Kintele Congress Center and Hotel — Hotel in Pool Department

"Location, location, location" is how in English the convenience of a place is often advertised.||Here the main criteria for the hotel- rating is the location too - albeit in a negative sense: the hotels location is in the middle of nowhere. Unless there is an event in the brand-new Stadium of Kintele nearby (or even a congress in the hotel itself) there is no reason to leave the city of Brazzaville that far to end up - literally : nowhere. Surrounded by small-scale industry sites (some Chinese operated cement factory to one side, and some unidentifiable storage site to the other), the hotel isn't in the reach of the shores of the Congo river either. After sunset its pitch-dark around the hotel and there is no place to walk to except (and that the highlight` of its otherwise deserted location), there is a gasoline station some 400 meters walking distance on the other side of the main road, which sells beer and wine and small snacks at reasonable prices.||The hotel is located far too far away from Brazzaville to call for a taxi and quickly go for a beer in the evening (leave a lone the taxi-costs for that distance (14-20 US$ one way, depending on how well you negotiate the price). ||Now, on the hotel itself: It is spotlessly clean, superbly managed, well- (almost too well) air-conditioned - and it seemed I was the only guest in the house which offers 180+ rooms - a weird feeling. Staff was super-friendly, the room was nice and big, each one has a balcony (mine overlooking the main street which offered some views of the river in the hazy distance) and it has a clean, well equipped gym (which felt like I was the first guest to ever have used it)...||Of course I was alone in there, as I was in the spa area - and what a stunningly beautiful spa area that is !! It looked like it has never been used either. I wanted to use the sauna and the spa-attendant asked me at what time (fair enough, I thought, being the only guest in there they did not having it running all day long but needed to pre-heat it a bit in advance of my usage). "At 16:00, if that is possible", I replied, and when I was ready, with towels and bathrobe from the room, and showed up at 16:00 (it was not yet pre-heated), I was informed (only then) that they charge a fee for using it (I forgot how much it was, but it was significant!). I skipped that, just to learn then that the same policy applied to the steam room as well.||I proceeded to the sizeable swimming pool (again the only guest in-there), but after 1 round I called it a day as the water wasn't just as clean as the rest of the hotel. In summary I take it that their spa facilities were probably more intended to be a showcase rather than a place of active use by the hotel guests.||The hotel would have earned my unqualified 5 star rating wouldn't it be for its isolated location and the ridiculous...

"Location, location, location" is how in English the convenience of a place is often advertised.||Here the main criteria for the hotel- rating is the location too - albeit in a negative sense: the hotels location is in the middle of nowhere. Unless there is an event in the brand-new Stadium of Kintele nearby (or even a congress in the hotel itself) there is no reason to leave the city of Brazzaville that far to end up - literally : nowhere. Surrounded by small-scale industry sites (some Chinese operated cement factory to one side, and some unidentifiable storage site to the other), the hotel isn't in the reach of the shores of the Congo river either. After sunset its pitch-dark around the hotel and there is no place to walk to except (and that the highlight` of its otherwise deserted location), there is a gasoline station some 400 meters walking distance on the other side of the main road, which sells beer and wine and small snacks at reasonable prices.||The hotel is located far too far away from Brazzaville to call for a taxi and quickly go for a beer in the evening (leave a lone the taxi-costs for that distance (14-20 US$ one way, depending on how well you negotiate the price). ||Now, on the hotel itself: It is spotlessly clean, superbly managed, well- (almost too well) air-conditioned - and it seemed I was the only guest in the house which offers 180+ rooms - a weird feeling. Staff was super-friendly, the room was nice and big, each one has a balcony (mine overlooking the main street which offered some views of the river in the hazy distance) and it has a clean, well equipped gym (which felt like I was the first guest to ever have used it)...||Of course I was alone in there, as I was in the spa area - and what a stunningly beautiful spa area that is !! It looked like it has never been used either. I wanted to use the sauna and the spa-attendant asked me at what time (fair enough, I thought, being the only guest in there they did not having it running all day long but needed to pre-heat it a bit in advance of my usage). "At 16:00, if that is possible", I replied, and when I was ready, with towels and bathrobe from the room, and showed up at 16:00 (it was not yet pre-heated), I was informed (only then) that they charge a fee for using it (I forgot how much it was, but it was significant!). I skipped that, just to learn then that the same policy applied to the steam room as well.||I proceeded to the sizeable swimming pool (again the only guest in-there), but after 1 round I called it a day as the water wasn't just as clean as the rest of the hotel. In summary I take it that their spa facilities were probably more intended to be a showcase rather than a place of active use by the hotel guests.||The hotel would have earned my unqualified 5 star rating wouldn't it be for its isolated location and the ridiculous...

PLEASE VERIFY YOUR BILL CORRECTLY!!! They overcharged my stay with at least 400 000 Xfa. They know people just sign and don't pay attention so they do this all the time. I have a feeling if someone pays cash at the restaurent, they take the money and charge it on someone else's room. They even invited family members to go swim at the pool under my stay. They all know me because I was there by myself, and they charged me 2 adults and 2 children's pool pass (100$usd)!! I am shocked of the lack of professionalism and theft that is going on, it's incredible!! They charged me 6 burgers, 4 spaghetti, 2 Beer, 6 juices and so much more stuff....unacceptable!!

Restaurant: Always the same thing, so for a 2-3 days stay is fine but 10 days like me you will not enjoy. I was very sick with a cold and asked them for a chicken noodle soup...super basic and I told them I wanted garlic to hee with the cold and told them how to do it and they sent me a WATER SOUP tasted like nothing I couldn't even eat it. I requested garlic, pepper and even chicken seasoning to fix it and they forgot to bring it. So I had to go all the way to the supermarket in the city to get Raman noodles to make it in my room. (Their vegetable cream soup is good) but me I wanted a broth cos I was sick. I asked why there is never pancakes/Waffles at breakfast and next day they made some that were CALCINATED I even asked the chef why they even bother bringing that out of the kitchen and that it is better to just don't do anything. In the evenings there is never any soup at buffet which is usually common.

Anyways the hotel is pretty, the staff is nice but there is just way too many things that happened that will not allow me to stay there again.

They were lucky I was in a hurry to catch my flight because I was going to request to see each bill from the restaurant and pool to see which waiter charged my room. I was going to do everything for them to get fired on the spot. I just know for a fact that they surcharge every guest like this...terrible. I have reported to my host and I hope they will do an investigation. So if you stay there, ask for your bill the day before your departure so you have time to verify and request an investigation if needed.

Very Sad and...