Kanberra Hotel — Hotel in Central

I had stayed at Kanberra Hotel in July last year with a team of 20, and had a decent stay. I was returning in Lira with a medical team to work in Lira and made reservations more than 3 months in advance. I was alerted by a missionary friend that Kanberra was closed due to not paying their taxes. I decided to wait it out and see if they would reopen in time for my mission trip. I should have at that time made other arrangements but I wanted to support their hotel. I made reservations 3 months in advance, confirmed them 1 month in advance (they had been able to reopen) and then sent a friend to reconfirm in person the day before my arrival! I did not want to have any surprises upon arrival. I arrived on the day I confirmed, and was greeted with "it is so great to see you Mama, but we have a slight problem" their "slight problem" was that they had given half of my rooms away!! They wanted me to put half of my team of young girls in their "annex" it was not their annex but a rundown hotel up the street. There was no way I was going to split my team, especially since they were young women! The woman I was dealing with told me that another team had been there the night before and they wanted to stay another night, so they let them have our rooms. I have been traveling to UG for almost 20 years leading multiple mission teams a year and this is only the second time this has happened! The worst part of the whole experience was that I had to spend my afternoon (that we were suppose to be working in a clinic), traveling around Lira trying to find a hotel that had enough rooms for my entire team. We had to go to 4 hotels before we found one that had enough rooms and it was more than double the price. It cost me about $500 more for this new hotel, that is $500 that could have been used on medicines on our mission!!! As I departed Kanberra to start the search for another hotel, the women said to me "please come back and visit another time" There is no way I will ever visit Kanberra again, or recommend them to anyone else traveling to Lira! It does not matter how good of a hotel you are if you can't be trusted to keep reservations especially for returning customers, than you can't be...

I enjoyed my visit to Lira with an NGO group recently. The Kanberra was a solid base for our travels and about what I’d expect here. ||Rooms very clean. Bathrooms adequate, although I’d heard reports that the small electric water heaters can give electric shocks or even catch alight so we chose to stick with cold showers for safety. ||When we were there the power was good, which meant the ceiling fans could stay on all night which was wonderful. Mosquito nets were in pretty good condition too. The water failed twice but each time it was rectified pretty quickly. ||Even though the front gate is manned by security guards, I was surprised to find my windows didn’t lock. My room backed onto a side fence which didn’t look too secure but I wasn’t sure if this was a problem. They did have fly screens, which was great, but if the window security bothers you maybe ask for an upstairs room or one with a window lock that works. ||Food was ok. Breakfast a bit sparse but I found out you can ask for an omelette to be made for a small extra charge. Service in the dining room was a bit “cool” (that’s being polite) but all other staff were very friendly. ||I’d stay at...

I stayed here for 5 nights. Due to the breakdown of Lira's transformer, and the theft of a water pipe from it's main water source - both the power and the water were out for about a day and a half - but the staff at Kanberra were so friendly and kind that almost forgot about the issue! When the water went off the manager came to my breakfast table and explained what had happened with the town's pipes and how they hoped to have the water back soon, then a very kind lady brought me buckets of water to use in my room. The beds are super comfortable and I probably had some of the best nights sleep of my entire 2 month trip here. The wifi is good and there is security and a place to park cars. The breakfast is great - some days there were pancakes, the evening meal options are a bit limited but there are other places nearby. They have a very affordable...