After trying another Hotel (Seruwa - not recommandable) I changed the house. The price is compared to what you get in the town really woth it. The rooms are very clean and well furnished. The staff is helping in any situation and fulfills even special food requests.
It is worth staying here at least 2 nights as the lake and the sourraounding is a goog place to do some more than only visit the old temple city. An extra tip - go to Hotel Sudu Araliya and take the Spa Arrangement. It´s exellent but to stay there far to expensive.

1 night spent in this hotel not booked in advance but suggested by local people.
Cleaned and large room with A/C, the staff was very friendly and they helped me to arrange a medical visit in the closest clinic. We had one of the best dinner in their restaurant and chef was so kind to illustrate the dishes and to show us all the ingredients.

This is a simple, cheap, clean hotel which has the basics right. Nothing fancy, great showers with abundance of hot water, clean sheets, excellent air conditioning, friendly staff all at a relatively cheap price (we paid roughly $30 a night.) Compared to the other hotels around and we checked most of them before we chose Siyanco - this is a gem. The rest are far too shabby and the famous rest house is ridiculously priced for nothing! (unless you really think that since the queen visited a rest house 50 years ago it means anything about the condition of the hotel at the moment) I advise all to stay at Siyanco, don't even bother looking around...

Really fed up after looking at the excessive prices and poor facilities offered by the Polonnaruwa Rest House (Government run), we despaired of finding a decent place to stay at affordable prices. This hotel is not in The Lonely Planet but should be. We followed TLP's guide to The Lake View Inn (really small, and TLP's review is probably accurate!), and, at the end of the road, bright, white, sparkly, and with tinted windows, is Siyanco.

It's so new it isn't yet on the Google Earth photos. You follow the signs to Archeological Museum. At the crossroads with the Buddha you head toward the museum and the enormous Polonnaruwa Tank, and take the first road on the left past the ATM. If you get to the Gajabba Hotel you've missed the road!

Now I don't get "Holiday Resort" as part of the title. Let's be fair, it's a good standard budget hotel with well above average facilities. As always the room rate is negotiable, but only down to 3,500 rupees for a triple room provided the aircon was switched off! Breakfast included, dinner extra.

The rooms are excellent. No view from ours, but that didn't matter at all, we were there for the ruins, not the view! Dinner was the very best rice and curry we had in Sri Lanka! And we had a great natter over dinner with the manager. He's really fed up that the war isn't over and that guests are few and far between at present. We agree. Sri Lanka deserves more tourists. Ideally independent travellers, not coach parties.

Breakfast was unique! Perfect eggs! If you've not travelled in Sri Lanka you will not understand the height of luxury this was!

Watch out for ice rink slippery floors if coming out of the shower wet! But, seriously, that was the only minor issue we found. No website yet, but one is coming soon, says the manager. in Sri Lankan terms that probably means December!