Not everybody takes the time to write a review. Here are some:

Tripadvisor

Jithus from Kerala :

Our stay was very memorable, enjoyed to the fullest!

\(March 2009)

Edwino from Scotland:

I wanted to see that if there were places of worth visiting other than that of Kochi and Trivandrum. Yes, I succeeded in finding it that there are more beautiful places in the interior of the mainland away from the bustle and crowd of the cities.
When I booked for my stay with Keralahome in Palakkad, after reading a review about it in the tripadvisor, I didn't think that it would be so comfortable and the people so friendly and warm. The reviewers were right; Dilip and Uma are really kind and attentive. I am glad to say that a stay with them for two weeks made me wiser and philosophical.

• Liked — The arrangements made by the Hoast.

• Stayed December 2008, traveled solo

Lucrezia from Italy

Until then I had only visited Indian cities, both before and after my marriage. There were grand things to be seen there, of course, but who likes the pollution, noise and terrible traffic jams, which unfortunately are getting worse by the year. On the other hand, small places usually are not in guidebooks, and you don't know what's in store for you. Thanks to the Internet, one can now get a pretty good idea from websites - that's how we found Vaikam House. I guess we were lucky this time. We were coming from hectic Chennai and going to hectic Delhi, so this interlude did wonders to recharge our batteries and freshen us up.

Elapully is a tiny place, but really idyllic, and clean: unlike in cities, you don't see a single piece of garbage on the street. In Vaikam House I spent many happy moments with my husband and two children.
The house in itself is awesome, with high ceilings, a sloping roof and an open space in the middle of the house, a bit like ancient Roman villas, allowing light and air to come in. Lucky them have no problems with cold weather, there is none in Kerala! Dilip took pains to explain the hows and whys of Vedic architecture: in the old times, architects took very seriously the choice of site, direction etc.... This made us look at the houses all around with new eyes.

We had a comfortable bedroom on the upper floor, our - delicious!- vegearian meals with the family (we are vegetarians anyway), where they graciously took into account our requirement for non-hot dishes and made some especially for us with no chillies at all. We had independence when we wanted, and social contact with the family when we wished to.

Dilip and Uma are fluent in English (actually both are school teachers) and quite learned: we had very interesting conversations and sometimes we had to drag ourselves out of the house. The children could safely play outside, very few cars there, and the countryside all around was green and pleasant for walks. I am happy to say that in seven days, I didn't see a single tourist face apart from our own - but by then we did not consider ourselves tourists anymore! We had adopted Indian dress and manners as much as we could, and this seemed to endear us even more to the locals we met: they always warm up to you if you seem to respect and value their culture and not go around in skimpy clothing demanding hamburgers and fries. What's the point of going to another country if you want to do everything you did at home? I say, better stay home and watch a video, save money!

There are a number of wonderful national parks within easy reach of Palakkad (the small town near Elapully), although we didn't venture into the most juicy ones:; we look forward to this but Dilip advised us to wait until the kids grow a bit older. We did go to the Alampuzha dam and garden, which delighted the little ones, the peacock park etc... The Palakkad fort is also really worth seeing, with its grand walls and huge banyan tree in the center. One of the highlights was when Dilip sent for a local coconut tree climber to come and pick a coconut from his garden, so that we could see how it's done. It takes some ability, I can assure you!

I've never felt so relaxed in my life, so delightfully taken care of. Dilip took care of all arrangements and reservations, we didn't have to move our finger. It seems that they have only recently opened as a professional homestay, so that they haven't yet been spoiled by the bad side of professionalism and the idea that they have to charge for every little thing. They do it just as we would do for a family friend who comes visiting.

A home stay is very different than a hotel. Don't expect all the amenities. Moreover, it's a home, not a palace, although it's not a poor home, the family is one of the oldest and most respected. Don't think it's that out of this world either, there's a PC with internet, and we used it a couple of times to keep in touch with worried grandparents who always think that in India one is bitten by a cobra or something!
Of course, expect to pay a very small fraction of what you would pay at a hotel. But money is not the main reason we chose it. In a home stay you feel part of the family, you interact with people, it gets much more personal. You get to know aspects of Indian life, culture, mentality and habits that you would never even think of if you came as part of an organized tour or even on your own, but only living in hotels (I know because we've tried all of that in the past). After our stay, we feel as Dilp, Uma and Mrs Mangalam are family friends, whom we wish to see again soon in the near future. We are truly grateful for that.
Warmly recommended.

DON'T go there if:
you need a TV, minibar, telephone, hairdryer and wi-fi in your room
you resent having to take off your shoes inside the house
you can't stay away from meat, fish and poultry
you need room service and breakfast in bed
you are so used to soft spring mattresses that you find hard all the rest (but well, this means you won't go to India at all)
you like being called "Ma'm" and "Sir" all the time
you are very tight on time, and have to cram the most possible in the least number of days
you like India's monuments and sights, but don't fancy the people too much
you came to the country just to see the Taj

OK, can't think of any more reasons. No, seriously, there are a LOT of people who wouldn't like this sort of accomodation. Our parents probably wouldn't, for instance. To each his/her own taste. As for us, you can see from the above that we absolutely loved it.

• Liked — Our lovely warm hosts
• Disliked — Not all the rooms have private bathrooms - our own had, however

• Stayed December 2007, traveled with family

Fpath Australia:

A memorable Homestay

We have been to Kerala-the smallest state on the northern tip of the Indian peninsula and stretching along the Arabian sea. Places like Cochin, Alleppey, Trivandrum, and Quilon are well known places for me and my wife Cherie. Through these places in Kerala are worthwhile visiting ones, sadly, they have all been spoiled by extensive tourism.
Cherie started her search for some other place in Kerala which had not entered the tourists’ map and hence out of the ‘beaten track’. She pointed to me a district bordering Tamilnadu named Palakkd (Old name Palghat) We were fascinated about Palakkad that is actually a ‘gap’ between two mountain ranges. We collected as much details about Palakkad as possible. There are so many sites about Palakkad and a few homestays. We browsed all of them and found the ‘Ela Homestay” [-] not only informative but welcoming also. It has been said on the site that the owner of the house Dilip Kumar had been in Europe for sometime and had worked in the Maldives.
We reserved all our apprehensions and contacted Dilip Kumar. We received his reply within hours in the most candid form.
After a month in November 2007 we landed at the Palakkad railway junction early in the morning. There at the station Dilip was waiting for us.
Our fifteen days stay at Ela home was really memorable. The house is a very big one built according to the Kerala traditional architecture. There are only three people in it. Dilip, his wife .Uma and his aged mother Mangalam. They all took the utmost care to see that we were perfectly at home. They never interfered in our personal affairs and didn’t cause the slightest inconvenience to us. They are pure vegetarians and the quality of the food cooked was exemplary. Every day we were asked about our ‘vegetarian culinary preferences’ and the traditional food were cooked ‘to suit our taste’!! The food was so delicious we used to be keen to return to ‘Ela Home’ at night as we did not want to miss the wonderful dinner!!
Almost every night after the dinner we would sit and discuss about various aspects of life with Dilip and his family. On the first day itself we were convinced they were quite knowledgeable.
(Dilp and Uma speak perfect English but his mother speaks very little.) I have to accept –with a little of blemish- that many topics about which we westerns have a vague idea about are known to them without any ambiguities.
The villages around Palakkad are idyllic. We had been to the important wildlife reserves, hill stations and above all, places of natural beauty where the time stands still! We liked such places more than any others where there was no sound of honking of automobiles, rumbling factories or people milling around you. There was only the sound of the rustle of leaves, whistling of the wind, cooing of birds. In short a perfect and peaceful natural ambience. There are so many such locations here. We are lucky that we could reach there before others bee-line to this heavenly place!
One of the main intention of our visit was to socialise with the people. We expressed this to Dilip arranged enough chances to socialize with the people. We attended marriages, domestic ceremonies, temple festivals1, The Silent Valley rain forest (one of the world’s remaining rain forests) and met a few tribal communities.
More surprises awaited us when we started moving with the people. The literacy level of Keral is 96%. More than that of many of the developed nations! The national Malayalam (language of Kerala) dailies are printed in millions! In the early morning if you walk around the village of Elapully, you will find farm workers, carpenters and masons reading news papers in tea shops and later discussing the news with others. People in loin clothes or lungies (The long piece of single cloth worn by the people of South India) look simple. When we talked to them, many of them put me to shame with their perfect English and discussed many international matters! Dilip informed that many were Bachelor and Master Degree holders and worked in offices or were doing their own business.
We felt sad after fifteen days that we had to leave. But by this time I and Cherie were convinced that Dilip would be of valuable assistance to us during our tour of Tamilnadu. So, I hesitantly put forward my request to which he agreed only the next day. I think he had to make some necessary arrangements for works to be taken care of in his absence. On the second day of our tour of Tamilnadu we realized that we were wise to have requested Dilip to join with us. Because Dilip drafted an itinerary of our tour of Tamilnadu with consultation with us and had taken care of all our rail and road reservations, hotel/homestay booking etc. etc. well in advance. There were no last minute rushes, getting piled up in crowded railway compartments, arguments with people, getting irritated and ………….
Finally, the day arrived for our departure to Sydney. We were in our hotel room in Mumbai getting ready to leave for the airport. The bell rang and I opened the door and found a decently dressed person with a letter of introduction from Dilip. He was the friend of Dilip who had been asked to meet us, if we required any help. He was of great help to us. Narayan politely refused my offer of some money and shook hands with us and left when we checked in. (I later heard from Dilip that Narayan was an HR executive in a multinational company in Mumbai!!!) For a moment, I wished I had a personal manager like Dilip to manage my business back home!
From my experience, for travelers who visit Kerala, I will recommend ‘Ela Homestay’ at Elapully village, Palakkad for many reasons. Just tell Dilip your programme and relax. He will take care of all arrangements at no extra charge!
In case if any one needs further information on this subject; please feel free to contact me.
1 Note: To enter a temple, to take part in the in a temple ceremony and to take photographs it is advisable to obtain permission in advance.

• Liked — I was simply made to feel at home!
• Disliked — I do not find anything particular that I did not like the least!Stayed November 2007, traveled as a couple