The Residence Zanzibar — Hotel in Unguja

We stayed at The Residence Zanzibar in July 2025 to celebrate my husband’s 70th birthday. Sadly, our experience was far from the luxury escape we had envisioned.||||Security Incident – Intruder in Our Villa||||At 1:15am on July 11th, I was shocked to see an unidentified man enter our outdoor shower area while I was using the bathroom. He attempted to enter our room via the shower door, I screamed twice for my husband, and the intruder fled over the 8ft wall. Reception and security responded quickly, but the initial response questioned whether I had been dreaming, hardly reassuring after such a traumatic event. Having checked the area they confirmed scuff marks on the wall had been identified, and we were also told there was CCTV footage which would be shared when the incident report had been completed and submitted to the local police.||||The official incident report (which I’ve since obtained) says no suspicious movement was “detected” on camera, and no one was held accountable. In my opinion, the handling of such a serious breach was woefully inadequate, and at no point did we receive a personal visit from management, although the email received following our return offered a loose apology.||||Safety & Maintenance Issues||||The main villa entrance was insecure for most of our stay (missing a bolt), only being fixed on day 11 after I fell ill and the doctor pointed it out and called reception. ||||There was a complete lack of communication both before and during our stay. I had emailed ahead about upgrading for a birthday celebration and received no reply whatsoever.||||Excursion Disappointment||||We paid $250 each for a sandbank boat trip with snorkelling. I made sure it was suitable for me as I have knee replacements and some limitations, which I was told wouldn’t be an issue. On the day of the trip we had a long walk along the beach, boarding the boat was extremely difficult, and once on board, I was told I couldn’t snorkel, another guest sustained a nasty leg injury from the boat ladder and the sandbank was already crowded with 50–60 people, nothing like the tranquil experience sold to us.||||Beach and Resort Conditions||||The jetty had been demolished without prior notice, and heavy machinery was due to operate on our last day.||||The Beach was substandard, littered with plastic and debris which was rarely cleaned, other than clearing seaweed directly in front of the main area of the hotel. ||||There were no general sun loungers on the beach unless you stayed in a beach villa. The hotels response disputed this but there was absolutely none, other than around the main pool. ||||The main pool area paving was dirty and stained, it was cleaned with bleach only once during our 12 day stay.||||Overall Experience||||No contact from the resort rep, lack of service, no follow-up after the security incident, and poor maintenance left us feeling unsafe and uncared for. For a resort that markets itself as five star luxury, and was very expensive, this fell shockingly short on every front, especially safety, service, and sincerity.||||We travel often, and have never needed to leave a negative review. I waited until now and soul searched about what to say, but I feel compelled to share this so others are aware. The response to my complaints with the hotel was very dismissive and what should have been a luxury holiday and joyful celebration, became an experience we’d rather forget.||||I would like to say that the restaurant staff were very friendly and attentive as were other staff members around the hotel. ||||The location of the hotel is remote, the grounds are well kept, the island is not as exotic as described, would we return?...

I recently had an extremely disappointing experience at The Residence Zanzibar, and I feel compelled to share my unfortunate encounter. My visit, which should have been enjoyable, turned into a nightmare due to an incident of money theft. Not only was €5000 taken from me, but the lack of action and strange behavior exhibited by the staff made the situation even worse.

Firstly, I would like to address the matter of the theft itself. It is absolutely shocking that such an incident could occur within the premises of The Residence Zanzibar. I entrusted my valuables to their care, assuming that they would be secure. However, I was gravely mistaken. The fact that €5000 was stolen from me reflects a complete failure in their security measures and a severe breach of trust. On the day of check in we left our belongings in our room and directly headed to dinner. We were gone for one hour, came back, and found all our money gone.

What added insult to injury was the staff's response—or lack thereof. When I reported the theft to them, expecting immediate attention and assistance, they seemed disinterested and dismissive. The security Manager came to our Villa after we had reported the Theft and we demanded to speak to the Manager of the Hotel. We were told he was sleeping, and the Security Manager would not wake him up. This is ridiculous. When heading to the reception to further discuss the matter we saw the cleaning ladies laughing when we passed in anger. We would later find out that they were the only ones who had accessed our Villa while we were at dinner. Therefore, to this day we believe they had stolen our cash. Instead of displaying empathy or taking the matter seriously, they acted strangely and avoided addressing the issue directly. It was as if they wanted to sweep the matter under the rug and pretend it never happened.

I was met with a wall of silence when I sought answers and updates on the investigation. I had hoped for transparency and clear communication during this distressing ordeal, but I was met with nothing but disappointment. Even after we had reported the matter to the Police, we had to wait almost 2 months for the Investigation to simply close with the lack of any findings.

To make matters worse, no meaningful steps were taken to rectify the situation. Despite the gravity of the theft, I was left feeling helpless and abandoned. There was no proper effort made to compensate me for my loss, nor was any sincere apology offered. It is appalling that an establishment that claims to prioritize customer satisfaction would treat such a serious matter with such disregard.

Furthermore, the Food experience was quite disappointing as well. At one of the Dinners at their Menu Restaurant 6 out of 10 people in our Group had gotten Food Poisoning. To make matters worse, on the second day, the cleaning ladies left the terrace door open enabling monkeys to enter the premises. The monkeys ate the food inside our room and made a giant mess as you can see from the images.

In conclusion, my experience at The Residence, Zanzibar was utterly dreadful. Not only did I suffer a significant financial loss, but the unhelpful and peculiar behavior exhibited by the staff further exacerbated the distressing situation. I would strongly advise potential visitors to exercise extreme caution and think twice before entrusting their valuables to this...

The experience at Residence Zanzibar was both good and bad. Unfortunately the location of the hotel is not great. There is not much to do at the south end of the island and with the road quality being quite poor, it is a long trek to get to Stonetown or the northern end of the island. The beach at Residence suffers from very big tidal variations. It recedes far back in the first half of the day and all one sees is sea weed. It's also full of sea urchins and not easy to walk on even with reef shoes. The water is back close to the shore late afternoon but the sand is not really powder soft and there is lot of sea weed. Basically, the beach cannot be enjoyed at the Residence. There is a lovely island called Pungume island about 35-40 min boat ride from the Residence around which there is good snorkelling and one might spot a whale/ dolphin on the way. Prices offered by the hotel are nothing short of ridiculous. We paid only about USD 120 for 5 people for a 3-4 hour trip with snorkelling and visit to a sandbank near the island. The snadbank is just fabulous and worth the visit.

Regarding the great things about the hotel -

Private pools are great as is the main pool. Very clean and doesnt sting the eyes at all The property is beautiful with amazing trees, bushes, flowers and makes for nice short walks Food is nice. The chef Arjun made some great vegetarian dishes for us Staff are always willing to help and courteous Nice common room where one can play games and have a small snack

The negatives that the hotel can work on: Monkeys are a nuisance especially near the villas. They can very easily open the doors and go inside. There is no chance of eating anywhere outside the villa due to presence of monkeys. In the common areas, they have guards walking around with slingshots which scares the monkeys away Staff is courteous but there are too many trainees who are not very knowledgeable Food is good but not exceptional. I cant think of a single dish which was really good. Breakfast is the same everyday and one gets a little bored. Quality of fruits served is very poor. Everytime we went on a boat excursion, the quality of fruits offered to us by the boatman were far far superior to what we got in the hotel. Extremely strange! There are a lot of creepy crawlies which is expected in a a place like this. Would be great if the hotel could make the villa doors in a way that doesn't allow these insects to enter. We have had a few incidents with lizards / cockroaches in bed at night. And its nothing to do with lack of cleanliness. There is just too much space underneath doors and these insects can enter easily The hotel is very very quiet. As there is no beach activity, it might be useful to run a few classes around the pool area to make things interesting - dance, exercise, yoga, craft activities etc

Overall, in spite of quite a luxurious hotel, we left with a slightly unhappy feel due to the lack of a good beach and all the above small niggly factors. While the hotel can do nothing about the beach, they can definitely try to improve the customer experience by improving their food offering and making the place a little more interesting while not taking away from the...