Stay Report: The Nishat Hotel, Gulberg (Lahore, Pakistan - April 2019)

Stay Report: The Nishat Hotel - Gulberg, Lahore

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I was scheduled to leave Lahore the next day, so I needed a hotel for one night.  Since I was only going to be there for a short-time, I was looking for something that was close to the airport, was reliable, was clean, and was affordable.  I have never stayed at a hotel in Lahore so I went around to some of the established places to check out their facilities, but when I stepped into The Nishat I knew my search was over.  The Nishat Hotel was started by The Nishat Group, which is a big textile and fabric company in Pakistan, and overall the hotel is modeled like a boutique hotel.  The rooms were nice and spacious (and clean), the hotel had good amenities for the guests, and the service was good and accommodating.

The hotel is located in Gulberg, Lahore and while it is not the best location - as its on the edge of the shopping area bordering a more residential area - it is surrounded by restaurants and shops so you can easily walk to get food or shopping.  As you pull up, there is a small circular driveway in which there are stairs that lead up to the lobby.  The outside of the hotel is in black and grey colors and the color pattern continues inside the hotel.  One you go past the security, you enter into the lobby.  On the left side is the restaurant while straight ahead is a mini seating area.  To the right is the concierge stand, the check-in desks, and the elevators.  The hotel staff recognized me from when I came to check the rooms, and they individually came up to say hello and that was a nice touch - overall the customer service was very nice.  

I did have two issues while checking in - 1) check-in time is at 2pm and the hotel calls you that day to confirm your checkin time, and if you do not pick up the phone or call back then they cancel the booking; they tried to call me but had my number incorrectly so even when I went to the hotel at 3pm they had apparently canceled my booking; 2) I had booked two rooms, one with one bed and the other room with two beds and I had asked for these rooms the day I inquired about the rooms and they day I came to book the rooms yet the day of check-in the request still needed to be processed.  While these are minor things, the minor things can build up and sometimes be indicative of major issues.

I checked-in, received my key, and went up to the 8th floor as one of my two rooms was ready - I was the other room would be ready within the hour.  The first room had the double bed and the layout was such that as you entered the room, there was a mini-hallway in which the bathroom was on the right and all along the left hand side was nice and large closets.  The closets contained a safe, shelves to store items, a hanging bar to hand your items, laundry bag, slippers as well as shoe polish (it was a really big closet with TONS of space).  The bathroom was also quite spacious and contained a sink with LOTS of counter space, a toilet and a stand-in shower.  The shower area was also spacious and contained both a hand-held as well as a 'rain shower' head.  The sink contained a plethora of amenities including shampoo, body wash, lotion, nail file, dental kit, sewing kit, etc --- really a lot of amenities and this touch was very nice.

Further into the room, the bed was the right side while on the left were two chairs with a table in the middle.  Both chairs were very comfortable and one faced the bed while the other faced the large window - the window was open enough to let in light but had some decorative sculpture outside thus blocking the outside from looking in.  In front of the bed, along the length of the wall, was a long desk which had a chair as well as outlet plugs as well.  The desk also contained the welcome fruit platter, two complimentary bottles of water, as well as the tea kettle.  The bed itself was very comfortable, the sheets were nice and the pillows new, and it provided a great nights sleep.  On either side of the bed was a nightstand and the entire place was electronic so you could control the lights and sounds from panels on either side of the bed).  The room with the two beds was laid out in a similar fashion as the one bed is just one mattress over two box springs so they can easily pull apart the box springs and make it two beds - I have seen this done in other hotels but the lack of space usually means not enough room between the two beds, however given the spaciousness of the room there was space in between the beds.    

The hotel has many facilities for the guests to enjoy including complimentary breakfast, complimentary wifi, a gym, an indoor pool, airport shuttle, parking, and others.  Given I was there for a short period, I could only try a few of the facilities: the airport shuttle was a large van that could accommodate many passengers and luggage, and would run on the hour.  It was very easy and convenient to book and access the shuttle.  The wifi was complimentary and strong enough for basic email and WhatsApp (streaming videos would be difficult). 

Overall, it was a great stay at The Nishat Hotel with comfortable, spacious, nice-smelling, and clean rooms along with good service, good facilities for the guests, and a nice location.  I would definitely recommend this hotel and this is a hotel that we intend to use in the future as well.