We (family included) were on a road trip along the coast of Kerala. We have a lovely time until we turned up at Krishnatheeram. We were met by the General Manager (Mr Rajesh) who apologised, as we were being transferred to Krishnatheeram's sister hotel. Reason being , the 'air conditioning unit in our block wasn't working'. However we later found out that they had over booked. One of the many lies that Mr Rajesh told us.
We were led to believe by Mr Rajesh that the other hotel Kadaltheeram was a much better hotel than Krishnateeram. As we didn't have a choice we left only to find that Kadaltheeram was in the middle of no where and it was an ayurverdic resort; which meant no alcohol, meat or other delightful Indian delicacies. The food was basic and the rooms beyond spartan. To be honest - I have stayed in better youth hostels! For breakfast we were given the option of dried puttu or bananas - despite Mr Rajesh's promises that the variety of food was better than our first hotel. We went to dine at Krishnatheeram at night only to find out that half the menu could not be ordered as they ran out of food! Thankfully we only stayed there for one night.
I am not going to waste anymore time disparaging the Ayur Beach Resorts Ltd - however if anyone from the senior management team is reading this, do get rid of Mr Rajesh as he isn't doing you or your profits any favours.

Verdict: Stay away from either hotel - there are loads more to choose from in Varkala.

Booked this hotel two months before the expected arrival through laterooms for 4 nights. After receiving confirmation from laterooms sent a letter to the hotel to confirm reservation. Received no response. Wrote more than five times - the same result - no response. Contacted with customer service of laterooms for an explanation. From laterooms received a message that they have contacted the hotel and everything is in order. Before leaving for a week again wrote a letter to the hotel to confirm reservation. And got the answer - that they know nothing and no vacancies, but did not answer because all they sold! The logic of totally incomprehensible! The notion of respect for customers is completely absent!
Do not risk your vacation linking to this hotel!

We've been living in a rental house for 2 months in varkala with our 3 kids. We knew the contract would run out at the end of December so we booked a month at Krishnatheeram... 2 adjoining large sea-view rooms ... and put down a 25% deposit. Two weeks before we were going to move in, we heard that they sold part of their hotel to another hotel -- the part of the hotel with the rooms we had booked.The new owner said that Krishnatheeram didn't ask him to honor their previous bookings. We spoke to the GM at Krishnatheeram and he assured us that it would not be a problem... they would either rent those rooms from the new owner or give us sea-view rooms in their hotel. The day before check-in, they showed us the large sea-view rooms we would be staying in. On check-in day, we arrived with the kids and 3 months of luggage and they said that we had to pay nearly double the agreed price if we wanted the rooms. The GM said we had to pay this price because they had already reported it to the tax authority. We check with 2 other hotel GMs we knew in Varkala and they said this is a complete lie. The Krishnatheeram GM then said that he didn't didn't have to honor our contract because it was made with the previous management. I asked the staff at Krishnatheeram when the new management arrived and they all confirmed it was at the beginning of September. We had made our booking the first week of November (and I stood at the front desk while the receptionist "called the GM to check that the price was ok") . So this was another complete lie. When I pointed this out, he offered to put us in his 2 smallest rooms, each with a single small bed, and neither with a view. When I sternly told him this was unacceptable and said that we didn't appreciate having our contract ignored and then being lied to, he yelled at us in front of our children and demanded we all leave his property immediately. About 5 minutes later, as we stood on the street with our luggage trying to figure out where to stay, a tour bus full of Italians pulled up... also with bookings at the part of the hotel that Krishnatheeram sold, we watched about 20 of them give the GM a much-deserved earful of Italian rage before they got on their bus in search of a place to stay.
So.... please be careful with your bookings. The hotel looks nice and is nicely situated in town, but as is often the case, you want to make sure you're staying with honorable people.

We have just returned from a tour of India, ending with a two night stay at the Krishnatheeram, and all I can say is don't stay here!

We were booked in a garden room, in one of the villa type rooms. Our room was very damp and smelt, all our clothes started smelling too and even our back packs took on the damp smell. The sheets were stained. There was no hot water (although not uncommon in India hotels). The air condition that we were charged 500 rupees extra a night did not work and on complaining they insisted it did work.

The one positive is the gardens are quite pretty with nice views over the beach.

We found the staff to be unhelpful.

There are lots of better places to stay in the area, so book somewhere else instead!