KARIBU MAISHA LODGE — Hotel in Unguja

The lodge and the space itself are beautiful, but unfortunately there were too many annoying things that heavily impact my review.

1. Service: often there's nobody speaking English at the reception (and they don't seem to be interested in servicing, seeming rather annoyed when receiving a request), and the English speaking staff is friendly, but not allowed to take any decisions. As the owner is seldomly available to answer questions, we had to wait 3 days to get some responses and decisions.
2. food and water: breakfast is very basic. For the pancake and 2 dry pieces of bread, you don't get anything to spread on - only after inquring I received a rather empty jar of peanut butter. Dinner is extremely pricey for the area, with dishes ranging from 20-30k (nearby places rather 15-20k). Water costs 5k (2 USD) per liter (while they refill bottles from a 20 Liter container which costs 6k at the shop, and shops sells 1.5l bottles at 1k too, which is still way cheaper). And with the fact that their tap water is salty, you can't even purify it yourself. As the lodge is 2km off the main town, I feel like they take advantage of the fact that you won't walk there, and thus suck your wallet dry.
3. Room: well sized rooms with nice design, but we had a spider+cockroach+mice+giant-ant plague. Electricity is cut of several times per day, means the fan stops working at night, making it crazily warm and, as there's no mosquito net, you have no protection. Tap and shower water is salty, and often - particularly during power cuts - there's no water pressure at all.
4. extra fees: they give you prices in USD, but when you pay in USD they charge 5% even though it's cash. First time I had to pay a surcharge for USD cash payment in Zanzibar. When confronted with feedback at checkout, the staff unfortunately didn't accept it and rather tried to tell me I was in the wrong - didn't give me a good feeling on my way out either.

For the positives: nice pool area, loads of space everywhere, yoga area, close to a small and quiet beach, which made us extend our stay - also because for a 4 days stay,it's rather cumbersome to change accommodation so you try to make the most out if it, even if it's not ideal.

A few quick fixes that I'd recommend: 1) mosquito nets, it's not a big investment. 2) fair water prices if there's no fresh water from the tap. Also rethink restaurant prices, as in a budget accommodation I'd not expect 4* hotel restaurant prices. If I pay 100 USD a night, I'd expect expensive food and drinks, but not at 25 USD. It's simply not aligned. 3) tell staff that if someone wishes to speak with the owner, they should go and make it happen OR the staff should be given authority to take decisions if the owner doesn't want to be involved in daily operations. For me it was tricky that I saw the owner a few times but she was busy (doing yoga or having dinner with friends) so I won't interrupt but rather...

We were looking forward to our stay here but unfortunately it was not quite what we expected. Starting with the fact that there is only heavily salted water coming out of the tab and besides the complementary water upon arrival you have to pay 3000 ths per liter of drinking water - things that unfortunately were not clearly communicated. The price for water seems a lot, especially when there is no fresh water available at all and shops are pretty far away. As we had a bike out we opted to buy a 20l canister for 6000 tsh at the village shop and give away the rest to the other guests.

The hot water was not working (obviously not a must but nice to have, especially after it was offered to us) and the fuses for the room get often blown. Although an employee seemed to have an eye on this, it meant that many times we showered in the dark and the fan stopped working during the night.

The service also left a lot to wish for. It was often difficult to find the host and the communication was bumpy with no follow up on questions/requests and no room for feedback, which we tried to provide on the last day. Most of the local staff don’t speak english and often appeared to be kinda annoyed by requests which doesn’t make you feel very welcomed. The restaurant service is also kinda grooving in, prices were a bit high for us so we didn’t try it.

We extended our stay directly at the property trying to save the booking.com fees, which is common courtesy at basically every place I have ever stayed but they didn’t want to give us the discount until we asked to talk to the owner about it. Anyhow keep in mind to take TSH with you, payments in cash USD and card payments have an extra 5% charge. Which is really odd since prices are given in USD, and in the first day Maggie was almost surprised that we wanted to pay in shillings not dollars. That and charging cents over the agreed price just felt like trying to bring in a couple of more dollars at check out.

I feel this place has potential as the garden is beautiful and well maintained, and the amenities like pool, yoga shala and cozy seating areas are a plus, and our room was also nice and spacious. I hope that the customers service improves in the future and that the animals on the property get better care as some of them didn’t look...

Since there is no beach really close it is very nice to have the big pool area that they have. It clean, calm and with lots of different options to chill - in the sun, in the shadow etc. The best thing was you didn't get disturbed by anyone. No salespersons.

Room was great, big and a porch outside.

The price on water suprised us as it came in bottles and noone told us it came with a cost. Food seemed pretty high cost so we got that at other places.

It was a little bit hard to find the place, the directions wasn't easy, but it is very close to the Seafood restaurant.

Over a it was a nice stay, thanks to the pool area.

Dogs in this facility but...