We arrived at this hotel at 5am in the morning without a booking and the man at reception responded to our knock at the gate and let us in. As with most places in Puri the checkout is 9am and we got told there was a room with bathroom available after 9am. There are some great common areas in this place and so we hung out on a couch till the room was ready.

The room was amazing, high ceilings, great bed, mozzie net, large bathroom and optional AC. it was cool enough with the high ceiling and fans and so we didn't use AC and saved some rupees. The common breakfast area was great for meeting other guest and just hanging out. The food was good too. I would just say book, we were lucky and got the last room with en-suite bathroom. however I think the share ones didn't look too bad. There is another review with photos, our room looked exactly the same. Great value, great room.

Make sure you visit the beach at the other end of the town (off the lonely planet map) called Golden beach I think ( I can't remember) we only ended up there because we were booking tours at the OTDC office and it happens to be at this beach. here the beach is cleaner and you can find load of local indian tourists swimming fully clothed and enjoying the water. The beach near the tourist hub is quite dirty and where all the fishing boats come in. If you swim here though prepared to dress conservatively (women i.e. tshirts over swimmers) or risk attracting unwanted attention. we just walked back along the beach to the tourist end.

The Z hotel is a nice, but slightly run down hotel, the room could do with a lick of paint certainly. The staff are friendly, and the food is quite good. The location to town is very good, as it is right on the main strip.

The beach in town though is disgusting, if you are coming to Puri just for the beach, forget it! But do make a trip to Konark, it is well worth the adventure.

There are lots of mosquitoes here, and I mean lots. Bring mosquito repellant and coils and be prepared to have to cover yourself in the spray just to have breakfast! There are nets in the room, and the staff do use coils in the common area, but still, be prepared to be bitten!

A huge downsight to this hotel is the owners stingy attitude to his enormous collection of books! He has 2 huge cabinets in the common room, and refuses to entertain the idea of exchange, not even 2 for 1 or simply buying a book!? Apparently his guests like to read the books for the few days they stay at the hotel. Congratulations to the person who can read the Count of Monte Cristo in a few days!

My sister and I and a few friends stayed 5 nights at Z Hotel and really loved it, the rooms and bathrooms were cleaned well everyday. The kitchen staff were fabulous, friendly and loved to have a joke. I really loved my time here and would recommend it to the budget traveller.

The place is great, quiet, surrounded by a beautiful garden and close to the beach.I stayed in a single room with shared bathroom- the only option available on my arrival, and it had a terrible smell of humidity and there was mould on the walls. The room was nice, simple, the bed was small with a thin mattress but ok enough, but the smell was indeed a problem. The WC was just next door and quite clean, although there were a million mosquitoes there. I requested the management to do something about it and they sprayed it, resulting in one dead million mosquitoes on the floor which nobody cared to clean (I did). The next day the same situation was on. I mean, is it so difficult to spray morning and evening and come to clean afterwards? The staff were nice but a bit indifferent, and sometimes bothered to leave their film watching for taking your order. Depends where do you come from this place might feel like heaven, and it certainly has a lot of character, although for me it was a bit disappointing.