Oilepo Amboseli — Hotel in Kimana ward

The most disappointing of all our stays in Kenya. I wouldn’t recommend this place.

Rooms: The rooms are minimalistic and lack basic amenities like a hot water kettle. We had to ask for a hairdryer, but they didn’t have a kettle. No bin in the room, and our first room was missing hand towels. They provide bar soap but no dish for it. Big wardrobe but no hangers. Poor attention to detail.

They seem to have invested in strange things. The first room was a basic tent with a zip entrance but had a separate shower and fancy bathtub. The second room had an outdoor shower that was dirty and covered in cobwebs.

Service: Staff were nice but slow and incompetent. Hot water issues were poorly handled, with no updates from Titus, the Team Lead. Despite the place being nearly empty, they took forever to change our room. We were tired and ready for bed, but the wait showed poor customer service. Sending 3 people to help us move didn’t make up for the inconvenience.

They require key deposits at reception, but when we returned from a game drive, the staff gave us keys to our old room. It took time to sort out since all room names begin with 'O.' Another time, we waited over 10 minutes for our keys because they weren’t at reception.

The gate guard constantly asked if we were checking out or in, despite us staying for 3 nights. This lack of communication extended to the point where someone parked in front of our jeep, overnight, delaying our game drive.

Njeru, the manager, was friendly but offered no real solutions to issues, much like the rest of the staff.

Restaurant: The hotel offers à la carte meals, with good lunch and dinner options, but breakfast was disappointing. The Continental breakfast had cold toast, dense pastries, and limited options like no jam or fruit. Customizing resulted in less food—when I asked for fruit instead of pastries, I got two slices of cold toast and a tiny plate of fruit. For the price, breakfast service was a huge letdown.

The slow service was the biggest issue. Francis always asked us to order meals in advance, but breakfast still took 20-25 minutes, often cold, and delayed our game drives.

The restaurant has a Starling problem, with birds fluttering onto tables during breakfast and lunch, making dining unpleasant.

Location: Oliepo is 500m from Amboseli National Park and feels like an oasis in the desert. There’s a water pond frequented by giraffes, zebras, and other birds and animals, though the property also...

My family of 4 had the pleasure of staying in a Family Cottage at Oliepo Amboseli for 2 nights. The camp is fairly new. The grounds were lush. The accommodations were spacious and clean. The restaurant was beautiful, and the food was plentiful and delicious. We loved being able to eat and watch the elephants and zebras visit the water hole nearby. The location to Amboseli National Park was terrific and made our short trek easy and painless. Last but not least, the service was outstanding, ||That said, there are a few areas that could be improved upon .. |1) The family cottage had only 1 small trash can in each of the bathrooms. There was no soap nor trash in the kitchen nor bedroom areas. There was no soap/shampoo/towels for the outdoor showers, so, as lovely as they were, they went unused. There were no hangers in the closets. The mosquito nets on the beds were lovely, but they were completely useless as they did not cover the entire bed. Luckily, we went during the winter season (July/August), so mosquitoes were few; however, I imagine it could be a real problem during warm/wet seasons. |2) The staff was wonderful and eager to please; however, there were WAY too many! By our estimation, there was a 5:1 staff to guest ratio. Meaning, for every guest, there were at least 4-5 staff members waiting to assist. While we enjoy being pampered, it can be a little unnerving having so many staff members hovering about. There simply was no need, and I'm guessing this may be a bit financially taxing for the camp?? |3) The pool was beautiful, but it wasn't cleaned during our stay, and there were no towels anywhere. Since each person is only given 1 bath towel in the cottage, we didn't want to use it for the pool as well. ||I believe these are merely small "kinks" that need to be worked out at a new camp. All in all, we enjoyed our stay and would certainly recommend it to our...

What a lovely lodge right on the edge of the national park. The entrance to the national park is 5-10 minute drive. Though the road to get to the gate and the hotel is long and bumpy but not a problem, as we expect on safari. |This was a great stay and a really special experience for us. This was the only tented accommodation we had on safari and was quite luxurious. The tent is a canvas structure at the front but with a solid roof and solid structure for the bathroom. The tent has a terrace at the front which looks out over the bush towards Kilimanjaro. We were lucky to see it one evening and one morning when it was a bit clearer. |The main building looks out over a small watering hole. Apparently all animals come including elephants and giraffe. We saw zebras, antelope, warthogs and baboons. There are a couple of tables upstairs which have a great view of this if you're lucky enough to get this for your meal it is very special. |The food was really delicious and well presented and the service really good. It is all a la carte and you have to order ahead of time. I think the dessert menu should have an option of fresh fruit for those not wanting cakes. |One thing I didn't enjoy was ordering breakfast in advance. All the choices were trying to be too fancy. I ordered one one day and it was missing half of the things it said it would come with and instead had pancakes and toast piled on which was not what I wanted. In the end we established that we just wanted fresh fruit and a basic omelette but it did seem a bit of a palava to sort out. |The grounds of the hotel are well kept and the pool is also really nice (not heated). |Special mention to Titus who made a special effort to make sure everything was good for us. |I would highly recommend this lodge to others and wish we had a bit more time to enjoy...