Stayed here in December. The 7 rooms we got after waiting to check in for three hours had mould on the back of the bathroom doors and bathtubs were stained. The closet lights did not work and neither did the air condioting. They would only move us if we agreed to pay an upgrade charge although we had paid an upgrade charge for ocean front rooms. Service was very slow in the restaurant and housekeeping. Tried to speak to the G.M Mr -- but he never bothered to contact us after making a request four times to one of the other "Asst resort manager". On returning back when we did finally get in touch with the Mr -- his response was we should have looked up his number in the hotel directory. One would imagine if you asked a senior manager for the G.M that this would be sufficient obviously not.
If you are looking for a quite vacation with visions of peace this is not the place. The hotel is crawling with children under five who took over the pool and everything else. Forget sunbathing on the beach or a walk on the beach. You will only be harassed by the many beach vendors. Besides the ocean here is filled with sea weed that you can’t go into it.
They were five mice that we spotted lying half dead near the pool while the staff stood and looked around. We had to call housekeeping to deal with it.
The beds are uncomfortable a foam mattress on hard wooden bed. One of our rooms had no mosquito net and took a day and half to get this looked after. On two days are rooms were not cleaned till 10.00pm even after we had complained the first day.
This was the most appalling service I have ever had in my travels.

For the price I would give this hotel a miss and go to the south coast.

I was in Mombassa for work, so I didn't spend really any time enjoying the pools and activities. For what it's worth, they looked nice.

However, the rooms are very dated. I was initally given room 3065. It smelled of paint, the aircon was weak, and the batteries were dead in the TV remote. But, worst of all, on one side was the band from dinner (plays till 9:30pm) and on the other was the bar (goes late). Ergo, there was no way I could have slept in that room. I requested a move, and to the hotel's credit they did so without any trouble. The only problem is that moving to the hotel's "quiet zone" required losing my sea view. But, the night's sleep I got in room 2014 was good, so losing the view was worth it.

I recently stayed at the Whitesands Hotel with my wife and two children, both under 5. The service is great and the people are very friendly, patient and courteous. There was a collective effort by all the staff to ensure that our stay is pleasant. The food was outstanding; every night they had a different theme and different dishes. My personal favorite was the seafood soup, my wife loved the deserts! The rooms are spacious and well equipped. They have special dining arrangements for the children and a kids play area where the kids can keep themselves busy while mummy and daddy have a quite dinner. There are Babysitter quarters at a reasonable price; take your babysitter to look after the children if you want some quiet time in the evening. The bands providing live entertainment were very good. There are many pools all over the place so the kids can have their own pool while the adults can have a peaceful time in their pool. This is a very child friendly place; equally, it is a splendid place for couples. If you want some entertainment on Friday and saturday walk to IL Cove on the beach, it's the happenning place. The beach is excellent. I've been visiting the Whitesands Hotel since the mid 80's and I've always had a good vacation.

I've booked the stay in Whitesands directly through their website. Due to some error it put us in hotel in Nairobi instead Mombasa and I had to spend time to rearrange everything. Once we arrived we've got an "upgrade to suite" that looked like combination of hospital room and really old bedroom. I have to admit that facilities for children and food is really good but service drives you mad because you have to wait for the staff to unfreeze from their slipping mood and actually understand what you expect from them.
After the stay we had excess of money paid due to wrong booking and here the story starts. Hotel staff stated that we are not entitled for free transport even though hotel regulations offer this service for free if you book directly and stay for more than 3 days. Then they added extra charge for additional kid even we booked for two adults and one child. To me it looks like they wanted to avoid returning excess money to us so they were looking for ways of adding some artificial charges on top of notmal charge. This is a rip off! So if you want to spend decent time there go through an agency or don't pay in advance, otherwise they will try to take advantage of you and rip you off. For me it was last stay in this hotel and their group. I will rather enjoy my time in Diani Reef on south coast when they make you feel like a real hotel guest.