Reviews of Serena Inn
(90%) From 45 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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A grand finale
Just what we needed for our last night. Interesting tour of Stone Town.
Hotel very efficient especially as we had an early start (pity about the fire alarm at 3am). Excellent seafood terrace restaurant for last dinner.
Serena Inn review
Very well placed city hotel for a short stop whilst visiting a most interesting town
Read more about the whole trip
Serena Inn review
We were warned by you that Stonetown was noisy, and thought we'd be able to avoid this by staying at the Serena, but no!
At 2.am the staff started cleaning the corridor outside our room with industrial cleaners, and a lot of verbal noise. When my husband went out to see what on earth was going on they wre unperturbed, and the racket continued, with another round at 3 am. When we raised the matter next morning with reception they were frankly indifferent.
As against this the hotel itself is nice, and in a good position. The food was good, and at breakfast the lady in charge ordered me a special ginger tea to help with my lost voice. Most of the staff were very helpful, maybe only the cleaners had a problem! This does need to be addressed.
On reflection I dont think it was necessary to stay in Stonetown to see the sights, and it would be better to do this by going on a tour on the way from one destination to another
Expert Africa comments
When we passed these comments on to the Serena, the management apologised for the disturbance these travellers experienced and were very sorry that their usual standard of service had slipped. As a gesture of goodwill they refunded a night of their stay. It is unusual for the Serena to get this sort of feedback and we are fairly confident it will be a one-off.
Serena Inn review
The hotel met our expectations pretty well. The breakfasts (the only meals we ate there) were terrific and the room very good, with one exception.
The bathroom was not nearly at the standard you would expect of a hotel at this price and while this only detracted a little from the overall experience, it should be noted and fed back to the hotel management - they really do need to re-think the design. The fittings were tired, to say the least, and so their replacement should accompany the redesign.
Serena Inn review
Lovely welcome, very helpful staff. Hotel well placed in the centre of Stone Town.
We would highly recommend hiring a guide (the hotel got one for us) to prevent being hassled as you walk around the alleys. Ours was informative about the area, and took us to the market at our request. Unfortunately, the evening we stayed was quite cloudy so we missed out on the sunset which would have been fabulous from the bar area.
The restaurant is a lovely room, with windows over the beach and sea. Our dinner was very acceptable, although one of our sons had an upset stomach that night. The hotel management were very accommodating the following day when he still felt ill, and allowed us to use one bedroom for 6 hours after the checkout time at no extra charge.
Excellent
Top place, great setting, very professional, excellent food and service.
A perfect one or 2 night stopover from which to explore the old part of StoneTown
Just what we needed after a long journey
Outstanding room (top floor, corner on to sea and pool area), airy balcony etc. Efficient friendly service (restaurants, front desk)
Good food, excellent on Terrace restaurant, worth reserving table there to get sea front table
Serena generators worked perfectly to provide all services day and night. (Stone Town and all Zanzibar suffering from major power shortages)
Hotel organised one "spice tour" for us which was just what we wanted.
Hotel was not full, perhaps recession in Europe? Plenty of room at pool and all facilities.
We actually returned as scheduled from Chumbe and found it very convenient to have all-day use of a room (paid separately) before catching late afternoon flight
Serena Inn - lovely hotel.
Can't fault it. Staff were so friendly and service was excellent.
Read more about the whole tripSerena Inn review
When we arrived we were told that our room would not be available until 5 or 6pm, however to make up for this, we were upgraded to a suite (room 40) for our stay, which was a very nice set of rooms.
One down point to the hotel was that we were surprised a couple of times by hotel staff entering the room without seeming to knock first. Although since it was a suite they didn't walk uninvited into the bedroom.
On one of the evenings the area around the pool was booked for a private cocktail evening and, given this was the main outdoor restaurant area we felt we had to go outside the hotel for dinner. The hotel did warn us about this earlier in the day and the party did finish when promised.
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
