Serene Beach Resort — Hotel in Dar es-Salaam

Absolutely NOTHING to like about this place - I can NOT call it a HOTEL!!! I have explained more on the photos. ||It can NOT be classed as a hotel - its more a hostel and the front of house manager was SO rude and I have text showing it. I booked for 10 days and refused to stay more than one night. We arrived late (10.30 pmish) took 30 mins to get credit card machine to work, after explaining we had been travelling since 5am in the morning we weren't even offered a drink. As it was dark getting to the room we didn't really see much of the surroundings but as I walked up the stairs to the first floor I knew instantly that the room was going to be sub standard. It is an unfinished building site! I ordered a studio as I am a frequent visitor to Dar and wanted a kitchen area to be able to prepare food - WELL!! That was the biggest joke. All there was was a sink and a lot of empty cupboards, half the doors didn't fit properly, missing glass, missing electric box cover. No plates, cutlery and more importantly NO FRIDGE!!! Just a microwave with a kettle on top and a couple of sachets of coffee (NO tea or UHT milk) The aircon was not working, the wifi was not working, the hot water was not working, the fan above the bed was covered by a net so you couldn't feel it. The big wooden bed completely covers your view of the tiny tele so you can't watch that. The place smelt of damp and it was bare and cold. We ended up having a cold shower. They tried to offer us a room next door and the only difference was it had a fridge and smelt just as bad - I refused it. Due to the long arsed day travelling we had had we just needed to sleep, obviously with the aircon not pumping out any cold air and a fan you couldn't feel that was near on impossible. In the morning we went for breakfast and it was the biggest joke I have ever seen!! We asked for sunny side eggs and they came completely over cooked - TWICE!!! Even after explaining how to cook them and showed a photo on google!! The toaster was placed on a CHAIR!!, everything was dirty. We literally only felt safe eating beans and toast.||The general manager did listen and see all my photos and was a nice guy, asked me to stay another night to rectify but nothing but demolishing can rectify this place. It should be struck off any booking site. When I looked at refund they scammed me out of nearly £100!!!!!!!!! This was worse than FAULTY TOWERS (British sitcom on worst hotel ever!)
See the photos -...

Really enjoyed the stay at the resort. The quality is good especially for the prices proposed. The rooms, though the facility is ageing, are very well maintained. The staff is very courteous, maybe as expected in Tanzania. I only took breakfast during my stay, and it was not disappointing. Just watch out for the scavenger crows trying to share your meal 😄 ! The location is superb. The hotel is located right at the beach 😎 , in a serene affluent neighborhood, not so far from a shopping centre where one can get anything, from bars, to movie shops, boutiques, ice cream parlour ... the list is endless. One can easily get around via 'Bajaji' (tuktuks) which cost about 1.50$ to get the shopping centre. It is an affordable outlet with good quality for holidaygoers. No hidden charges involved and there is a lot of flexibility. The hotel neighbours other classy hotels and two public beaches, but disturbance is on the minimal. On the downside, some of the reception staff were not as kind as others. Secondly on Saturdays the hotel opens to the public so facilities such as the bar and swimming pool are very strained. Thirdly, the neighbouring club plays pretty loud music in Saturday so sleeping is not easy; it might be easier to just pop over the fence and join the party. Lastly, during the rainy season the rivers flowing into the ocean (there are about 4 of them in Mbezi) bring with them all the ills of urbanisation; plastic, metal, leather and any other trash the storm drains may have collected in town. This makes the beach a no-go zone. Very sad for those who come here chasing the sun, sand and waves. This is no fault of the hotel, but something to consider when booking. Also the hotel would have done a better job in cleaning up the beach right in front of them; the other hotels are doing it and the beach boys do it for the...

Rats at the reception, rats at the bar and seeing rats enter the kitchen. Clear excrements of rats in the bedroom. Staff and management know about this. A receptionist brushed it away by saying ‘it’s just a rat’. ||Extremely poor breakfast. They add water to the milk of the cereals. One day breakfast closed at 9am instead of 10am. Cereals that were there on the first day, were not there anymore on the second or third day. According to staff they ran out of supplies. Dry bread was an issue too. ||They have no executive suits with hot tubs, you pay for it, it is advertised, they assured me by mail I would get it, but in the end its not there. Only the cheaper rooms without a sea view have them. We tried the bath in a simple room as management wanted to provide us with a solution, but the boiler can’t produce enough hot water to fill a bath. We were told there is one executive suit with a hot tub and that we would get it for our third night, that promise was not fulfilled, we got nothing.||Not a single day the swimming pool opened at 8.30am, always around 10am. ||I shared all grievances with management, but finally this hotel can simply not produce what it promises. The location is nice, but the standards toward customer care are extremely low. With the issues they have with rats, hygiene must be a dangerous issue.||I demanded a 50% reduction on the room rate because we paid for something we didn’t get and promises were not kept. The answer of the manager was clear: “nothing we do can make up for the problems you had”, he apologised but was only willing to give a 30% cut. Clearly money is the drive, not the guest. I felt they...