Palumbo Kendwa — Hotel in Unguja

When we arrived at hotel, we got "welcome drink". It was nice. Also we got immediate hospitality by local employees and Masais. Then, unfortunatelly, we were asked to pay hotel tax, which is quite huge in comparison with other hotels and it is 8 Dollars per night and person. We did not count with that, nevertheless it was mentioned in our papers, we just did not see before. We paid with the CC, additional costs for payment with it is ca 5,4%, but we were informed before payment. That was the worst part of our holiday.||||The hotel is situated uphill, ca 600-800m far from the beach, anyway the hotel has its own transport, so you can just wait to be picked up. ||The beach is great, as everybody knows, there is just low influence of the tides in comparison with most of the Zanzibar. The sand is amaizing, flat of whole beach is really huge, so local people are coming every evening to play football (everyday more than 6 "fields"). Lot of water sports possibilities, there are fields for voleyball, outside gym, etc. What is not so pleasant is, that locals lure you every day to make a trip with them, or to buy in their shops, but everybody can handle it.||||Hotel has own area on the beach with its bar and several parasols. It is watched by Masais and local Police. They take care about safety, also if the locals go too close to you (but not inside of the area), they expel them. So we could left our personal things on our loungers and never happened anything wrong.||||Breakfast and dinner are served in the hotel, lunch on the beach. We spent there 10 nights, it is true, that especially breakfasts are not so diverse, but I think it is sufficient. Taste of the food was great, 1 day a week there are local specialities, every day there is pasta, salats, beef, chicken, soup, etc. You can also choose different drinks, we liked juices (orange, ginger, pineapple, mango,..). There is also snack. What is nice, they serve before lunch fresh fruits, these fruits you can get also within lunch and dinner - mango, pineapple, maracuya, banana,... Freash and tasty - different as here in Europe :)||||The hotel is not so huge, I think max capacity is like 200 people and more buldings are being built. It is more like family hotel in African style, with really nice atmosphere and what I want to point out, people are really kind - special thank to the waiter Bethuel, Ali (he knows czech very well, eng. italiano,..), guide Ali, all Masais and others.||If you have a problem (bulb), it is fixed in 10-15mins. ||Animations are almost every night - program like Michael Jackson show, Masais, acrobats,.. ||The hotel has it own pool, but just a fool would stay there :) Gym we noticed, but cannot rate.||||Rooms are simple, but fulfill. AC is working well.||||There are plenty of trips offered by local guides related to hotel for reasonable prices.||||||I really have to admit, that we enjoyed the 10 nights there and recommend the hotel, thank you for the time...

Spent 1 week in August 2019.||PROS|- price is competitive in comparison to near resorts |- rooms are basic but quite clean |- wonderful beach |- beautiful view of sea and sunset from rooms ||CONS|- my group and so many people were having the holiday ruined by viruses, which questions the realiability of served food |- food is not great, not a lot and it is always quite the same |- beach is far and the journey is definitely not pleasant |- pool was only half full during our stay and was not filled despite many requests |- lack of services (eg. no phone in the room, complementary shampoo only on request and bottled water to be paid even on all inclusive treatment, washing service available but subject to the explicit risk of having clothes ruined) |- recurring issues with running water in the room |- room keys are stored in a public box |- you are requested to sign that any theft in your room would be your fault |- bed sheets, towels and beach towels are not clean |- the reception service is available only during the day and it was unprofessional with us in multiple occasions |- animation is very basic and excursion services are based on the local beach boys with whom you will have to bargain the price, despite the hotel says that they are trusted by them and that they put caps on prices (to be noted that, during our stay, a boat got turned over during a trip - expect very very basic and small wood boats) |- wifi is available but quite never working properly ||To conclude, additional attention to all small details would definitely improve the stay, but the main issue is whether the food...

This is false advertising.||||I checked in today. ||||The rooms are not what is advertised on the website. The beach front unit that I initially booked reeks of fresh paint and there is dust everywhere, however we were given an alternative unit in the main hotel, which is around 1.2 km from the beach. They willingly charge you more money to stay in a beach front unit that they are fully aware won’t serve the purpose that you initially booked it for, then give you a room that would cost less. The WiFi does not work at all in the rooms, and only works in the reception area, which defeats the whole purpose as I did not book to stay in reception. The air corn also does not work either, bear in mind that the rooms are clustered, stuffy and are in an area whereby the temperature is 36 degrees and up everyday. The tv only plays German channels, if you can make it work. This is blatant false advertising. Do Yourself a favor, save your money and stay somewhere else else. There are plenty of other viable options in the the same price range...