Kikoi Boutique Hotel

Absolutely loved my stay at Kikoi boutique. I was meant to stay for 2 nights but stayed for 4 nights because I just didn’t want to leave. It’s so peaceful and if you want to get away from the beach boys of Nungwi constantly hassling you then this is the lace to stay. The water is stunning and crystal clear. Rooms are really spacious and clean. Great air conditioning and overhead fan to keep you cool at night. My room had a small personal pool which is a cute addition. Staff were lovely and so welcoming. Breakfast was really nice. I can’t wait to come back to this little piece of paradise

This was the worst hotel experience we have ever encountered. It is not a boutique hotel. The air conditioning was very weak, we could not sleep as a result day or night due to the heat. The WiFi was intermittent and did not work well. The fridge did not work in the daytime. The hotel blamed all of this on low voltage across the island yet other hotels and resorts we spent the day at had this under control. We stopped having meals at the property's restaurant because the food was either too dry, oily, undercooked or burnt. The staff were not always responsive, sometimes you would have to make a request three or four times. This property is clearly not prepared to invest in the infrastructure and staff training required to make paying guests stay comfortable and enjoyable.

Property with huge potential, but I missed the personal touch. The lobby area is not decorated, looks unfinished with no african flair. Food is okay but could be improved, profesionalism also missing from waitresses. People are friendly, I think they gave their best, but they could be trained better to provide a nice experience to the guests. Comittment from each employee missing. One day it rained quick and fast, was very windy, the daybeds stayed wet the whole day and from strong wind demaged curtains stayed like this till we checked out. During New Years Eve somebody left a bottle of beer at the ground next to a hamock, the bottle still stayed 3 days after there when we checked out. Nice, chill music in the restaurant and great rental of stand-up paddels, kayak etc. Place is nice for swimming in the ocean but pool doesn't look very clean. Towels where not changed every day as promised on check in day, when we asked for it the explanation was that they don't have enough dry ones. To the management: this should not happen in a hotel where you pay + 100 dollar/night.

Nice access to the water. My room was clean, spacious, had everything I needed. Bed was comfortable (bug net could have been better). The staff was wonderful, from reception to restaurant to turn down. The food and cocktails were good. I took long walks on the beach from here. A reminder, this is on the bay side, so no crashing waves.

When we first arrived at the hotel it looked beautiful and the staff were friendly enough. It would have been nice to have been told at some point when booking that there’s a 5% charge to settle the remaining bill by card however. We stayed at the stonetown room 105 and noticed immediately that one of the toilets was loose and too unstable to sit on, the sinks leaked all over the floor when used, the wifi kept cutting out. The water pressure was non existent and the phone to reception wasn’t working. Staff came to try and resolve the issues (the sink and attempt the phone) however the rest remained unresolved and the phone was never fixed which was a chore every time we needed to contact reception. The water pressure did improve on the second day. I would say the food was expensive and mediocre at best and given the isolated location you don’t have many other options. We booked this stay for my best friends birthday which was was mentioned when we booked but no effort was made to make the booking more special to reflect this. We were told on arrival that our room had been upgraded but we suspect that this was the room we booked as the details for the room were the same. We did really like the massages - these were value for money compared to the what I’m used to and were one of the few highlights of our stay. On our first night we heard an insect eating away at the wooden headboard, it was so unsettling I had to sleep for the remainder of our stay with my head at the foot end of the bed. I mentioned it to staff the next morning and we were told they will think of a solution but they never came back to us about it. I started to get bites all over my legs for the first time since arriving in zanzibar. I have a super effective bug spray which had prevented any bites for the week up until this point. It was when we were packing to leave and I placed a wet towel on the bed that I saw through the wet bedsheet a bed bug. All the bites made sense as this was where my legs were each night. My legs were red, sore and incredibly itchy I was disgusted as this was the fire time in my life I had encountered bed bugs and I didn’t expect to find them in what looked like on the surface, such a lovely hotel. We raised this with the staff we were checking out and they didn’t know what to do other than say sorry. We requested to speak with the manager and was assured he would return by 13:30 when we were leaving because he was in Paje. By 13:10 there was no sign of the manager, we insisted that the staff called the manager and they couldn’t get through. It was only later when our friend picked us up and spoke to the staff in Swahili that they then said the manager went from Paje to Stone Town so clearly had no intention of returning any time soon. So in the end there was no resolution, only a useless sorry and to this day (5 days after we left) we have not heard back from the manager as he clearly doesn’t care about the upkeep of this hotel or the well being