Karafuu Beach Resort & Spa — Attraction in Unguja

Harassment from Terrible manager "Dominic"

I’ve been staying at Karafuu resort for the past 2 weeks. I’m a professional fitness trainer. On my last day at the resort, I had a really terrible experience. (12 April) I was busy training in the gym as I do almost every morning, when my session was abruptly disturbed when a man entered the gym and started shouting at me, with no introduction to who he was, he demanded my room number in a threatened tone. This made me feel unsafe as he did not explain why he wanted my room number. His actions and verbal attack made me feel unsafe and threatened. A lot of the equipment in the gym (more than half) is not in a working condition and some are even a safety hazard due to the condition it is in. For example, the one leg extension machine had steel that was completely ripped open and could cut someone and cause a serious injury. No sign was placed on as a warning and nothing was done about it. The gym in general is not up to standard in terms of cleanliness & equipment use. For the 2 weeks we have been here we have never complained about machines that are out of use, just once asking it to be cleaned. There was also never sanitiser for us to clean the equipment before and after use. So because of all this I find it very ironic that this man was shouting at me while the gym is in this state. When I told him about the broken equipment he told me then that I should not come there. I was performing my exercise routine as usual. The one exercise I did at that moment was the deadlift, which is using a barbell with weights placed on each side and lifting it off from the floor. Because you’re lifting the weight from the floor and placing it down again, logically it will make a noise. I am not throwing the weight down. It is done in a controlled manner. Naturally, it makes a sound and as the floor is a concrete floor with no rubber as any normal gym is the echo of the sound is a bit more than usual. I will be happy to send you links to videos of this lift so you can understand. When this man rushed in he was shouting at me screaming that I am destroying this place & threatened to remove me from this place as he continued verbally attacking me. I was completely shocked by his actions and felt so threatened for the first time here during my 2 week stay. After no introduction and threatening me with my room number, I asked him what his name is and who he is. He arrogantly told me that he is the manager. This shocked me even more as the manager should never make any guest feel like the way he made me feel. I spoke with the gym attendant and he told me that he is the assistant manager and this man’s name is DOMINIC. This whole incident I find highly unacceptable, especially coming from a leadership role. Zanzibar is highly dependent on tourism and guests that come to visit your island need to feel welcomed here and safe to return. Not drive your customers away. I was planning a trip for my parents to come here, however, this whole negative experience has made me change my mind. The more disappointing fact is that the manager never came to apologise or speak to me as reception was well aware we were checking out 1 day earlier because of this incident. Pathetic leadership. I will never recommend this place as even an average stay.

After 2 weeks of staying in Karafuu resort, I was not going to tolerate this kind of disrespect so we left our already paid for last night and went to stay at Le Mersenne resort and wow, what a difference it was. We wish that we would have just spent our whole 2 weeks there instead of Karafuu. 1 night there made up for the whole 13 days at Karafuu.

There were a lot of other factors that affected our stay which can unfortunately not fit into this space but I will send an email to head office. I am not the type of person to normally complain, but this is not a normal situation and needs to be brought...

Stayed 15 nights in January 2025, and had the best time. Our room was located in the Bondemi area, furthest from the beach and closest to the road, which I was initially worried about - but it turned out to be the quietest place. Despite the room being close to a pool, we hardly heard any noise from either the pool or road, and it was indeed a good relaxing place to stay. As for the room, ours was spacious - we had a massive bed with protection against mosquitos, an extra bed for one, small corner with a table and chair, mini fridge, large bathroom with shower (big enough for two :-)), toilet and a small halfway with open wardrobe and safe. There is really nothing we really missed in the room, as we stayed there only to sleep. I appreciated the twice-daily housekeeping - first mid-day to clean the room, and second around 19.30 to prepare your bed for sleeping, out the mosquito nets and spray the room against bugs - much appreciated. The room was always tidy and clean. The only small complaint would be that the bed mattress was not super comfy - but that's my personal preference, my husband on the other hand considered it super comfy. The hotel has 4 restaurants - main restaurants, where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served (if you have All inclusive, or Half-board) - opened air and inside with fans, Massai restaurant, fully open air, opened only Monday and Friday, pizza restaurant and seafood restaurant at the beach. We visited all of them during our stay, with mixed reviews. Safe to say, that this is not like a delicious cuisine. It's a hotel restaurant buffet style cooking. The main restaurant was weakest - food was a bit bland, not always best stocked and repetitive. It was however always fresh!!! I am a difficult person to please when it comes to food, so please don't take me too seriously - food will keep you fed and healthy, there is plenty of veggies and fruit - mainly the fruit was a star for me. Massai restaurant was great! Loved the open fire, loved the cooking and more local flavours - wish it was opened more often! Pizza was sad - but again, I'm difficult to please, used to eat Napolitan style pizza. Beach seafood - overpriced and boring. When it came to facilities, there were 3 pools, we frequented 2 - in our Bondemi area and main pool. Main pool is busy and noisy, here and there also the water quality suffers. But it's nice enough. Bondemi pool, next to the pizza restaurant is much more chill and quiet, also with less people - ideal. And on a windy day, there is hardly any wind, Big plus! There is also a gym and a conference room, plenty of small stores (jewelry, cosmetic products, beach stuff, clothes...), kids areas... Plenty to do, without being too busy or annoying. And the best. BEACH! We really loved the beach beds with mattresses, there are maybe 10 of them scattered around the resort, we managed to score one almost every day. The regular sunbeds are plenty and you ALWAYS find plenty to choose from - the only place that gets busy is around the main pool. The beach is clean, with the softest sand possible. What I appreciated most is the access to water. As the tides are a huge deal, having a paved path to a small Laguna is an absolute advance - it's the only access to water during the low tide on the entire beach, unless you want to jump over rocks and corals with plenty of urchins. The laguna is with the soft sand again, no urchins anymore. The beach is absolutely fantastic! I really also liked the surrounding gardens - they provide nice shade and keep me happy. Overall, there are small things to improve - but nothing really serious. It's a lovely place to stay for a vacation and we'll be happy...

It was our third time in Zanzibar (but the first in this hotel), this time it was a totally disappointment.|We started with the worst reception ever at an hotel, with a grumpy employee who didn't want to take her time to explained anything about the hotel, nor even offered us a glass of water after a long travel. We didn't felt welcome.|We had told them we would arrive at 10pm and we asked in advance to provide us something for dinner, but they just left us a horrible sandwich and a banana in the room, not even a single drink. For a family who payed for an all-inclusive package and didn't used it on the first day, we expected a little bit more care and concern.|To this hotel, the top priority is the profit and never the well-being of the guest. Employees are always trying to sell us something, massages, wines, trips...it's annoying having all the time someone disturbing you, to try to sell you something. The most crazy thing was when my son made a small cut in the feet, in the stairs of the main pool and I asked for a first aid box, to sterilize the wound, but instead of provide us any help, they insisted with me to go to an appointment with the doctor of the hotel, just to forcing us to go to the health center, to give them some extra profit. Thank good I had medicines with me and I was able to sterilize the wound caused by the lack of maintenance of the equipment of the hotel. The stairs from the main pool to the beach need urgent improvements, the same at the swimming pool near the Masai Village, there are holes inside of the pool.|They say they are against plastic pollution, as an excuse to don't provide water bottles to the guests, but then they use a lots of other plastics utensils and objects and they have garbage everywhere in the sand and they don't clean it. |There are constant power cuts of electricity and several times during the night. The rooms are acceptable, but the bathrooms need urgent improvements, especially because the bathroom windows don't have glass, because of that the heat is always coming inside, so it's impossible to don't use the air conditioning. On the second night the air conditioning broke down and it was impossible to sleep, we complained to reception during the night and they said they would find a solution on the next day, but only after 4 complains in the reception they finally changed us of room.|We had a late check out but they didn't let us keep the room and they weren't fully booked, so once they don't even have a proper place for situations like that, although they gave us opposite information, we had to take a shower in a room used by several people who were also checking out that day, they didn't even clean it between users, so the bathroom was disgusting, full of used towels piled up, dirty floor, This is definitely not the service you expect from a 4 star hotel.|The All Inclusive is very light, most things are not included. Don't spend money on the seafood restaurant on the beachfront, the seafood that was presented to us was not in good condition, it was spoiled, we ended up leaving the restaurant without eating and went to another restaurant, on the beach, outside the hotel.|The gardens are nice and the beach is nice too, some employees are friendly, but unfortunately, I didn't liked the service and customer care, for the first time in all my life I can't even recommend the hotel that seems to have stopped in the last century. It needs a major renovation of infrastructure, equipment and service.|Disappointment is the best word to describe this "lemonade hotel" which acts and charge like it...