Kwa Mathias Hotels from ₹2,025

"when I made check in I was given opprrunity to choose between 2 rooms but at the check out the hotel manager insisted that I need to pay more than what the price was because they upgraded me. I did not pay eventually but had a bad feeling about this try. The internet is very slow, the hotel is very far from the center of the town."

"Advertises spa lounge, restaurant and bar and river views - absolutely none of the above. Fridge behind reception with beer and a sofa in front of it. You have to eat in your room off a desk. Initially we’re told we weren’t allowed to stay together and then they allowed it within the same sentence. Tried to downgrade the room from what we paid for. Bathroom handle broken off inside the bathroom so you couldn’t shut or lock the door. Only 1 pillow in the room. Wobbly desk which they fixed with my shoe…? Cockroach's in the bathroom so we locked the door from the outside. One landed on my in my sleep still so not a lot of sleeping after that. When I told the manager in the morning he just said ‘oh okay’. Continental breakfast advertised was hot milk, sugar and bread. Nothing else. Dinner took more than 3 hours to get to us but to be fair was very nice. The fan kept cutting out, not because of power cuts in the country which are very common but because they had a timer box on it. We were also told we couldn’t use the balcony which we paid extra to have, because of ‘insects’ but there was an inch gap below the door anyway. When we went to pay he told us he hadn’t charged the car reader so we needed to pay cash. We reminded him we asked him last night if we could pay card as we hadn’t gone to the ATM yet. Eventually charged the card reader so we could pay while still arguing about cash. We managed to scrape enough euro together, but it’s the wrong currency for them. "

"This is a brand new hotel which only opened 2 months ago. It is very clean, the rooms are spacious with good air conditioning, good showers and generally high quality fixings. The best thing about the hotel is that it lies west of Dar es Salaam, which means that you avoid the worst of the city traffic. It is only about 25 minutes from the airport so it makes a highly convenient stop-over for people transiting through. When we were there some other guests had been put up there by one of the airlines, and I can see this becoming a favourite for airline companies. The hotel is also within walking distance of the Pugu Forest Reserve which offers hiking, canoeing and has a bat cave. The owner was fabulous and went out of her way to help us with whatever we needed. The kitchen is a bit slow, but the owner is aware of it and I'm sure will remedy this over time. I will certainly be using this as my go-to hotel in Dar es Salaam from now on. "