Manyatta Camp — Hotel in Siana ward

The camping is fairly well-located and has a lovely garden, but it's held back by woefully unprofessional staff attitude and lack of concern about the guests. If you are coming as part of a big group, you might be just OK, but if you are not, please read on. Having lived in Kenya for a while and travelled all over the country (while always staying in budget accommodations), I could certainly say this has been the worst hospitality experience so far. When I arrived late in the evening, the staff didn't know about my reservation, so I guess I was lucky there were tents available Do not count on having hot water in winter. Although this service is included, in practice it never worked throughout the 3 days I was there (we tried for hours at a time). When we pointed it out to the main reception staff called John, he would make a surprised face and pretend to go and fix it, only to disappear, without ever solving the problem. This situation would repeat numerous times, making us think that he was simply hoping we would take a cold shower in the meantime and stop asking to provide the service we paid for. When we asked the staff to please share their phone number in case there were problems in the tent, he just said "No" and walked away... A similar attitude was displayed for other simple requests. Do not count on having electricity as promised. We were told that power is available every morning until 7:30am. However, as soon as most people left the camp, the power was disconnected (45 min to 1 hour earlier than had been previously stated). Only as I was calling my travel agent to point that out, did they switch it back on. Do not count on having your breakfast on time. I was part of a group who wanted to leave for a safari early (6:20 am), as we hoped to see hunting. However, I was the only person staying at Manyatta and the only person at that camp who was leaving early. Although the staff promised to me and my tour guide that I would be served breakfast at 6, in reality they only started cooking at 6:30...since apparently it wasn't worth switching on the power/making a fire for just one person. No apologies offered. The sad thing is that the whole safari group (with most people arriving from another nearby budget camp where staff actually seem to heed your requests) bared the consequences. You need to know that there are no places to buy food around, so you're highly dependent on your accommodation provider for this, unless you bring your own food. The breakfast was extremely scanty (see the picture). There were some pancakes, but nothing (such as jam) to eat them with... My group-mates staying at the nearby camp where abundant breakfast was served would share some food of theirs with me. The dinner at Manyatta was OK, to be fair. The mosquito net had holes on it, but there were fortunately no mosquitos in winter. This beautiful country can surprise foreign visitors with its warmth and hospitality, but this is not the place to look for it, and it has nothing to do with it being a budget accommodation. I'd say you'd rather look for a...

We were booked into (or “upgraded to”) Manyatta by our tour company, and stayed two nights. Overall, our stay was absolutely fine - there were a lot of things that could have been improved, but we had only paid for a basic package so it lined up pretty much with our expectations. If your tour operator books you here, you’re fine - beds are comfy, you get enough power in the evening to charge your phones, and it’s super close both to the park entrance and the Maasai village you can visit. If you’re booking your own accommodation, this shouldn’t be your first choice. A couple of points I’ve seen in other reviews of Manyatta that were also true of our experience:|- coffee is gruesome, definitely bring some packet sachets with you or something|- the (hot) water supply is unreliable - be prepared for cold to lukewarm showers and unflushable toilets from time to time|- the paths between rooms/tents aren’t lit so you need a phone torch or flashlight|- no drinking water is provided apart from the hot water for teas & coffees (at breakfast and in the afternoon), although you can buy a large bottle of water for 200Ksh at the bar|- your room/tent only closes by zip and there are no safes, so be aware of that if you have a lot of valuables with you ||Our beds were comfy, and breakfast was ready for us at 6am both mornings when we had early starts which we really appreciated.||Finally though - there was a pretty widespread scam going on with tour groups to the reserve whilst we were visiting. In short, drivers would persuade guests to adjust their schedule of game drives to fit within 1 x 24hr window rather than across 48hrs, so that the driver could pocket the cost of the second 24hr park fee. Having spoken to other guests, we realised that this was happening to us too and so wanted to speak to our driver to insist on keeping our original itinerary. We didn’t give any details, but asked the hotel manager to help us find our driver. From his reactions to the little we said and to the subsequent back-and-forth with our driver, our group of 3 was certain that he was fully aware of...

Horrible.

The Manager, a mature man was very mean and unfriendly. Could not even give you a second of his time to explain anything.

The water and sink are very dirty, and you can NOT shower with the water nor brush your teeth with it. Yes. That DIRTY. We had to buy drinking water so as to at least brush our teeth.

The shower water is 8cold. We got there in the evening, at about 8 pm, were told to wait 3 minutes for the water to warm up but it never happened. We called the " manager " who said it was " too late to fix it, unataka nifanye nini?( what do you want me to do? ) traslation.

Following morning,6 am, there was no water at all. I went to tell the manage and he couldnt give me a minute to explain my problem. All he said was : we will work on it" while not stopping nor responding to my " good morning" . Honestly, there was nothing good about that morning.

The water was never fixed and he wasnt bothered. Mind you, i had told him about the situation at 6.am.

We couldnt stay there, we had to move. We couldnt freshen up nor flash the toilet. We had to leave.

Only when he saw us with our bags did he mention that a "guest had just moved, and we could use their room". Too little to late.

He apologized but his level of professionalism is very low.

I would not recommend anyone to this camp. Go there at...