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Hotel Isimbi – reviews, photos

Rue Kalisimbi, District Nyarugenge, Kigali, Rwanda
Hotel amenities
Hotel Isimbi
Ranked #19 of 26 hotels in Kigali
3.0 of 5 stars 9 Reviews
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9 reviews from our community

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Traveller rating
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Ostend, Belgium
Reviewer
3 reviews 3 reviews
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“Terrible”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 9 January 2011

I've chosen this hotel because a friend recommended it. I reserved two rooms on the back side for a 14-day stay. When we arrived in the evening, the manager told me he didn't received my confirmation for the reservation despite the e-mail 'read' confirmation I received... No problem at all for the manager, he got us in rooms at the front of the building and the next day we would get two other rooms at the back because people we're leaving.

When arriving the taxi driver and a hotel staff member helped us to take our luggage out.
We had a lot of luggage for work so we left these behind the reception desk, our personal luggage got our room.

As we got out of a 8-hour flight we both wanted to take a good shower before going to dinner, my colleague had all the water for himself, all I got was some air and a little extremely hot water. So I decided to wait until the morning.

The restaurant is small, has some good meals, drinks as normal. Pricing is fair.

During the night the guards at the opposite side of the road had the volume of their radio going up and at 4 AM we got shaken up (read: awaken) from the mosque' prayers!
Some loud prayers coming from the mosque loudspeakers only a few hundred meters away! When scouting the area the night before I didn't saw it... :-) As from 5 to 6 AM traffic and people are in the street making extreme noise and it was impossible to sleep a few hours more after those prayers...

When I wanted to take a shower, no water at all... Now I know that I need to wake up earlier to get some, in Africa!

Then we had breakfast, we could only have tea or coffee and choose from some kind of dirty menu card with the only food that seemed to be convenient: omelet!
So me and my colleague took both the same omelet. The portion was rather small.
We also got some bread + butter with this 'omelet'.

After breakfast we left for work (not leaving the keys behind).
At the same time I was already thinking of leaving this hotel in any way and looking for some other better valued ones.

In the late afternoon we came back and asked the manager if we could change rooms as we required the last night, which he also suggested thoroughly!
His reaction was that we couldn't change as we didn't left the keys behind and he couldn't get in the rooms to clean them on time.
I immediately told him he could have warned us before we left and we couldn't sleep one more night in the front rooms.
As most African hotel managers who don't seem to care much he didn't say a lot and we got to our rooms to refresh ourselves (3th floor).

For your information:
In the morning when I left my room I'd had left the light on in the bathroom, which was off when I got in. Also the bath water knob was repaired and my colleague's room was cleaned anyway!!!

This meant to me that the hotel manager is a liar and has vert poor to no goodwill at all to satisfy his customers.

I paid two nights upfront and immediately left.

A friend got us to a nice apartment complex where we now have a nice and quiet room, hot water and a swimming pool.

  • Stayed January 2011, travelled on business
    • 2 of 5 stars Value
    • 1 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 2 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 2 of 5 stars Service
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Toronto
Reviewer
4 reviews 4 reviews
Reviews in 4 cities Reviews in 4 cities
2 helpful votes 2 helpful votes
“We were robbed by the staff”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed 2 February 2010
1
person found this review helpful

My husband, friend, and I stayed in 2 rooms for 2 nights and our first day there the locks on our bags were broken and money in any and all currencies was stolen. We know it was the hotel staff as there was no forced entry into the room (and they didn't even clean the it). We lost the equivalent of about $60 USD. The front desk didn't seem to care. On top of that we did our laundry at this hotel and the bill came to $50 USD! In a 3rd world country we could have thrown these clothes away and bought all new wardrobes for $50. We told them they could take the money out of what their staff stole from us.
The hotel is decently clean for 3rd world and has a cheap menu at the restaurant but I wouldn't recommend staying here unless you are cool with getting robbed. I think the staff believe they are "owed" as they will take anything and they seem to do it to everybody.

  • Stayed January 2010, travelled as a couple
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 2 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 1 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
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“No water, noisy”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 20 December 2009
1
person found this review helpful

On the first night there was a trickle of water, however, from the second none at all. rather worryingly the restaurant was still serving food. I later discovered that they had two tanks and had only purchased water for the one covering downstairs. I left after three days.

  • Stayed July 2009, travelled on business
    • 3 of 5 stars Value
    • 4 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 2 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
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Ask NickHertfordshire about Hotel Isimbi
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
London, United Kingdom
Top Contributor
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“Simple, with regular warm water, clean”
3 of 5 stars Reviewed 3 August 2009
2
people found this review helpful

travellers
there is not much to say if you pay 30$ p night in the rather expensive capital of Kigali;
its clean, a bit noisy but not more than others, it has a tv with 4 channels, and the water is most of the time warm and available.

a nice place is next door, the rwanda tea house

  • Stayed July 2009, travelled on business
    • 4 of 5 stars Value
    • 4 of 5 stars Location
    • 3 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 4 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 3 of 5 stars Service
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See 7 more reviews by FOL-1003 for Kigali
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
Chicago, IL
Contributor
12 reviews 12 reviews
Reviews in 10 cities Reviews in 10 cities
7 helpful votes 7 helpful votes
“Affordable hotel in central location”
4 of 5 stars Reviewed 24 February 2009
2
people found this review helpful

This is a good value hotel in a central location. The rooms are basic but they are very clean. There was a phone (no outside calls; but it was not working anyway), tv and bathroom with hot water. The one drawback is that the hotel is kinda loud- I think the walls are thin because I could hear people in the lobby and adjoining rooms.
They did not respond to my emails so better to call when making reservation.
I would recommend this as a budget choice. I paid $35US a night for a double.

  • Stayed February 2009, travelled with friends
    • 5 of 5 stars Value
    • 5 of 5 stars Location
    • 3 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 5 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 4 of 5 stars Service
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Additional Information about Hotel Isimbi

  • Isimbi Hotel Kigali
Address: Rue Kalisimbi, District Nyarugenge, Kigali, Rwanda
Price range (per night):* INR1,505 - 1,672

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