Pilgrim families choosing a Haridwar stay: what they check before they book

Someone rings from Indore at ten at night. "Har Ki Pauri kitna door hai? Mummy-Papa ke liye lift hai? Kamra kitne ka padega?" They have three hotels open on their phone and will book the first one that answers properly. Before booking a Haridwar stay, a pilgrim family checks four things. The first is the walk to the ghat for the oldest in the group. Then come photographs of the actual room, the price for their dates, and a quick reply. Answer all four, in Hindi, on your listing and on WhatsApp.

The walk to the ghat decides more than the room

Many groups include a grandparent, and some come for something that happens at the ghat at dawn: an asthi visarjan, a mundan, a snan on Amavasya or Purnima. So the family is not asking how far you are. They are asking whether Dadi can walk it at 5 am.

"2 minutes from Har Ki Pauri" fails that test. On big bathing days the roads near the ghat can close to cars, and a two-minute drive becomes a long walk through crowded bazaar lanes. Say the distance in walking minutes, at an old person's pace. Say which way the walk goes. Say whether there is an e-rickshaw to the nearest point vehicles are allowed, and whether your rooms need stairs.

Photographs a family will actually look at

The person booking forwards your photographs to the family group, and the group decides. Send these, and put the same set on your Google listing:

• The room from the door, bed made, as the guest will see it
• The bathroom, showing an Indian or a western toilet, and the geyser
• A lift, or the staircase if there is no lift
• Your gate and the lane outside, so a family arriving at night recognises it
• The route to the ghat: your gate, and the corner where the ghat comes into view
• Parking, if a car or a tempo traveller can stop at your door
• Where meals come from: your own kitchen, or the bhojanalaya next door, and whether it is satvik

Show a Ganga view only from a room that has one. A family that books "Ganga view" and opens the curtain on a wall writes the review every later family reads.

The price, said once and plainly

Give the rate per room per night for their dates, what it includes, and the charge for an extra person or mattress. If the dates fall on a peak, such as the Kanwar Yatra, Ganga Dussehra or a big bathing day, say so in the first reply. Someone who has told the family one rate should never hear another at check-in.

A dharamshala should put its rules in the same message: the gate closing time, no alcohol or meat, the check-out time, and whether the charge is fixed or a donation. Nobody minds the rules. They mind hearing them at the gate. Put the advance and the cancellation rule in writing before taking any money by UPI.

A first reply in Hindi, ready to send

Many of these families write in Hindi, in Roman letters or in Devanagari. Reply in the script they used. Keep the reply below as a saved quick reply in the WhatsApp Business app, and fill the brackets each time.

Namaste ji, [hotel ka naam] se [aapka naam].
Aapki tareekh: [date] se [date], [kitne log].
Kamra: [AC ya non-AC], [kitne bed], ₹[rate] prati raat, [kya shaamil hai].
Har Ki Pauri: paidal [kitne] minute, [kis raaste se]. [Lift hai / ground floor kamra hai.]
Gaadi: [parking hai, ya kahan khadi karein].
Kamre ki photo bhej raha hoon. Booking ke liye [advance] UPI se, cancel ka niyam: [niyam].

It answers the four questions in the order the caller asked them, and it sends photographs without waiting to be asked. If the family has not replied by the next evening, one short message asking whether they have fixed the dates is enough. A trust or a large hotel with two people on the desk in the season may want the WhatsApp Business API, so both can answer from one number. For a record of each enquiry and who followed it up, see lead response and follow-up.

What the booker checks on the map

Before paying an advance, they open Google Maps and measure the walk from your pin to Har Ki Pauri themselves. If your pin sits on the main road and your gate is down a lane, their measurement and your claim will not match. Put the pin on the gate. Keep the name on the listing the same as the name on your board, and the phone number the same as the WhatsApp number that answers at night. Reply to every review, kind or harsh, in the language it was written in. Google Business Profile management covers these details.

The hotel that was two minutes from the ghat

Imagine a twenty-room hotel in Haridwar's old town. The details are invented. Its listing said "2 min from Har Ki Pauri". A family from Ahmedabad booked it for an asthi visarjan, with an elderly mother. On the morning they arrived, the road was closed to cars for a bathing day. The walk took twenty minutes through packed lanes, and the mother had to stop four times. The review called the hotel dishonest, and the hotel lost a few bookings it would otherwise have had.

The owner did not argue. By that evening the listing and the WhatsApp reply said "12 minutes on foot at an easy pace; on bathing days the road closes to cars". An e-rickshaw for older guests now runs to the nearest point vehicles may reach, and the route is photographed. The owner replied to the review in Hindi, apologised and said what had changed. It did not undo the review. The next family with a grandmother did ask about the e-rickshaw before they asked the rate.

Leave two things out of the first reply: a place at the aarti or a quick darshan you cannot arrange, and Kanwar dates you have not blocked. If a family with a wheelchair asks about rooms up three flights of stairs, tell them, and suggest somewhere that suits them. For Delhi families, see advertising to Delhi families, and for the state as a whole, the Uttarakhand hub.

Tonight, scroll up through the chats from families who asked and never booked. Against each, note which of the four questions your first reply left out. Whichever is missing most often goes into your saved reply first. For the listing and the saved replies, tell us what you need.