Gadea Boutique Hotel &Gadea Garden Italian Restaurant — Hotel in Unguja

It’s not a hotel as described - I wanted a hotel, thought I had booked a hotel due to the name but this is run more like an Airbnb / serviced apartment such as having lots of Airbnb style rules including before check in and limited staff available physically (with WhatsApp numbers available to contact them). Just an FYI for anyone expecting a hotel or flexible check in times.

Very limited privacy: The room doors are transparent so you have to use the curtain for privacy but they don’t fully cover the windows when draw. Also, the doors are not sound proof so you can hear literally everything outside as if you were there too, from conversations and noisy guests, to the rain and even drainage.

Hot water only worked on one day.

Mattress sinks.

Lots of ants in the room, could feel them when lying down on the bed, they were even in my bag after just a short time. I love nature and understand this happens when being in close proximity to nature, but I’ve been coming to Zanzibar for 10 years and haven’t experienced this before.

Lack of mosquito nets around the bed - this is Africa, it’s simply not enough to have sliding mosquito nets on the doors. Most of the mosquitoes have already gotten into the room by the time you close the door after entering, which is why most hotels have them around the bed and for good reason. I experience lots of bites so had to sleep with the covers over my head.

The access road needs to be fixed, I understand it may be the responsibility of the Authorities but they are clearly not doing to so the multi thousand and million $ beach front businesses that are snapping up the coastline and surrounding areas should come together and sort it out for themselves, their clients and the local community. It makes no sense to leave it as is.

-- Edit: A very defensive response which is not surprising. Instead of looking into the points raise and implementing a better experience for your guests, you would rather try and discredit the genuine experiences of your guests. If you take TWO seconds to experience your rooms for yourself, you will see the room windows are very much transparent. In terms of noise, there is a big difference between expecting 'some noise' and hearing every little movement, sound and conversation that takes place outside of your room. It's not about needing sound proofing, its about noise pollution and inadequate measures in place to prevent every little sound coming through.

Again to re-emphasise, given that I have been travelling to Zanzibar for 10 years, yours is the only hotel I have experienced this issue with ants, and clearly the measures you mentioned don't work, so again... consider other solutions. Your point on mosquito nets also makes no sense - they are a preventative measure to prevent a very serious tropical disease and not a stylistic choice.

Your arrogance knows no bounds - if I was looking for an all inclusive hotel option, I would have booked it. It's unfortunate that your hotel does not live up to expectations because what you advertise is far from what you deliver. If you could take a second to appreciate objective feedback based on direct experience and not your arrogance, you would make the required changes, offer your guests a better experience and get more customers. Afterall, there are plenty other hotels in the island you are in competition with.

Arrogant and dismissive. If this is how you are with your guests, I fear for how you...

Stayed here for 5 nights and really glad I picked this place - we had a wonderful stay!||||After researching a lot of places around the Jambiani area (and reading many reviews here) i finally decided on Residence Gadea, and so glad I did.||||The whole place is good quality, beautifully decorated with lots of unique touches, which makes it feel so homely. There is a restaurant on the first floor and a smallish pool. It is literally 1 minute’s walk to the beach.||||We had a 2-bedroom apartment which had a well-equipped kitchenette, air con and a safe. The beds were comfy and it was quiet at night. (Of course, with Zanzibar being a Muslim island you start to hear the call to prayer from the local mosques at around 4.30am.) ||Although the bathroom was small, the water was hot and pressure was good. Huge bath towels and extra towels for the pool/beach also provided. The room was cleaned thoroughly every day.||||The place is owned by a lovely Italian couple, and their staff are all locals. They were all so friendly, helpful and provided a really high standard of service.||||The food and drinks in the restaurant were fantastic. Many Italian dishes and also some local dishes on offer, with great seafood too. Good wine list of Italian wines and fab cocktails (we recommend the Martini Mojito!).||||And I have to mention the cats - we counted at least 5 of them in residence, and it was nice to see them around the place. Kibiriti, the cheeky little ginger one, is fond of jumping on to your lap or onto the chair you're sitting on. We loved that, but if you don't like cats or are allergic to them, this wouldn't be the place for you.||||Jambiani is a small local village and so there aren’t many ‘touristy’ things to do, however the hotel can book full day and half day trips to different places of interest.||||All in all we had a wonderful stay, and would highly...

LONG POST ALERT... The biggest crooks in Zanzibar are running a shady accommodation in Jambiani with completely fake profiles up-selling what they offer on different platforms like Airbnb and booking.com. Here is what we really found on ground after we fell for their trap via Airbnb. The first room they offered is the tiniest garage like room you can imagine without windows. They manage to squeeze a 1.5mx1.5m kitchen and bathroom of the same measurement within this tiny space. The first thing you see when you lie on the bed is a ceiling fan right on top of you, seemingly a disaster waiting to happen. Right behind this room a building site. The tiny garage room opens right up to the swimming pool so since you have to leave your doors open to avoid suffocation, everyone chilling at the pool has a full view of your room. This room is $77 a night. We had paid for 6 nights and couldn't even imagine spending 1 night here. We expressed our concerns to the host and she happily offered to give us a "bigger-better" room with a splendid view of a large gray wall, no mosquito net, no electricity (even though they say they have a generator in their listings), the door couldn't lock, many cats and cat hair all over the place, no water pressure in showers, gloomy service.....the list goes on and on. It's also many miles away from main town to get cooking supplies but they mention they are a walkable distance from the supermarket. Obviously the host sensed that we were not happy with the accommodation and made sure not to be available the next morning leaving behind her partner who either didn't understand English or pretended not to understand. He declined to refund us for remaining 5 nights and asked us to request Airbnb for a refund. We checked into another hotel and we're informed that they had received a guest from gadea previously with the...