ሆቴል ብራና / Brana Hotel — Hotel in Tigray

Stayed at this ‘aged colonial’ style (decor only) hotel for 2 nights while travelling with my Dad. We had a ‘twin’ room - a double bed with a temporary single bed added. My dad’s 70 so of course got the double...can’t speak for his mattress but the one on the single bed was HARD. Happily, I like a firm mattress, so no major trouble there! Hot water for the shower was fine - dad pulled the shower curtain down, so watch out for that... WiFi didn’t work for me but was fine for my Dad. We had one power cut, which is pretty good going so again, no complaints. Those worried about toilets and flushing can rest assured - the facilities are positively familiar. I particularly enjoyed the diamanté details in our bathroom tiling. |Breakfast is fairly basic but fine - scrambled eggs, bread, a fair attempt at toast, and some local dishes (spaghetti is pretty common, as is shredded injera with spiced butter). There’s a massive vat of coffee which, if I’m honest, is my priority! No idea what the wider menu is like as we didn’t eat in for lunch or dinner. Be ready to dodge huge European tour groups at the hotel and all sites, and remember you don’t have to accept the tour guide that is sent with your airport shuttle! Happily our guide was ace - if you go with Ybrah please say hello :)|It’s a 10 minute walk into ‘town’ (10+ to central sites depending on heat/speed) and remember that at night the streetlights aren’t always lit (and if they are, aren’t bright [but that lets you see the stunningly clear sky]), and watch...

Oh what joy, on Xmas day and found myself being booked (by ETT) in one of the most depressing place here. The hotel is located in the main thoroughfare at Axum, the rooms are noisy (worse still when the trucks and cars rumbling down the road), dirty and dusty. The room is bare, only an old hard bed (you can almost feel the spring in the mattress), a small table and an outdoor chair (?!! Outdoor cane chair!). The furniture and bed sheets have stains and spots. There’s no toiletries in the bathroom except one small bath soap. There were frequent power cuts although usually restored within 10mins or so - the situation was less than ideal when one was having a shower at night and it became pitch dark. The whole place was very run down and badly in need of an overhaul and a change in management. The breakfast was just sad, skip that as there’s hardly anything to offer except 3 containers - egg, bread and some over cooked veg. I had no choice but to dine at the restaurant and the food was just bad, it will make a dead person turn. They claimed WiFi was available but was just non existent, when logged in - there’s hardly any signal. Do yourself a favour -...

We stayed at this hotel as the hotel we first booked through Jumia ended up being full, so switch our reservation to this one, through Jumia. What a mistake! Even if we had long paid in advance the hotel through Jumia, the hotel manager asked us to pay as soon as we arrived, we explained that we had a reservation and paid for it already (it was clearly stated on the reservation printed). Despite that the hotel manager insisted every day of our stay (3 days) that we contact Jumia for the hotel to receive payment from them. We tried the best we could, while telling him it was his business dealings and not our problem. It was not understood and the last day, checking out, we were almost prevented from leaving the hotel without finding a solution. Fortunately we managed to contact Jumia who promised to pay the hotel. Later on, weeks later, we found out that the two had payment issues between them. Really not cool for the customer caught in between. So I will not recommending staying at this average hotel, with an aggressive hotel manager, and not to book anything through Jumia, not...