Name: Willow Banks Hotel
Address: Near Tourism Lift, The Mall, Shimla, 171001, IN

6/10

Pleasant

08 Jul 2026

Dhruv

The location of the hotel is pretty good, as it’s close to Himachal Tourism Lift and the Mall Road.
The Hotel has 3 nice restaurants and a Breakfast buffet as well. Breakfast buffet was a decently good spread and tasted nice.
However, the washroom smelled very bad, and despite a request to change room and fix the smell, the staff merely cleaned the washroom and sprayed a freshner. The washroom continued to smell throughout the stay. Also, the bathtub was creaking and was clearly old.
Additionally, when I ate at the restaurants (three times), twice I was not given a bill. The staff just showed me the total on the screen, but never gave me a bill. The one time I got a bill, it was billed partially only for the food, and not the drinks.

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

19 Mar 2026

GURDEV

Yes

8/10

Excellent

11 Mar 2026

Jagmohan

We didn't use spa att all, room was clean. Staff really good, didn't use bar. Otherwise all great.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

10 Mar 2026

Inderjeet

Very accommodating staff right from front seat to housekeeping. I left Tip for housekeeping and the guy didn’t take whom I then called and gave. Breakfast was very delicious and staff was also very courteous. An excellent hotel to stay

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

02 Mar 2026

Helyn

Excellent responsive staff!

8/10

Excellent

26 Feb 2026

Nitin

Recommended

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

21 Dec 2025

Guriqbal

Descent room

10/10

Exceptional

27 Oct 2025

Anthony

Great location and lovely views from the balcony.
Bed was very comfortable

Self

10/10

Exceptional

20 Sep 2025

Harsh

My grandfather used to have a house with Shimla so I am very familiar with the place for the last 50+ years. Willow Banks is absolutely the best value for money you can find in the city. Very clean, very well located right next to the iconic mall road, right next to the tourist lift and very good service and clean and large rooms. Also excellent food options either within the hotel or right next door. Perfect place to stay and enjoy Shimla.

Leisure Friends

8/10

Excellent

17 Sep 2025

Kenneth

Good location. A proper European level service and maintained hotel. Rare for India. Stayed there twice. Would recommend. Food and drink relatively pricey as you would expect.

Leisure

10/10

Exceptional

14 Sep 2025

Kenneth

There is no accessible parking. Beware! It's a long climb up steps or by the Govt restricted roadway. The hotel is not set up for anybody with an accessibility issue. Generally nice staff, professionally run. Food offering is pretty standard for India. Hotel is recommended. Would happily stay again.

Leisure Friends

8/10

Excellent

03 May 2025

Nicholas

Shimla. Awesome, but Make your own decision.

My first time in Shimla, which turns out to be a party town. Epic views, but noisy accommodation as there are several bars in this place. It is on Mall Road which for first time travellers here is a tourist hotspot for national and international travellers. Depends on you, if you like to be in the heart of town then go if not choose somewhere else.

Business

6/10

Pleasant

03 May 2025

Jatin

Property is old,well maintained .Still property needs to be renovated. Poor experience with wifi.

Leisure Family

6/10

Pleasant

03 May 2025

Jatin

Property is old & decent to live. Very poor experience with wifi . Wifi does not work at all. They need to work upon the room maintenance a lot now .Still the rooms of year 1817

Leisure Family

10/10

Exceptional

22 Feb 2025

Michelle

Simply the best

Fantastic location, clean comfortable rooms with good quality amenities. Clear instructions on how to find hotel. Great views of Shimla. Thoroughly recommend.

10/10

Exceptional

01 Feb 2025

jan

Outstanding place with really helpful people who are so polite, courteous, and willing to go way beyond the ordinary to make your stay worthwhile.

Leisure Partner

10/10

Exceptional

12 Jan 2025

Amarjeet

Location of property is very idyllic, staff very friendly & helpful x

Leisure Family

8/10

Excellent

02 Nov 2024

Baburao

It is in nice location

It is nice hotel in good location. The only problem with this hotel is that you need to go down to get taxi. There are lot of steps to climb if you have to go early in the morning as the lift will be operational after 8:00 AM. The service is good, and the staff are friendly

Self

10/10

Exceptional

06 Feb 2023

Nisha

Location

Leisure Family

8/10

Excellent

09 May 2022

Verified traveler

Service crew are friendly

Partner

2/10

Poor

18 Feb 2022

Sandeep

No heat no view but I paid for view room

Leisure Partner

10/10

Exceptional

06 Feb 2022

Anupam

It was Good

Partner

2/10

Poor

31 Jan 2022

Gagandeep

Check in process was not smooth.

Leisure Family

4/10

Poor

07 Nov 2021

DONG J

I'll not stay at this hotel again.
Compared to the rate (20,800INR for 3 nights), the quality of service was much behind of ven India Standard. 1. Room was very chilly but nothing from reception even though I asked to do some things. 2. Staff are working like government officials. 3. Do not respect any hospitality. They work like a machine.
I think from the top manager to the staffs on the floor don't know how to catch up the needs of guest.
Avoid this hotel.

Leisure Family

10/10

Exceptional

10 Oct 2021

Amrita

Location

Leisure Friends

6/10

Pleasant

10 Oct 2021

Krishan

Hotel hasn’t Parking and overall is good

Leisure Family

10/10

Exceptional

04 Mar 2021

Sandeep

Great property located on the mall road of shimla

Friends_and_family Family

2/10

Poor

09 Nov 2020

Pallavi Sharma

Partap verma needs to be thrown out

It was a terrible stay because of the front office ortaon Pratap Verma . He was non courteous rude and extramlu unproffesional . He wanted us to pay the entite amount upfront on check in and when we asked that we need mote time since the amount wwas disputed he starteed yelling at us saying “ main apni jeb se thodi donga paise “ . Apart ftpm him the entire staff was helpful including the manager sanjay . Who sorted our bill dispute and actes gracefully . I wish oeople are partap are not in yye hospitality industry . They give a bad nsmr yo the hotel and also to thier proffesion. Becsuse of his behaviour i woukd ne er have gond memories of this stay😡

Friends_and_family Friends

10/10

Exceptional

10 Feb 2020

Verified traveler

Excellent stay...

The hotel is located at the mall road which makes it an excellent location. The stay was very comfortable. The service was excellent. I would definitely call this hotel as one of the best places to stay in Shimla.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

18 Dec 2019

Verified traveler

I have stayed before also very happy to see everything upgraded.The room service food and service is excellent but breakfast needs improvement and the manager looked disinterested in his work he doesn’t even have a smile on his face early morning sad to see such faces.The reception and check inn was properly done.Overall had a great time. Thanks

Leisure Family

10/10

Exceptional

04 Jan 2019

Vicky

Best Place to Stay in Shimla

The best place to stay in Shimla. Right on the Mall Road with Cafe Shimla Times and Eighteen 71
What else you need?!! This is indeed the best location ever!

Partner

4/10

Poor

24 Jul 2017

Verified traveler

Average hotel.

Wifi was not working. TV channels were not working consistently. No urgency by hotel staff to fix the problem.

Family

4/10

Poor

18 May 2017

John

On the mall road. Period.

Typical three star hotel. Keep low expectations and you will be happy. Old hotel needs upkeep.

8/10

Excellent

17 Aug 2016

Verified traveler

We had a very nice stay here, relaxing. Staff were ok, rooms good. Food ok. They do need to sort out the wifi, and maybe give more detail on what to use and how to use things in the room. But I would stay here again.
Well placed for the Mall and Monkey temple.

4/10

Poor

08 May 2016

Verified traveler

Hotel willow banks ... Ridiculous place to stay

Ridiculous hotel for stay.

Only location is good and adjoining Simla cafe is excellent.

Service is bad and food quality below average.

Not at all a value for money.

Good for travelers who want to stay on the mall and ready to compromise on everything else in terms of hotel.

8/10

Excellent

24 Mar 2016

Kirk

Hotel was under construction so noisy and dusty. Restaurant (temporary) was dark and un inviting. I'm sure the new one will be good.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

28 Feb 2016

R K

Good

overall it was a good stay. Repair
enovation was going which was creating noise

Partner

2/10

Poor

27 Feb 2016

Sunil

bad experience

no ambience construction work was creating terrible noise not clean hotel even not value for money at all wifi did not wrk no tea coffee I room

4/10

Poor

03 Feb 2016

Verified traveler

Bad stay due to service.

The stay was bad. Hotel is located on a road that doesnt allow any cars. Had to hire someone to help carry our luggage up steep flights of stairs on a hill at midnight. Next, the hotel gave us the wrong room. I had specifically booked with requirements for two beds, however, we were given one large bed. Tried to change it but they would not allow or did not have any available. Not sure if hotels.com or the hotel is to blame for the mess up. The water jug and tea pot in the room leaked from the bottom, and we had very little temperature control. The breakfast is not free and menu was confusing enough plus the waiter gave us the wrong information and we ended up spending more money for okay food. The hotel services like spa, gym and game room close by 8 pm which I felt was unnecessary. The front desk staff were not very helpful, some kept us waiting while they took care of personal legal issues over hotel phone. Overall the value of the hotel was not worth the price we paid. Would not stay there again.

Family

8/10

Excellent

17 Jan 2016

Prem Piyush

Third stay. Looking forward to the fourth.

This was my third stay in this hotel. I really adore this place. Great staff. Great food. Great location.

The only things I did not like were:
1. Free WiFi was promised but there were issues in the signal quality in the room. I was not able to avail of this benefit :(
2. I think this place needs a little renovation now. The room door was not in a good condition. The TVs could/should get HD channels now.
3. Travel Desk: Totally avoidable. A day trip to Narkanda was ruined because of this. The driver was rude, unfriendly person. A lesson for the future. You can get drivers on the Mall Road for sightseeing and for cheaper rates too. This way you will interact with the driver beforehand as well.

The above negatives were not deal breakers for me. I will gladly book this place again in the future.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

18 Aug 2015

Sarah

Comfortable hotel in an unbeatable location

The staff were friendly, the rate was reasonable and there was a lovely atmosphere in the hotel that wasn't present at the more expensive hotel just down the road. The spa facilities were wonderful and the food in the cafe was fantastic (one meal was enough for two to share). The only slight thing was that the internet kept not being available but when you go to a place like Shimla then you may want to disconnect for a while and enjoy the timeless, tranquil quality of the place. Will definitely go back.

8/10

Excellent

30 May 2015

jacqueline

Good hotel in good location

Hotel is in good location, near to Mall lift and within easy walking distance to main sights in Shimla city.
The hotel and the room were clean and well presented.
Plenty of eating places, both casual and more formal, are easily accessible within a few minutes walk from hotel.
The only downside, as a smoker, is that the city is smoke free and you struggle to find places where it's acceptable.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

18 Feb 2015

Verified traveler

Lovely hotel on the Mall, Main Street of Shimla.

Lovely staff, nice character hotel, friendly staff, great location.

4/10

Poor

19 Aug 2014

Jain A

great location

property needs to be updated with the modern furniture & bath as well.

2/10

Poor

06 Jun 2012

Verified traveler

Very Bad experience to stay there. What u assure not get it from there, Hotel is very very expensive as per the Location. Only service is good.

8/10

Excellent

30 Apr 2012

Sreekanth

Good and comfortable hotel.

Good hotel located conveniently at one end of Mall Road, which is the main town centre. Location meant we could stay out late, and walk back to the room.
Friendly reception and house keeping staff.
Fresh linen replaced daily.

Only issue, not related to the hotel itself, but due to the location, is that no vehicle can get upto the hotel due to restriction of vehicles on Mall road, and this meant we had to carry our heavy luggage up a steep set of steps to get to the hotel.

6/10

Pleasant

30 Mar 2026

Ankit

Zimmer sind in Ordnung - Sanitäreinrichtungen waren jedoch sehr enttäuschend - renovierungsbedürftig!

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

15 Feb 2017

PEI

陽台有很棒的風景

房門的形式老舊，有安全疑慮。廁所洗手台漏水。浴缸無法泡澡，因為沒有塞子。整潔度整體普通。地點良好，風景優美。