•  If you are not staying with friends or relatives, selecting a safe and secure place within your budget requires some advance planning.
•  Unless you know the country well, do not plan to hire a hotel on the spot as all good hotels are booked well in advance in the tourist season and there may be attempts to take you to sub- standard and at times unsafe places.
•  Ask your travel agent or the Indian embassy/ tourism office for material on Indian hotels or search the Internet. This will give you a good idea of the Government approved hotels and their tariffs etc. Select a hotel of your choice and take steps to book accommodation in advance.
•  Make sure that you have been brought to the right place by checking the name, address and/or telephone number of the hotel. You might be surprised to know how many similar sounding hotels are there in one city.
•  Paying guest accommodation is not very common in India . This is best arranged through personal contacts only as there are no set standards in regard to quality and tariffs.
•  A large number of private guest houses and a few motels are also available in some places but again these are mostly not certified and listed. One has to go by the recommendation of someone who has had personal experience of use of such places.
•  There are a number of hotels and guest houses located in very crowded places, low on tariff and so also on sanitation, hygiene, safety and security. Incidents of physical violence and drug crime are not precluded here.