Kikoi Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Unguja

When we first arrived at the hotel it looked beautiful and the staff were friendly enough. It would have been nice to have been told at some point when booking that there’s a 5% charge to settle the remaining bill by card however. ||We stayed at the stonetown room 105 and noticed immediately that one of the toilets was loose and too unstable to sit on, the sinks leaked all over the floor when used, the wifi kept cutting out. The water pressure was non existent and the phone to reception wasn’t working. Staff came to try and resolve the issues (the sink and attempt the phone) however the rest remained unresolved and the phone was never fixed which was a chore every time we needed to contact reception. The water pressure did improve on the second day.||I would say the food was expensive and mediocre at best and given the isolated location you don’t have many other options. We booked this stay for my best friends birthday which was was mentioned when we booked but no effort was made to make the booking more special to reflect this. We were told on arrival that our room had been upgraded but we suspect that this was the room we booked as the details for the room were the same. We did really like the massages - these were value for money compared to the what I’m used to and were one of the few highlights of our stay. ||On our first night we heard an insect eating away at the wooden headboard, it was so unsettling I had to sleep for the remainder of our stay with my head at the foot end of the bed. I mentioned it to staff the next morning and we were told they will think of a solution but they never came back to us about it. I started to get bites all over my legs for the first time since arriving in zanzibar. I have a super effective bug spray which had prevented any bites for the week up until this point. It was when we were packing to leave and I placed a wet towel on the bed that I saw through the wet bedsheet a bed bug. All the bites made sense as this was where my legs were each night. My legs were red, sore and incredibly itchy I was disgusted as this was the fire time in my life I had encountered bed bugs and I didn’t expect to find them in what looked like on the surface, such a lovely hotel.||We raised this with the staff we were checking out and they didn’t know what to do other than say sorry. We requested to speak with the manager and was assured he would return by 13:30 when we were leaving because he was in Paje. By 13:10 there was no sign of the manager, we insisted that the staff called the manager and they couldn’t get through. It was only later when our friend picked us up and spoke to the staff in Swahili that they then said the manager went from Paje to Stone Town so clearly had no intention of returning any time soon. So in the end there was no resolution, only a useless sorry and to this day (5 days after we left) we have not heard back from the manager as he clearly doesn’t care about the upkeep of this hotel or the well being of paying guests. I don’t expect this situation to change as the insect eating the headboard was mentioned in a previous review on trip advisor and clearly nothing has been done about it since. I did see a hole stuffed with tissue which is probably where the insects are. ||Despite this hotel being beautiful and the beach being amazing, I strongly recommend against staying here as the issues experienced far outweighed this and the staff (specifically the manager) don’t do anything to fix most of them. I am sure there are far better options in the area with just as beautiful surroundings and beaches you can stay in that are...

I am deeply disappointed by my recent experience at Kikoi. My stay was marred by several significant issues that greatly impacted my comfort and overall satisfaction.||First and foremost, the lack of functioning air conditioning made my time in the hotel unbearable. With temperatures soaring, the absence of adequate cooling turned my room into an oppressive and stifling environment. It was incredibly difficult to relax or sleep under such conditions.|Furthermore, the level of customer service provided by the staff was woefully inadequate. Requests for assistance were met with apathy and indifference, with little effort made to address concerns or provide solutions. This lack of attentiveness only added to the frustration of an already unpleasant stay.||The cleanliness of the facilities was also severely lacking. The towels provided in my room were visibly dirty and worn, suggesting inadequate laundering practices. This, combined with other cleanliness issues throughout the hotel, left a lasting negative impression on me as a guest.|The water pressure in the showers was insufficient, making it difficult to shower effectively. This made the simple task of maintaining personal hygiene unnecessarily challenging and uncomfortable.||Additionally, the hotel experienced frequent power outages, further disrupting my stay. It was incredibly frustrating to be left without electricity for extended periods, especially without any clear explanation or communication from the hotel staff.|Lastly, the hotel's failure to adequately stock basic amenities such as ice and water was unacceptable. It demonstrated a lack of foresight and proper management, resulting in unnecessary inconvenience for guests.||In addition to the aforementioned issues, I must also highlight the abysmal quality of the hotel's Wi-Fi connection. Despite assurances of reliable internet access, the reality was quite the opposite. The connection was consistently slow and unreliable, making it virtually impossible to use for any meaningful purpose. As a traveler who relies on internet access for both work and leisure, this was an extremely frustrating aspect of my stay.||Furthermore, I had a disturbing encounter with a sizable crab in the toilet of my room. This unexpected and unwelcome surprise left me feeling shocked and unsettled. Not only was it a frightening experience, but it also raised serious concerns about the cleanliness and maintenance standards of the hotel. Discovering such a creature in a supposedly sanitized environment was deeply unsettling and completely unacceptable.||Overall, my experience at Kikoi was deeply unsatisfactory, and I cannot recommend it to others. The combination of poor facilities, inadequate customer service, and overall lack of attention to guest comfort made for a...

We had a perfect honeymoon at Kikoi Boutique Hotel. We stayed for 10 days. Rented a villa with a private pool and it was absolutely worth it.

We don't understand any of the negative reviews posted here. We saw no crabs at all while staying here, the service was GREAT, I mean, the reception took any requests we had like we wanted sunbeds on our balcony and they got it right away, we asked where we could get e-cigarettes as there are limited shops in the area and they called some guys that drove to the reception and sold us cheap vapes. They suggested places we could go to and spoke great english. They were always smiling. One day they were fixing up the palm trees and cut down coconuts for us while we where staying in our pool at no cost.

The villa we stayed in was modern, aircondition blew cold air and gave us good nights of sleep, the beds were comfortable.

The area is quiet, didn't experience any pushy salesmen like you often see in stone town or nungwi. There are a few restaurants nearby but we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant most days. We can recommend the Wingit Beef Noodle dish :)

Internet/wifi is also great compared to other places we have stayed, same with 4G mobile network. You can stream movies here unlike in Nungwi.

Some negatives: The pool areas (except for the private pool we had) were dirty and should be cleaned more often. The breakfast is very different from most hotels, they toast the bread for you, make the coffee for you, gets juice/milk for you. I think it's too much service as you had to ask for everything. Would be easier if you could do more yourself. I also wish there were more food to choose from. Taxi (as in most other areas of zanzibar) is expensive.. A 7 minute drive from 30.000 tsh (to Pingwe) or 50.000 tsh both ways which is around 20 USD. You could rent a scooter and drive yourself, but there are corrupt police offisers everywhere waiting to cash in on you driving by.

We will definitely recommend Kikoi Boutique Hotel, book a villa with private pool if you can afford it. It's not a big price difference but are much cooler than the...