lovely place, nice owners, great, large rooms, though the fact that they're open at the top can affect a night's sleep if your neighbour is ill (like when we stayed there). location is spot on, near some great restaurants & only a 5-10 minute walk from the action of Fort Cochin

A beautiful place, very atmospheric. Big, beautiful bedrooms with small hide outs and clean! Family run, VERY friendly and helpfull. Onlyu the mosquitoes had no trouble finding us, and we were not allowed to hang mosquitoe-nets. Other than that, perfect!

My sister-in-law and I stayed about ten days in Chiramel homestay. My first time in India, hers fourth. We chose the room with AC, but often we only used the fan because that was less cold. The bathingroom is different from the ones in my country (Netherlands), so everything got wet after showering. But the water was warm/hot as promised. The room was kept tidy, the towels were replaced everyday, which was necessary since the climate was rather humid. The breakfast was okay, with toast, honey, jam and scrambled eggs, coffee and tea. Asha, the landlady, and the two girls took very good care of us. They are very modest and only after a few days we realised the landlady also could help us with touristic ideas. Since I had to attend a conference in Ernakulam, my sister-in-law went on the trips Asha had suggested. She was very enthousiastic! Internet is provided, it works and we could also use the payphone. We could stay one day longer than planned since the plane was leaving in the night and we were only charged a small amount of money extra. Dutch friends who were staying in another homestay visited us and they were very, very jaleous! Next time, if there will come one, I'm sure we go back!

The Chiramel Residency offered a moderately-priced, comfortable stay in Kochi. We booked ahead and paid online, which worked out all right (they had our reservation, and there were no problems with the room), but everything else we had to pay for in cash, which became problematic toward the end of the trip with theatre tickets, transportation, and other activities included. We also booked a kathakali show and a boat ride through the hotel. The kathakali show was definitely a tourist-only affair, but nonetheless an enjoyable time. And the boat trip was one of my favorite experiences in India -- so peaceful and relaxing out on the water. The village tour that was part of the backwater boat trip was interesting, but of course filled with all of the problems that arise from making lifestyles into tourist attractions. I would definitely recommend the full-day tour. It was difficult to sleep in our non-A/C room because the threat of mosquitoes meant we had to keep the windows closed and with the heat and humidity and no A/C, that meant very uncomfortable sleep. Also, breakfast was not included in our room and was pretty modest (toast and jam and eggs), but a decent way to start the day and only slightly overpriced compared to other places. In general, our stay in Kochi was comfortable, but arriving at and departing from the hotel was filled with all of the usual hassles between tourists and taxi drivers -- made all the more obnoxious by the hotel trying to take its cut on the taxi fare. Oh well, it wouldn't be a trip to India without those hassles.