Sai Eden — Hotel in Malindi

I stayed two nights - December 4 and 5, 2013 - in a standard room in this hotel when touring Malindi. Check in took some time; although I had made a booking by telephone a few days earlier, the check in staffer didn't seem aware and it left me feeling that if it were the high season, with almost all rooms packed, it might have turned out badly. ||||The hotel is clean, but needs some refurbishment. The air conditioner and fridge were old and in need of replacement; to be fair, they worked rather well, but looked like they would break down anytime! The bathroom appeared to have been recently fitted with new tiles. The room has a safe deposit box. The beach is quite far from the hotel but there is a pool just outside the restaurant. ||||The food - I had a la carte chicken and french fries - was nothing to write home about: just about average, the stuff that one would find in a typical Kenyan restaurant. Disappointingly, there was not much on offer - fish and pork had run out, alongside a litany of other excuses as to why this or that wasn't there. For instance, there wasn't mango juice, despite the area being rich in mangoes, so they only had beetroot and passion fruit juice, water melons were ‘not ready' (whatever that meant), and so on. The breakfast was admittedly much better; consisting of the standard fare, eggs, sausages, french toast, coffee, baked beans, cornflakes and pawpaw.||||The staff were very friendly, helpful and courteous, but the lady at reception - on evening duty - was rather unwelcoming, and generally disengaged. Any inquiries appeared to be a real bother to her. ||||The hotel is well located, along Lamu Road, near the Nakumatt and a host of other shopping malls, eateries, mainly Italian, and bars/ discos, e.g., the Stardust and Club 28 are just along the same road. The hotel has good transport links, the place being fairly busy. Putting all together, although it was an average experience, I would still stay here due to the cost, cleanliness, location and convenience (as a budget traveller, I attach great importance to these as opposed to a de luxe experience). It cost me Ksh 5,000 - approx. US $ 60 - per night for b-and-b; it will be higher for foreigners, (and for locals as well during the...

I stayed two nights - December 4 and 5, 2013 - in a standard room in this hotel when touring Malindi. Check in took some time; although I had made a booking by telephone a few days earlier, the check in staffer didn't seem aware and it left me feeling that if it were the high season, with almost all rooms packed, it might have turned out badly. ||||The hotel is clean, but needs some refurbishment. The air conditioner and fridge were old and in need of replacement; to be fair, they worked rather well, but looked like they would break down anytime! The bathroom appeared to have been recently fitted with new tiles. The room has a safe deposit box. The beach is quite far from the hotel but there is a pool just outside the restaurant. ||||The food - I had a la carte chicken and french fries - was nothing to write home about: just about average, the stuff that one would find in a typical Kenyan restaurant. Disappointingly, there was not much on offer - fish and pork had run out, alongside a litany of other excuses as to why this or that wasn't there. For instance, there wasn't mango juice, despite the area being rich in mangoes, so they only had beetroot and passion fruit juice, water melons were ‘not ready' (whatever that meant), and so on. The breakfast was admittedly much better; consisting of the standard fare, eggs, sausages, french toast, coffee, baked beans, cornflakes and pawpaw.||||The staff were very friendly, helpful and courteous, but the lady at reception - on evening duty - was rather unwelcoming, and generally disengaged. Any inquiries appeared to be a real bother to her. ||||The hotel is well located, along Lamu Road, near the Nakumatt and a host of other shopping malls, eateries, mainly Italian, and bars/ discos, e.g., the Stardust and Club 28 are just along the same road. The hotel has good transport links, the place being fairly busy. Putting all together, although it was an average experience, I would still stay here due to the cost, cleanliness, location and convenience (as a budget traveller, I attach great importance to these as opposed to a de luxe experience). It cost me Ksh 5,000 - approx. US $ 60 - per night for b-and-b; it will be higher for foreigners, (and for locals as well during the...

I stayed two nights - December 4 and 5, 2013 - in a standard room in this hotel when touring Malindi. Check in took some time; although I had made a booking by telephone a few days earlier, the check in staffer didn't seem aware and it left me feeling that if it were the high season, with almost all rooms packed, it might have turned out badly. ||||The hotel is clean, but needs some refurbishment. The air conditioner and fridge were old and in need of replacement; to be fair, they worked rather well, but looked like they would break down anytime! The bathroom appeared to have been recently fitted with new tiles. The room has a safe deposit box. The beach is quite far from the hotel but there is a pool just outside the restaurant. ||||The food - I had a la carte chicken and french fries - was nothing to write home about: just about average, the stuff that one would find in a typical Kenyan restaurant. Disappointingly, there was not much on offer - fish and pork had run out, alongside a litany of other excuses as to why this or that wasn't there. For instance, there wasn't mango juice, despite the area being rich in mangoes, so they only had beetroot and passion fruit juice, water melons were ‘not ready' (whatever that meant), and so on. The breakfast was admittedly much better; consisting of the standard fare, eggs, sausages, french toast, coffee, baked beans, cornflakes and pawpaw.||||The staff were very friendly, helpful and courteous, but the lady at reception - on evening duty - was rather unwelcoming, and generally disengaged. Any inquiries appeared to be a real bother to her. ||||The hotel is well located, along Lamu Road, near the Nakumatt and a host of other shopping malls, eateries, mainly Italian, and bars/ discos, e.g., the Stardust and Club 28 are just along the same road. The hotel has good transport links, the place being fairly busy. Putting all together, although it was an average experience, I would still stay here due to the cost, cleanliness, location and convenience (as a budget traveller, I attach great importance to these as opposed to a de luxe experience). It cost me Ksh 5,000 - approx. US $ 60 - per night for b-and-b; it will be higher for foreigners, (and for locals as well during the...