Kitsel Hotel — Hotel in Bahir Dar Special Zone

This is a good hotel for Bahir Dar and for the price. We compared a few places and this was by far the most modern and amenity-filled, at only a few dollars more than the lower tier places. Once we started traveling deeper into Ethiopia, we reflected even more fondly that we had gotten to stay at a place with clean, white linens and a working shower. Like many places in Ethiopia that start off looking shiny and new, I worry it won’t last due to total lack of maintenance. This hotel is fairly new and already the bathroom totally floods with every shower and I could see the molding wearing away. A few light sockets were torn out of the wall and the mosquito net had holes. I suspect these things will never get fixed. But for now, it’s a great and clean place to stay! The breakfast is good and included in the room rate. Try the Hani juice shop outside on the main street and the coffee shop Wudi just further on the main road toward the center of town. ||||The one negative for us was the tout who brought us here on the first day. He persisted in pressuring us over a few day’s stay. We did not get the free airport transfer they offer, as we didn’t pre-book. The taxi mafia at the Bahir Dar got us and the price was steep! So at check-out we asked for a transfer instead to the bus station which is about 25% of the distance to the airport. The front desk said fine, but then enter the tout who was perhaps bitter we didn’t take his boat ride or buy anything from his shop. He spoke to the driver outside in Amharic and told us, sorry, they wouldn’t take us any more, they had to go somewhere else. He then tried to insist we take a taxi arranged by him. We refused and it left...

Stayed for 1 night.||Sure didn't feel like a 3 star hotel. I'm not expecting much as we travel this country so this is just our experiences.||No lift though we stayed at the fifth floor. Didn't matter for us as we could still climb the stairs.||I appreciated the fact they folded the towels into swans on the bed when we entered the room and that was nice asthetically but the rest of the stay..||Shower pressure was weak and the water temperature was intermittently hot and cool.||There were mosquitoes attacking us through the night.||The food at the hotel..I tried the teriyaki fish but didn't not taste the teriyaki at all. Tasteless fish. My wife tried their tomato pasta, it was bad too. Forgot to mention as we seat down at the restaurant and opened the menu, cockroaches ran out of their menu.||Had communication breakdowns with the staff a few times over certain request but it's pretty much like that everywhere so far in...

From the perspective of a Singaporean, with minimal expectations of hotel stays. And definitely did not expect very much for hotels in Ethiopia to begin with.|(-) no lifts but that's okay for us|(-) tasteless food, good enough to just fill your tummies.|(-) beds were hard|(-) mozzies!! This was the point that ruined the night's stay for us.|(-) tried to give staff our feedback but did not seem welcomed|(-) rooms were not ready when we checked in, even when we checked in later than expected|(+) Staff tried hard to meet our requests for services although communication was...