Mika Lodge — Hotel in Lusaka Province

My very 1st visit to Zambia, I decided to stay at Mika Lodge Jesmodine and was given an executive suite(room 23 to be exact). I arrived on Sunday morning, decided to have an early lunch but soon realized their menu options were limited. I ordered for T-Bone steak and fries and was informed it's not available. Decided to order for whole fish Tilapia with fries. After waiting for a while, my meal arrived and quickly realized the salads I was served weren’t fresh. Also, fresh juices are not common in Zambia so the juices served are usually packed. After my meal, I took a nap since I had missed my connecting flight the previous day due to a flight delay. Anyway, everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong.

One of the conference halls; Zambezi was rented to a group holding a church service, I went to the bathroom and found the shower head broken. Called the reception and it was swapped with a showerhead from another room. This is meant to be a shower but the water just drops in one place, the space(shower area) is small meaning you have to turn and wiggle your body ensuring your body does not make contact with the wall that has moulds…….yes it does and the silver water equipment is brown probably due to hard water. When I was done with my shower, I decided to work and realized their wifi was on and off. Only 5 mins in, there was a power blackout for over 3 hours. When the power was switched back on my room still had no power, I was forced to go work at the reception.

There is a pool just next to the rooms frequented by the locals who enjoy soccer and are very loud. Worked till about 10:00pm and decided to get back to my room and slept. Woke up around 3:00am to do some work and realized there was a power blackout again. Went back to bed only to wake up on a very irritating noise from the AC just above my head. This was around 5:00am in the morning. Mind you, Zambia is very hot so you cant sleep without an AC on. From 5:00am I couldn’t go back to sleep. So just stayed awake and prepared for work but decided then and there that was going to checkout and find another hotel

Surprisingly the lodge has friendly staff (Vicent and Mwansa) but not sure if management takes reviews or the business seriously to try and address some of the comments let alone try and stay in their own facility and experience the feel of the lodge so they can really understand what their clients/guests go through. Some people may not mind the place but if they are really looking to host or accommodate international guests, then they really must revamp this lodge that has great potential and bring it to the modern age. I do not recommend this lodge for those travelling to Zambia. Find...

I usually stay at Mika Lodge whenever I stay in Zambia. However, my stay last month (27/05 to 30/05) will be my very last for the reasons stated below.

1. The floor across the room was unclean. The bedroom in particular had a number of footprints upon arrival. The bathroom (photo attached) was also poor.

2. There was also no net curtain in my room, meaning that I had no privacy to change and had to keep the curtains closed throughout my stay.

3. The air con was broken and made noise 24/7. It kept me up all night and took three people to fix it the following day.

4. The WiFi router was broken the evening I arrived (27 May) and having no SIM Card meant I couldn't communicate with the courier of my order on 28 May. When the courier arrived the next morning, he was told I hadn't checked in which delayed my programme as I had to wait another 40 minutes for the courier to return.

5. The receptionist offered me another room on the morning of 28 May following my above complaints and said it would be ready when I would return after 4pm as people were checking out at 10am. When I returned, she said it would be ready tomorrow as the group were checking out on 29 May.

6. I paid for my booking on Expedia, but the receptionist said I need to pay because they could not get the money from Expedia. I refused and said the issue needs to be resolved when I check out in evening of 29 May to depart for the airport at 11pm. My driver was at the hotel at 10:50pm and ended up waiting an additional 20 minutes. Overall, the hotel is poorly managed, staff are incompetent and I would not advise staying...

I did not have a good experience at this lodge for a number of reasons: There is a pub/bar on the same property that houses the lodging. As a business traveler I did not appreciate the sound of cheering soccer fans and loud music which continued on up until just 23h00, given that I was after a rest. The on-site restaurant has limited options on the menu. The restaurant takes too long to prepare meals - I had to wait almost an hour for chicken nuggets! The lodge charges a room service fee for consuming food in your room - something I have never experienced in any of the many lodges/hotels I have stayed in across 6 countries. The worst part of it all is that the lodge has a policy of switching the geysers on and off. So as a business traveler, after a long trip you can't just get here a take a shower. You first have to wait for the geyser to be switched on. This was another first, exclusive inconvenience you only get at Mika Lodge. If waiting for hot water was bad enough, the shower itself took it to another level. It did not look clean at all: it has mould all over. And to make a bad situation worse than it already is, the water comes out of the shower head as one drop so you don't actually get to shower - you just wiggle under a drop of water.

Worst lodging experience ever to-date, I definitely will not be going back and won't be...