Amaan Beach Bungalows — Hotel in Unguja

Avoid this hotel! We booked 6 beachfront rooms for our party of 12.||Common issues for all 6 rooms:||1. Mattress covering consisted of a single flat (not fitted) sheet made of thin cotton. No fitted sheet or mattress pad. The sheet, which was just a few inches wider than the mattress, came untucked as you slept, putting your body in direct contact with the mattress surface, which had stains from previous exposure to bodily fluids, water, etc. Yuck!||2. Chairs in the balcony were practically unusable. Rickety and without cushions or thin cushions that were not properly sized and slid off as soon as you sat down. So much for enjoying the view from your balcony!||||Four of the six rooms had serious problems as follows. ||a. Plumbing. In one room, the shower water came out in three directions- most of it hit the ceiling, a trickle came down from the shower head, and a large part of it went straight down the drain from the faucet in the middle. When they fixed it the first time, they only stopped the spray up into the ceiling- all the hot water still went down the drain from the faucet. In another room, the toilet flush was inoperable. After they fixed it, it overflowed when filling up. In a different room, the shower knobs were “frozen” and shower could not be turned on. ||b. A/C. In 2 rooms, A/C did not work at all. They moved two guests to a different room, where the A/C ran full blast or not at all. Same situation in another room. ||c. Termite droppings. In one room, there was what appeared to be sand on the foot of the bed. They changed the sheet. The next day, it was the same. That’s when we realized it was termite droppings coming down from the ceiling!||||There were many other issues which we chose to ignore - upon checkin one bathroom smelled of urine, one room had a dirty cup from previous guest, there were no screens on any windows, allowing insects to come in freely, etc. ||||Normally, you would expect a hotel to try to make up for such severe shortcomings in some way such as refunds, freebies, etc. Not the case here. Apparently the property is to be torn down and rebuilt next spring. This may explain why they don’t want to spend anything for upkeep.||The food in their restaurants was mediocre and overpriced as others...

I had one of the worst experiences at Amman Beach Bungalow, and I feel compelled to warn others about staying here. From the moment we arrived, it was chaos. Despite having paid for our stay in full, including all taxes and charges as clearly stated on Booking.com, we were repeatedly hassled about paying additional taxes. The staff refused to contact Booking.com to verify, leaving me to handle it on my vacation. After a full day of back-and-forth and wasted time, I finally received an email from Booking.com confirming my payment, which I had to show to the so-called manager for the issue to be reluctantly.||The problems didn’t stop there. Upon check-in, we were given breakfast coupons, which we assumed were a courtesy since our booking did not include breakfast. However, this led to a series of exhausting conversations with staff and managers. One day they said it was fine to enjoy the breakfast as a “lucky treat,” the next day they claimed we had to pay, and the miscommunication kept spiraling. We were repeatedly assured by the first manager that it was sorted, only to be told later by a different “main manager” that we owed money for breakfast.||On our last day, we were held hostage—yes, hostage—at the hotel gates over a fabricated breakfast bill and the same redundant tax issue. The manager even threatened to call security and block our departure if we didn’t pay. It wasn’t about the money (first $240, then $60), but the sheer principle and audacity of their behavior. After over an hour of arguing and standing outside with all our luggage, they finally let us leave without payment. It felt like an outright scam.||The room conditions were appalling. Insects, including ants and larger bugs, were everywhere. The bathroom was in terrible shape, with lights and power cutting out constantly. Wi-Fi was nearly non-existent. The lack of cleanliness and maintenance was unacceptable for the high prices they charge.||Amman Beach Bungalow completely ruined what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. The unprofessionalism, constant harassment over payments, and subpar facilities made this stay unbearable. I strongly advise anyone considering this hotel to look elsewhere.||Save yourself the frustration and avoid this place...

I had one of the worst experiences at Amman Beach Bungalow, and I feel compelled to warn others about staying here. From the moment we arrived, it was chaos. Despite having paid for our stay in full, including all taxes and charges as clearly stated on Booking.com, we were repeatedly hassled about paying additional taxes. The staff refused to contact Booking.com to verify, leaving me to handle it on my vacation. After a full day of back-and-forth and wasted time, I finally received an email from Booking.com confirming my payment, which I had to show to the so-called manager for the issue to be reluctantly.

The problems didn’t stop there. Upon check-in, we were given breakfast coupons, which we assumed were a courtesy since our booking did not include breakfast. However, this led to a series of exhausting conversations with staff and managers. One day they said it was fine to enjoy the breakfast as a “lucky treat,” the next day they claimed we had to pay, and the miscommunication kept spiraling. We were repeatedly assured by the first manager that it was sorted, only to be told later by a different “main manager” that we owed money for breakfast.

On our last day, we were held hostage—yes, hostage—at the hotel gates over a fabricated breakfast bill and the same redundant tax issue. The manager even threatened to call security and block our departure if we didn’t pay. It wasn’t about the money (first $240, then $60), but the sheer principle and audacity of their behavior. After over an hour of arguing and standing outside with all our luggage, they finally let us leave without payment. It felt like an outright scam.

The room conditions were appalling. Insects, including ants and larger bugs, were everywhere. The bathroom was in terrible shape, with lights and power cutting out constantly. Wi-Fi was nearly non-existent. The lack of cleanliness and maintenance was unacceptable for the high prices they charge.

Amman Beach Bungalow completely ruined what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. The unprofessionalism, constant harassment over payments, and subpar facilities made this stay unbearable. I strongly advise anyone considering this hotel to look elsewhere.

Save yourself the frustration and avoid this place...