We were booked at this hotel for Christmas and New Year. We were expecting basic but were shocked when we got there! Room was dirty and run down, as was the whole complex. It has to be seen to be believed! Ceiling fan in the room only ciculated hot air and we felt like we were in a fan oven. Pillow cases hid black pillows - not colour but years of oil and sweat! Pool quite large and reasonably clean but pool area again run down and lots of crow poo everywhere. The bar area was a nice place to meet people but largely used by expats. Hotel staff were pleasent enough and helpful. We only ate snacks there (sandwiches) a couple of times and they were ok. There is no entertainment but we did have a lovely evening when a strike was on in the Colva area (absolutely everything closed!) and a group of us set up table and chairs round the back at the pool area where we could enjoy our drinks etc! Would not class this hotel as a 2 star more like a minus star and definately do not recommend it. We checked into another hotel across the road but went back just for breakfast and use the pool now and again!

The Williams is a 2-star hotel and the rating is accurate. We had rooms without air-con but with ceiling fans, situated by the pool so we could sit on the terrace and keep an eye on our son in the pool while staying in the shade (we are fair-skinned and burn easily). We had the far end room (118) which was the only downstairs one to be shady all day, ideal for us!

THE ROOM

The room was very basic - bed, table, 2 chairs and a wardrobe with one shelf and various coat-hangers which were probably left by previous tenants.

The bathroom had basin, shower and toilet with a bucket and jug for those who clean themselves after toilet duties in the traditional Indian way (!). Soap, toilet roll and towels were provided.

The shower is just "there". There is no cubicle, just a tiled bathroom floor which slopes (not noticeably) towards the drain. So, if you needed the toilet after someone had just had a shower, you get your feet wet!

The room is cleaned every day if you want and the towels and bedsheets are replaced with clean ones every time the room is cleaned. The cleaners are extremely considerate - they don't knock on the door at 10am, shouting "room service!". They wait until they see you outside the room and ask if you want it cleaning. If you say no, they leave you alone until the next day. If you say yes, you can let them do it while you sit on the terrace/by the pool or give them the key and they'll lock the room and take the key back to reception for you (we did have to seek the cleaner out one day as he had locked the room but still had the key on him).

If you want extra pillows or toilet paper, just ask one of the cleaners and they will provide.

We tipped the cleaner each time he cleaned the room - 10 rupees (12.5p) - if 2 of them did it, we gave them each 10 rupees. We also gave them 50 rupees on our last day. They didn't tend to hover for a tip though - if you want to give them something on your last day only, that seems to be acceptable.

THE POOL

It has a bar so you can sit on stools in the water and drink beer (55 rupees (75p) for a 650ml bottle) or coke/sprite/fanta (15 rupees (20p) a bottle). Diet coke comes in cans and is about twice the price. Fresh lime soda (sweet or plain) is very refreshing.

The pool isn't the cleanest but it's okay and a great way to cool down. We didn't go in until about 4pm when the sun went down in order to avoid covering ourselves in sun cream but our son spent most of the afternoon in there (with factor 30).

There are a few sun loungera, tables and umbrellas but not a huge amount and, unfortunately, people have the habit of going out early and putting their towels on the loungers to reserve them. It wasn't hugely busy while we were there though.

POWER CUTS

It was so hot and humid that we spent a lot of time under the fan (take a cold shower, then go and lie under the fan). Unfortunately, there are frequent power cuts in India and the hotel isn't terribly good at using it's generator (I don't know whether it was broken or they'd run out of fuel or what). Once the fan stops spinning, you can feel the room temperature rising rapidly and suddenly you're sweating and it's cooler outside. Usually, it's only for a few minutes at a time but we had a couple of times when it was for an hour or more.

There are two really bad times for the power to go - in the middle of the night (the sound of the fan turning off wakes you up and then you sweat) or in the middle of the afternoon when you're about to have a siesta!!

THE BAR

Drinks are so cheap (see above)! The bar is small and we didn't spend a lot of time there - usually we bought the drinks and took them back to our room/the pool.

Because it's so cheap, we would often let the bar staff keep the change. If you're staying at the bar and building up a tab (you get the bill when you ask for it), giving them a tip is no big deal, but when you're only buying a couple of drinks at a time, it can get a bit silly. By the end of the holiday, we were handing the cash over without a bill and waiting for the change (like being served in a UK pub!).

THE RESTAURANT

The waiter service is hit-and-miss - and something you kind of get used to!! Food and drinks arrive as-and-when, there is no logic to it, except that bottled drinks arrive quicker than those that have to be made (fresh juice, milkshakes, fresh lime soda, coffee). Banana milkshake is great to start off breakfast (if you get it in time and they have ice!).

The B&B option include a small glass of juice (usually mango), tea/coffee (coffe isn't great but the best we had from anywhere - stir it before pouring because sometimes it seems to be instant coffee which they haven't stirred themselves) and "toast" with jam/marmalade and butter. There are other breakfast options on offer and, again, they cost pennies (full english is just over a pound but I wouldn't recommend it). Cheese omelette is about 30p and very nice, you can have boiled eggs (soft or hard), fried eggs (one side cooked or sunnysideup), scrambled eggs...

There's an indian breakfast, continental (toast) and american (english with hash browns and long frankfurter type sausages instead of the cocktail sausages you get on the english breakfast. The bacon is strange but edible.

We rarely got up early enough for breakfast and usually ate around 11-12 o'clock. You can still have coffee them and they'll make you breakfast or you can have something off the snack menu - pakora, club sandwich, chips. The veg pakora was really nice - although the first time I had it, it included a chilli which I thought was okra!! Hot!!

The evening meals are okay. We actually thought they were great until we started eating in restaurants outside the hotel, then changed our minds!! What seems like a vast choice becomes limiting after a while. The prawn-stuffed papadums (starter) were tasty, as was the veg-stuffed paratha (bread). The chicken sizzler and chicken steak were revolting (marinated for too long I think and turned to mush) and the beef sizzler apparently was rather chewy.

My first meal there was kingfish cafrael which was very nice (coriander sauce).

Most of the waiters are very nice and friendly (two in particular spring to mind). The younger ones don't have such good english but, again, they are friendly enough. Sometimes they can seem a bit miserable as they don't all seem to know how to smile but I think it's just their way.

RECEPTION

You can change cash and travellers cheques at reception although occasionally it can take them a while to get the funds together. We didn't change money anywhere else because it was easy to just do it at reception, although there was a place directly opposite the hotel which also did money exchange.

They will also book taxis for you (ask to look at the taxi price list - they do tours as well as one-off trips), send your laundry off (cheap and back the next evening) and are generally very helpful. We did have one exception (see below).

BAD POINTS

There weren't many when you bear in mind that it's a 2-star hotel. There was one incident when we were eating in the restaurant one evening and one of the kitchen staff starting running around the kitchen area chasing a cockroach with a can of Raid. We complained to reception about the health and safety aspects of spraying an aerosol near food and he lied to us and claimed that it was sprayed at the back of the kitchen, not in the kitchen itself - you could see quite clearly from the restaurant that it was in the kitchen.

That episode appeared to cause a bit of friction between some of the waiting staff and ourselves for the rest of the holiday. It was subtle but still noticeable.

It can take an hour to get through breakfast and 2 hours to get through dinner if you're unlucky so make sure you're never in a rush for anything.

If you *need* your coffee, make sure you ask for it to be brought first and quickly. Otherwise, you could end up getting it when you've finished everything else and are ready to go.

LOCATION

The hotel is right on the doorstep of Colva. You walk out directly into a street of shops and the beach is about 500m away. Next door is a pharmacy of sorrts which sells loo roll (quite expensive, about 45p each - same as UK prices), shampoo, talc, teabags (great for gifts). The items in there have prices printed on them - make a point of looking at the prices or you will be charged more (not much more, but all the same...). There is also a "supermarket" on the opposite side of the road and to the right selling pop, squash and water (5 litre bottles - cheaper than getting the 1 ltr bottles from the hotel but not as easy to drink from!!), as well as crisps and cigarettes.

The best restaurant we tried (Mickeys) is on the opposite side of the road and to the left from the hotel. You can't miss it because it has a huge red neon sign saying (Mickeys) outside!!