Karamara Ras Hotel Dire Dawa — Hotel in Dire Dawa

I was completely disappointed with my recent stay at the Karamara Ras Hotel in Dire Dawa. From the moment I stepped through the dated, dimly lit lobby, I could tell this hotel was well past its prime. The overall ambiance felt gloomy and neglected, setting the tone for the disappointing stay that followed.

When I reached my room, I was immediately struck by how small and cramped the space felt. The furniture looked old and worn, and there were clear signs of damage and general disrepair throughout. The bed linens and towels, while appearing clean on the surface, had a musty odor that left me questioning their cleanliness.

The bathroom was the worst part - it was simply unacceptable. Mold and mildew covered the tiles, the sink was stained and chipped, and the toilet seat was loose and unstable. The water pressure was also extremely low, making for an unpleasant showering experience.

Perhaps the most egregious issues were the lack of basic amenities. The air conditioning in my room was not functioning at all, leaving it hot and stuffy despite the high temperatures outside. The Wi-Fi connection was also extremely weak, with the signal not even reaching all the rooms. As a business traveler, reliable internet access is a must, and the hotel failed to provide this.

Adding insult to injury, the room rates at this hotel are shockingly high, considering the extremely poor condition of the facilities. I feel I vastly overpaid for such substandard accommodations.

When I brought my concerns to the front desk, the staff seemed apologetic but unable to offer any real solutions. The only positive I can note is that the hotel staff were somewhat friendly, though their efforts could not make up for the extremely poor condition of the facilities.

In the end, I cut my stay short and checked out a day early, unwilling to subject myself to another night in such subpar accommodations. I have stayed in many hotels across Ethiopia, but the Karamara Ras Hotel stands out as one of the poorest values for the money. I simply cannot recommend this hotel to anyone...

Just returned from Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. While in the city, I and my girlfriend stayed in several hotels. One of these hotels happened to be Karamara Ras Hotel (also knows as Rashotel II ) During our first visit we were shown rooms. The first one, we noticed, was inhabited by about an inch long cockroaches. We told the lady, who at the time was showing us the room, that we were not comfortable sharing bed with insects. She expressed that was something unusual for the hotel and promised to show us a better one. We followed her to a different floor. There seemed to be clean; so we thought. At night we noticed that we have guests in our room; the roaches. In the morning we informed the reception that we were going to check out and explained the reason. We left our luggage at from and left to check a hotel about a block away. Few hours later we got back to the hotel to collect our items. We were told that we need to pay for the shower glass we broke before they give us our luggages. We went right back to the room to see what they are talking about. We noticed the glass forming one side of the shower is shattered. We explained that we took shower in the morning and when we checked out, all was in order. They refused to listen to our side of the story, instead they told us that we need to pay 1000 birr (local currency) or else they will call a police on us. Not knowing how things work in this strange land, me and my girlfriend decided to pay the money and get the hell out of this...

Overpriced at 500/night sharing the room with cockroaches and hundreds of mosquitoes without mosquito net (malaria region). Worst though that the shower did not work and how this was handled by the staff. We went to reception 5 times at night, were always promised "10 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes...". Then asked to speak the manager who never came. Next day we asked for a refund as the shower was still not working. We talked to multiple staff who were all unfriendly, didn't care about helping us and just laughed at us. We spent about another 1h waiting around for the manager, noone giving us updates. We were basically just left sitting around. The manager, once she showed up, was equally unfriendly and just said "it wasn't their problem" that the shower didn't work. Well, who's problem then!??||In the end we got a ridiculous 50 birr back, which they then asked back again at which stage we just left.||Worst hotel in whole Ethiopia we stayed in, especially for...