Ycona Luxury Resort — Hotel in Unguja

ANSWER: Dear Anja, you LIE: I didn’t not say in all my reviews that we got sick in every other hotel we stayed. Only in one, many days before Ycona. We really wanted to have a great time and it is only FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE to think that it was hard to get us pleased. You are the only resort I’ve rated with less than 3/5 stars in this trip.

This hotel was our choice for our honeymoon after a lot of research. Our experience was definitely not what we expected (as it was supposed to be a honeymoon, everything should be perfect, also since this is a 5-star luxury and expensive resort).

Positives: The resort is beautiful The service is extremely kind

Negatives: The resort is poorly made: broken tiles, broken kitchen counter, no mosquito nets on the windows, the doors don't close well, the bathroom counter wobbles, the new air condition can't be adjusted properly and squeaks and so much more... Cleanliness issues: towels are not changed every day, just refolded (or at least this happened to us twice). Unless they are changed with dirty ones. Once restaurant cutlery had dirty towels. Additionally on our last night in the resort the sheets in one of the beds had BLOOD on them. Food: At least for me, food is a very important factor that affects my mood especially when I go to a place to relax and enjoy the moment. After seven days of Safari we just wanted a nice hotel with a nice pool and good food. The food was very average: 40% of what we tried we left untouched, the other 40% was just very average, and at most 20% of what we tried was really enjoyable. The same was the case with the drinks: average quality and most cocktails were not well made. Problems with communication and operation in the restaurant: we go to the restaurant, order from the menu and our dinner lasts 60'. The next day we pre-order 5 hours before the meal and our dinner lasts 110' due to the delays in serving. We asked for sweet pancakes and French toast at breakfast and they bring them to us on the same plate, one on top of the other. We were told that the pancakes are 2 servings while they are 3 pieces. And many more... One more “restaurant” problem was the lack of variety in foods, which was also often stated in other reviews too. Once they told us that they didn’t have bananas: this meant that 4/7 sweet choices in their breakfast menu were not available. The funny thing is that Zanzibar is full of bananas. Don’t get me started about the sodas. In 2/4 dinners I couldn’t get the Diet Coke I asked since it was not available. Additionally they tried so many times to overcharge us, even before arriving at the hotel. We always had to show them screenshots of our agreement so that they don’t charge us more. This is extremely tiring when you want to relax. Then our room was filled with large ants. Before the ants entering the room we had already informed them that there are many of them outside the room, but they obviously did not clean them properly and 3 hours later they had entered and filled the room Another problem we faced is false promises. For example on their website they wrote that the rooms have a jacuzzi but they have a bathtub with jets. They admitted it is not a jacuzzi and promised to remove it from their website. Also, on their website was stated that in June a third restaurant will open on the hotel premises. End of August and this still hadn’t opened. Additionally, we were promised a daily refill of the minibar and this did not happen every day. Finally, while they are in a soft opening period, they changed their all inclusive menu within two months, greatly reducing the options and increasing the prices of the same products.

When we complained about those things, they tried to make things better for us. I’d give them 2 stars for this reason but we went back home with gastrointestinal problems (most of us ended up using antibiotics!), so that’s why they get the 1/5 star rating.

Better choose a resort that has been operating longer and they really know how to make you have a comfortable and...

We arrived excited for our stay at Ycona as the place looks beautiful on photos. And indeed it looked just as beautiful upon arrival! Great. But that’s as far as the positives go.

Unfortunately the only luxury thing about this resort is the aesthetics. Upon check-in we were informed the three restaurants advertised is not open simultaneously, which means you only have one place to have breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is misleading when you are booking a resort that says it has three restaurants (more accurately put it’s one restaurant that changes location). Additionally they push you to pre-order your dinner hours in advance “to have a great experience”. I’m guessing it’s to avoid food waste, which is fine, but it’s not really what you want on a five star luxury resort.

Upon check-in we were also informed that if we had any issues they were there to help. Which is true, the first night our bedroom didn’t have curtains all around which meant it was bright as day in the room at 6:30am, when we raised the issue that morning additional curtains was hung in the room.

However, throughout our entire stay we encountered problems every day and despite willingness to fix any problems we had, we didn’t go on holiday to get any problem fixed, we went on holiday to have no problems at all.

Staff is very friendly but clearly not very well trained. Out of 5 waiters we had only one who looked to have any real experience in the service industry. We were missing items with our orders daily, they came into our villa/garden three times unannounced, they took our robes and didn’t return them, turndown service was missed and generally just very insecure service.

We also ended up having breakfast at the villa on two occasions as there were too many bees to eat at the beach lounge. In the villa (beach front) the choice is to sit outside in the sun or in the room on the couch in front of the TV (again, if you’re forced to have breakfast in your villa, these are not five star choices).

The last night we had booked the romantic dinner under the stars, which boasts a private intimate dinner on the beach. Without notice they had moved our dinner from the beach to a private dining area near one of the restaurants, where the only sounds we could hear was from the other guests and the live music which was played there. When we raised the issue of no notice we were told that it was because of the wind, but our villa was just next to the beach so we knew there was someone else having the private beach dinner that night, ON THE BEACH. We were offered two complimentary cocktails as compensation. We didn’t take the argument with the waiters as it wasn’t their decision and we didn’t want to end up ruining our last night more than they already had, so we declined the cocktails and went on with our dinner as planned. No apologies from management or anything else was later presented.

The checkout experience very well sums up the whole experience. There was no manager there, just a regular receptionist. The checkout went like this, I wrote it down afterwards because I found it funny at this point, so I’m quoting: Receptionist: “Was everything ok?” Me: “No, we didn’t enjoy our stay”. Receptionist “It’s because of the weather, it’s not good at the moment”. Me: “No the weather has nothing to do with it. We had too many problems every day. Service has not been good”. Receptionist: “Oh I’m so sorry about that. So when are you coming back? Maybe next time we can make your stay more comfortable”. Me: “We won’t come back”. Receptionist: “Oh ok”.

Having spend $800/night plus food staying somewhere that calls itself “Luxury Resort” you’d think you’d get luxury. But this place gives you anything but luxury except for beautiful surroundings.

Miscellaneous: Can’t swim at the beach until you’re 10 meters out because of seaweed. Most expensive wine on the menu is a 23€ bottle (sold at 95$). Forced to look at menus online/QR code.

After three nights here we went up North to stay at another resort which thankfully saved...

Hi Anja,

Thank you for your response to my partners (Lasse) review posted three days ago. As Google don't allow responses to business account replies, I will do another review to add things we had to leave out of the first review as we ran out of characters allowed in a review and to address your reply.

Upon arrival (4:30pm) our villa wasn't ready due to "plumbing issues" so we were asked to head to the beach lounge for drinks while we waited. These drinks were later presented on our bill at dinner the first night. This was however corrected when we raised the issue with reception the next morning, but again it was something we had to address for it to be fixed.

I had booked a pedicure on the second day and the level of the pedicure was worse than I could've done myself. The water was freezing cold and she said that is how it is because the machine does not work. She changed the settings and after 40 minutes the water was burning my feet and I asked her to lower it down, as it was at a temperature of 56. My feet were red and she said she could not do anything and continued. I asked to not use the water. She then continued and painted outside the nails and removed what she could by peeling it off with her own finger nails and was clearly generally not trained in what she was doing. The gel polish fell off after two days and sand got under the rest because even with the UV lamp they had not dried properly. I had to redo them elsewhere.

There's was no door to our bathroom even though railings had been set up for a sliding door, the door wasn't installed, which forced one of us out of the villa when the other had to use the bathroom. The AC in the bedroom could only cool to 20 degrees on the display which wasn't enough and it was of a different brand than the one in the living room that could cool to 16 degrees, so we were forced to have both ACs running 24/7 to have the villa cool enough to sleep in at night.

Upon leaving we asked for a quote for a taxi to take us up North to the next resort and was quoted $95, which sounded steep and since we didn't want to put anymore money into a place we felt already ripped us off, we asked the other resort, a five star resort, to arrange one for us instead and paid $65. Again it's a small thing, but it sums up the whole experience very well. These are prices that can be charged if you are on point and go the extra mile every step of the way, but this was definitely not the case here.

If you are a luxury resort offering villas at 800$+/night, expect your guests to want better wines than the ones offered (ranging from 8-25$/bottle and average ratings of 3.3-3.7 (Vivino)).

Since you only have QR code menus available, offer guest iPads at the restaurants so no one is forced to bring their phones to dinner.

While your response addresses our issues and lists solutions going forward, I can't help but feel it's only done to address the issues publicly to help you save face. You seem to have acknowledged you didn't deliver as promised (by being a 5 star resort) but yet you haven't reached out to us personally with an apology or an offer of compensation (which to be honest would've suited you) despite you acknowledging delivering a bad experience and it "horrified" you to read.

Instead we were thrown out of the WhatsApp groups we were in 17 minutes after check-out, no thank you for your stay, no asking for feedback, no nothing until we posted a review here and you only...