Hotel Progati Inn Ltd.

A good location as I just need a good rest before my transit flight. Front desk and restaurant breakfast services are good. View from in-house restaurant overlooking Progati Sarani Road.

I recently completed a two-week visit to Bangladesh and stayed at three different hotels. I will not only review them in detail but give an overview of my experience of budget hotels in Bangladesh as a tourist. Most of my thoughts, comments, and opinions on all three of these properties are the same so there will be some copying and pasting in these reviews. Tourists wishing to arrive in Bangladesh and receive a visa on arrival (VOA) are advised to have hotel bookings and Proof of Onward Travel (POOT). I made both hard and digital copies of all my bookings and they were checked at both the airline check-in counter and immigration in Dhaka. However, no one was interested in more than a few days of hotel bookings and I only presented hotel reservations for the first four nights. This is important for those of us who are plan-as-you-go travelers and don’t like to make bookings ahead of time. In the future, I will only book the first few nights and see how that goes. I ended up canceling several reservations (bookings) I made through Agoda because I changed my plans, and now, I have no doubt you can get a better price by simply walking in. On with the review of the hotel Pragati Inn: This hotel is close to the airport and was recommended by a friend. Unfortunately, my room was extremely noisy because of the local road traffic. It is also a bit too far from Old Dhaka if you intend on exploring the most interesting parts of the city. This is a typical Asian-style budget hotel: a bit dated and could use some maintenance and a coat of paint. Having said that, the room and bathroom were surprisingly clean, and the air-conditioning and hot water were excellent. A complimentary breakfast was included in the price, but I did not try it. The wi-fi was so-so, in all three hotels I stayed at. I thought that the price I paid through Agoda ($45.75 USD) was a bit high for what I got. The owner of the hotel confirmed that if I were to book directly with the hotel, I could get a room for roughly half the price. I would only return here if I needed to be close to the airport.