My girlfriend and I booked a one night stay on one of Coco's one-bed houseboats.
The experience itself was excellent - winding through the backwaters is the most relaxing way to spend a day or more. In fact, i would recommend staying for 2 nights instead of one, as once you set off at around 1pm, you're only travelling for 4-5 hours before settling down for the night and another hour or so in the morning.
The boat itself wasn't the top end of luxury, but was very nice.
The staff were excellent. We were accompanied by a driver and a cook. Their english was very basic but they were really helpful. The food was excellent and the service top notch.
The room was ok - what you would expect on a boat really. The air con/fan were loud and the toilet was really hot, but generally decent quality.
One thing to watch out for - they asked us if we wanted tiger prawns for dinner, to which we obliged. However they later stopped at the side of the waterways and found a man with prawns, who then charged us 800Rs extra for the privilege. The prawns were delicious but this wasn't what we thought we signed up for - all food should have been included, and the language barrier screwed us over on that one.
Worst of all - despite being a romantic candle lit dinner, there were no mosquito nets or bug protection in the main eating area, so after a few minutes of eating the admittedly delicious food, seeing the bugs crawling in it and the lizards on the roof put us off our food and we retreated to the bedroom for the evening. For the price, you expect more.
Another disappointing thing was the free canoe "ride", This is advertised everywhere as being down winding water that the boat can't get down. However our "ride" was around a dingy lake in near nightfall, surrounded by mosquitoes and in the company of another couple - not ideal.
Overall an enjoyable experience, but watch out for the added extras, go for more than one night and make sure you check for mosquito nets/bug protection beforehand.
