The hotel's website states that it is on the beach. Not so - from the hotel there is a very distant view of the sea, over the jungle, and, in spite of the name, it is nearly 6 kms away from the beautiful Om Beach. We changed rooms 3 times to try to find an acceptable one. In each case there was mould over the ceilings in bedrooms & bathrooms, pillows and pillowcovers were covered in black mould too. We stayed 3 nights and in the diningroom the table cloths were extremely dirty when we arrived and even worse by the time we left - they had not been changed. The waiters' clothes were dirty, too. When the airconditioning functioned, it was on at full-blast and could not be turned down, so was very noisy and, as it was installed to face over the beds, it could not be used at night. DO NOT GO TO THIS HOTEL

Gokarna was a revelation. Gorgeous, clean and relatively uncrowded beaches where one can laze around in company of beer, half-decent but fresh seafood, breeze and sun. My swimmer friend obviously loved it, but so did I.

And the hotel is the perfect base for Gokarna, if you are beyond the stage in life when tacky beach shacks are what you can afford (they are not exactly cheap either, for what they provide) or sound romantic to you (they probably are in other countries), which, here, have dubious sleeping, toilet and hot water facilities. The hotel has very large cottage rooms (each has a bedroom, a living room and a large bathroom with a large bath-tub) with clean, though old, linen and upholstery.

- There is ample parking space.
- The staff is friendly (I needed my car brakes checked and they organised for the mechanic to come from the closest town and watched over the proceedings while I went off to the beach).
- The mobile connection is there, but if-fy inside the rooms.
- There is cable TV.
- Smoking is permitted.
- Expensive belongings are safe (laptops, cameras and jewellery were left by us quite happily in the room with no fear).
- The hotel provides one free pick-up and drop to your beach of choice (10 min away), which are between 3.5-4 km from the hotel, and to the local market, fi you realise you do not have beach clothes, sunscreen, hat, etc. Not that they say no if you want more.
- It won't play horrible music even on New Year's Eve, which the adjacent Seabord Resort did.
- The food is very average, so ensure you just do breakfast. There are many options on the beach that are far, far better.
- It has nice gardens and decent landscaping, and is very-child friendly.
- The rooms provide only soap, so carry your own toiletries.
- They have beer, but are happy to chill your alcohol.

Don't go expecting a Phuket-style resort and do not assume it is on the beach. And all will be well!

We all know that running a "guest property" is a business at the end of the day. The most rewarding places to stay are those which do the best job of concealing the business of business from the guest as possible. Om Beach Resort doesn't even make the effort to conceal, from lack of upkeep to the structures--quite evident after a decaying cyclone delivered 24 hours of steady rain much of which found its way into the bathroom in all the wrong places--to the highway robbery of the visitor in obscenely high taxi/transfer rates.

The facility itself is physically very appealing well gardened and manicured, and the food, as in all of South India, is delicious with the dining area offering a nice view of a distant Arabian sea. The 2km walk into Gokarna town is enjoyable, and the pilgrimage town itself is quite charming. The string of beaches, Om, Half Moon and Paradise are the attraction here. But they are 6km or so from the facility and it is not always feasible to find a tuk tuk to bring you down although they congregate by Om beach for a return trip. That makes travelers without their own transportation dependent upon the facility for a ride to and possibly back up from the beach, which quashes spontaneity. Support staff were as attentive as management was detached.

The lat/long coordinates for the Om Beach Resort are: 14° 32' 44.40" N 74° 19' 37.79" E

Website promises of wireless internet did not materialize, the PCs were rarely up and available and there was a charge. As others have mentioned, there is no hospitality presence at the front desk and the owner is in and out.

Perhaps they know that they are the only air conditioned operation an area that always enjoys stifling heat and humidity and are getting the action while they can. Here's hoping for another air conditioned option to spring up that is not another chi-chi yoga retreat.

Their website does make it look like a resort.
Om is not a resort at all. The rooms are dumpy lacking any character. The bathroom had many many leaks. After a rainstorm, water came in all over including over the toilet area. In other tropical countries I have been to such as Mexico, they figured out how to install thatched roofing that is water tight.

The hotel did not provide enough towels nor toilet paper. The towels and sheets while clean were heavily stained. The doorknob came off (staff did this not me) but did fix it. On only two of the days was there a breakfast buffet.

The hotel is nowhere near the beach, although on the website it is made to look like it can be seen from the property and is a few minutes walk. They do provide free rides to the beach and to the town though. We were overcharged for pick up from the Karwar train station and to the Goa airport, based on what I paid for similar transfers with other hotels, covering the same or greater distance.

The promised wi-fi was non-existent. The manager had a PC in his office to use but it rarely worked, and a surprise when checking out is they billed me for usage!! Wi-fi should be available and free to guests as is standard with quality hotels.

The beach itself was mediocre in cleanliness and amenities compared to many beaches I visited around the world including in third world countries like India. If I had to plan this trip again, I would skip the beach and especially this hotel.