Anand Hotel

Anand Hotel is up on the 8th floor of the National Plaza on Ring Road. We are directly opposite the railway station in Surat, so we get a lot of people who have just climbed off a train and are looking for a place to rest. Being on the 8th floor gives a good view of the station and all the tracks, but it also means we rely a lot on the elevator. When the elevator is slow, people get a bit frustrated, but that is just part of being in an older commercial building. The Ring Road is incredibly noisy with all the rickshaws and buses, but once you get up to our floor, it quietens down a little bit. We have many rooms and we spend most of our day changing linens and checking people in. The furniture is a bit older, maybe a bit scratched here and there, but it serves its purpose. We do not have a big corporate team running things; it is just a few of us making sure the water is running and the lights are on. Travelers usually stay for a night or two before moving on. We have some plants in the hallway but they do not get much sun. People often come in late at night when the trains arrive, so someone is always awake here. It is a 24-hour kind of life for us. It is just a place to sleep.