We hoped this heritage hotel would be much better, it is a great building but needs cleaning up.
They were nice enough to offer us an upgrade to the best suite, but we didn't stay and decided to spend more money and stay in a more expensive cleaner hotel for our 3 days in Varanasi.
Why is there no women working at the lower priced hotels ?

It could have been a lot better--if there was more maitainance. It was suppsed to be a lovely hotel, however, it was very much under-maintained. The restaurant and the room were not clean enough...it could have done better and improved itself to an upper lelvel. It had that hardware.

PS there are a few nice shops close to the hotel, including a small supermarket where you can find some imported stuff like snacks or toilet paper; and some more up-market saree shops and women's wear.

We endend up here because the Surya Hotel couldn't understand why we were visa exempt and wouldn't let us stay! The hotel seems to have been a grand hotel once, but now it's just a huge old building. I have to say that service still is itself very good, they are very nice and provided us with a heater and mosquito repellent. The bed and bathroom were clean. Our room had a small table with a couple of chairs and a closet. The beds were ok. The bathroom is large but there is no separation with the shower. We had to hurry our showers because the hot water runs out after a while and since we showered one right after the other the heater didn't have time to warm up again. You probably think it doesn't sound so bad but considering that we paid a little over 40 USD, it's expensive for India. So all in all if you don't have anywhere else to spend the night, this will do but chances are for the price you'll find better.

This hotel is far from good: It is an odd, run-down establishment with filthy bathrooms in the entrance area, grungy rooms with small, uncomfortable beds. Happily, however, the shower was surprisingly good.
The men at the front reception were helpful but strangely so. Literally 4 men carried out our 3 small carry-on bags, another appeared at 10 pm at our door unsolicited with a role of toilet paper in hand -- obviously looking for yet another tip. It was an odd experience in a challenging city!