We stayed at the Saffron Hotel for one night this October. Centrally located in Mangalore city and quite unimpressive front. I tried two wrong doors before I found the entry. They claimed it was centrally airconditioned but the lobby and room corridors were too warm and uncomfortable when we checked in. I guess this is a typical behavior where they try to save a few rupees on electric bills but turning off the air-conditioning. The first room we were given was too noisy which we discovered had some low frequency vibration and hum that went on non-stop. They moved us to another room. Rooms are not carpeted. Bath room was poor they made made some attempts to make it look good. The shower curtain was too short and water spilled outside the shower area. Oh, yes there was a small roll of toilet paper too. Beds were not clean, sheets were wrinkled and did not appear to have been washed. TV channels were mostly local, though there was HBO, BBC but no CNN. There was no WiFi but it did not matter because we had not taken a computer on this trip.
Roof top restaurant was good though. The bar menu was quite impressive though I had only beer. Not sure if they had any wines but I was not going to drink wine in Mangalore, any case. We had a good dinner and good breakfast next morning.
If you are a local and want to spend a night then this may be good place. For anyone from outside of South Kanara I would recommend look elsewhere. This hotel has much learn to make it world class. BTW, the name went Saffron boutique hotel. I have no idea what they meant by boutique.