward to visiting the hotel again in February 2013