I have been stayed at this hotel for 7 times between 2002 - 2009. I usually stayed for 3 - 5 weeks. I am originally from Ethiopia, but living outside of the country for the last 26 years. This hotel is the most convinient, affordable, and very secure for my needs. The hotel was built by a wealthy gentleman, politician from Eritrea in the late Haile Sellassie's era (killed by The Dergue Government among the famous 63 massacre in November 1975). Dejazmatch Haregot Seyoum built this hotel and reserved the entire 7th floor for his living quartres. His personal suite was now Room No 702 and his son Dr Solomon's was 701. These rooms are way better than other single rooms, but for my surprise priced same amount. If you are lucky and available, you may mention about these rooms. They are located on the last floor and you can enjoy really great view of the green scenery around (The famous Ghion Hotel garden, The HIM Haile Sellassie's Palace, The new Africa Avenue Park built by the generous billionnaire Sheik Al Amoudi), Africa Hall, Abiot Adebabay or Meskel Square. The interior of this hotel is spacious, high ceilling, and wide glass windows. Hot water is 24/7. Room and linen cleanliness is more than I expected and I think Housekeeping Ladies deserve tips for their hard work, very friendliness, and assistance. Sorry English is unthinkable even around Reservation corner, eventhough friendly people short of a smile. My best meal there is Mixed Garden Salad (very fresh, organic content and really cheap). Compared with most Addis Ababa hotels, The National is relatively secure and extremely quite place. But, it's government owned now and if there is a need, the special commandos jump to top floor and station themselves to do their security job. This is when some VIPs pass by in front of the hotel on the way to the airport or wherever. since I was on the seventh floor, I met these commandos twice. They usually don't talk to us. The hotel never advised or put notice about the scary stuff to its guests. Who do you think cares about this? Probably it's a day to day experience on the streets of Addis Ababa. If you are lucky to get one of those 2 special rooms I may say on the 7th floor, you will enjoy the very big space roof top balcony. It's breath taking to be there in the evening or so, but make sure the securities at The Palace across won't watch you taking a picture or using a binocularas. This stuff is a big deal in the entire country. There is St Stephen's Church just accross the street and their Gospel Teachigs and The Early Morning Mass is loud speakered and it's very loud to hear it in the hotel's rooms. Well, it's the church's tradition to be heard by everybody.

I stayed at the hotel for 5 days during a business trip in Feb 2010. The room was very clean and well kept, the bed was made with clean linen every day and there was hot water to shower with. As far as African hotels go, I'm sure this one is pretty decent. Language is a problem, as most of the hotel staff only speak very basic English. The food at the hotel isn't great, but it wouldn't kill you. They serve awesome orange juice and coffee with breakfast, and I could recommend the corn flakes for breakfast, as the milk in Ethiopia tastes great.

If you book a room, try to get one near the front of the hotel, as there is a gym downstairs at the back of the hotel that plays something similar to 80's techno music at 5 in the morning. Other than that, the hotel was pretty quiet. The rooms are HUGE.

I could recommend the hotel, and I will be staying there again during my visit in May 2010.

I stayed at the National Hotel for a total of 04 nights in October 2008. I must say the hotel was not a bad choice as the rooms were very clean and service was excellent. Although we did have a little bit of a communication problem with the staff as some of them hardly spoke any english at all. Breakfast was always served in my room but it was cold on most ocassions. They had staff on duty 24 hours a day which was quiete good as we could get anything we wanted in our room. Our rooms were very nice and clean and spacious we had a TV and a balcony with a nice view, there was alot of greenery and we could see the highway at a short distance - i loved that especially during the night when we would just want to relax, the large glass slide door was also well covered with a curtain. I think the rooms on the balcony side are much more colder - we were on the 4th floor and they do provide extra blankets if needed. The bathroom was nice and clean with hot water running always. We never really got a chance of eating at the restaurant as we were out most of the time. But did have a few drinks. The waiters hardly give one any privacy as they are always standing and hoovering around making it feel about crowded although i think they just hang around incase we needed anything. There was a beautiful small flosrist shop right outside the hotel which had lovely flowers for sale. And the church opposite was really amazing too. We loved the location as it was easy moving around and getting a minivan (public minivan) was also easy as it would drop us off right next to the hotel.

A few turn off's were - there were some gift shops at the hotel near the lobby and these were closed most of the time we were there which was alittle bit disappointing and the receiptionists were not the very best as far as customer care is concerned, the cashier collecting the money for out staymade several errors and if you are not careful on re-checking your bills you may end up parting with more than the correct amount.

In general i would recommend it and would definately stay there if i went back. National Hotel was luxury compared to the Plaza hotel in terms of rooms and service.

I stayed here in June 2006 and found this hotel very very comfortable and atmosphere was excellent . As it was my first every visit to Ethiopia i found it Tremendous.It was very lovely .
Muhammad Bilal Jadoon
Islamabad Pakistan