, First of all, we loved staying at Hotel Pilgrims. It was in the centre of the merchants' quarter (Thamel) of Kathmandu. The staff were brilliant from the owner through to the cleaning teams. The room was tidy and functional and, most importantly, very cheap. Breakfast was consistently good (The chef's special omelette has a spicy kick and is not for wimps though!) and available throughout the morning from 6:30am. The tour manager is very knowledgeable and worked hard to fulfill our touring and trekking needs and overall we had a fantastic time there. Oh, and the rooftop view is almost worth the cost of staying at Hotel Pilgrims alone.
But.... There are downsides.
Kathmandu is NOT like any developed city in the western world. Therefore there are power outages (which affects the A/C and hot water) and the wifi is limited in its bandwidth so don't expect to download anything substantial very quickly. Also, there's noisy disorganised traffic constantly beeping, barking street dogs and tourist/merchant interaction. What I'm trying to say is, Kathmandu has a high decibel output 24/7 and there is nothing the hotel can reasonably do about this so do bear this in mind. The maintenance of the hotel is a bit of a game of patch up too (Lift that sometimes goes where you want it to, televisions with loose connections, missing in-room telephones ect) which the staff will respond to on a priority basis.
I didn't find this HP's biggest problem though - that would be the staff's habit of overreaching.
Being eager to please is fine but that means they would promise things they had neither the resources or know-how to deliver (Agreeing to arrange transport which never arrives because they'd overloaded their schedule. Leaving guides waiting to be paid which felt awkward, changing plans at the last second which can be a bit frantic ect).
That said, one could argue that Hotel Pilgrims perfectly represents the magical chaos that is Kathmandu. Wonderful people in an amazing setting that somehow seems to just about work without any plausible reason why.
Listen, if you want to come to Nepal and not experience its reality then book a luxury hotel, stay behind its high walls and pretend you're still at home. If you want to really experience the old world, warts an' all, then book a room at Hotel Pilgrims with your eyes open (from this review!) and you will have an experience you'll fondly remember for the rest of your life.
I certainly will.