Hotel Haifa Incident

Hotel Haifa is located near Assi Ghat in Varanasi. They are recommended on several online travel forums and have a good reputation in the market, which is why they are usually full. I also used to recommend this hotel, but I was unaware of their strange business policy – they do not allow tourist guides inside. This came to light when an American university student group, staying at Hotel Haifa, invited me to meet them. We were sitting in the hotel’s restaurant, talking, when the owner, Mr. Ravi Mishra, suddenly appeared to introduce himself to the group.

After a brief conversation with them, he turned to me and asked how I had come there. I explained that the group had invited me because they wanted to talk with me. Hearing this, he became upset and told me clearly: “Listen, I want to make this clear to you – I do not allow guides and outsiders to enter my hotel.” I was shocked. He repeated that tourist guides are not allowed to meet clients inside his hotel and asked me not to come again. After speaking with me, he told the same thing to the group in front of me. They all looked at me with surprised faces and later apologized for what had happened.

This was the first time in my life that someone had insulted me so directly. I felt both shocked and guilty, and we ended the meeting immediately. Later, I spoke to a few people who had previously stayed at Hotel Haifa, and one of them told me: “The restaurant staff was eager to please, but I felt slightly intimidated by the management’s attitude. They promote their own guides, money-changing, and travel agent services, which explains their behavior with you. As an American traveling alone, I liked having one trusted person I could count on, but they seem to want to be the guest’s only resource, or push their own network of touts.”

Hearing this made things clearer. It seems the hotel does not want locals or independent guides to interact with their guests, possibly to keep control over all services and ensure the clients depend only on them. But to me, this feels unfair and deeply problematic. I could not help but compare it to the signs from British colonial times that read “Dogs and Indians not allowed.” That was the early 1900s, yet here in the 21st century, in an independent India with its own government, I experienced something that felt very similar.

Do you really think such a hotel deserves support? Personally, I will no longer recommend Hotel Haifa, and I have decided not to work with anyone who chooses to stay there