Are you paying for a view of the Ganges, or just a wall 20 feet from it? Varanasi hotel pricing does not work like pricing in Delhi or Mumbai. A “river view” room can mean a direct balcony over the water or a sliver of brown river visible past three rooftops and a tangle of electrical wires. The nightly rate rarely tells you which one you are getting. This city is dense, chaotic, and built in layers. Hotels sit inside old havelis, above shops, down alleyways where cars cannot pass. The best hotel in Varanasi is not the one with…