I love the faded splendour of these post-colonial hotels with their large rooms, high ceilings and architectural embellishments. The bathroom had its eccentricities to be sure -- dolphin shaped towel holders and leaky plumbing -- but since this hotel is being rebuilt, due for completion June, I imagine the owners are slow to fix anything they can get away with in the meantime. The hotel and rooms were spotlessly clean and the service was more than impeccable -- in fact I was fair tripping over staff in their neat uniforms. Food varied from inedible (generally, European a la carte and the room service on the first night) to excellent -- breakfasts and buffets & I recommend the African food -- the chef was even willing to cook to order: delicious bean stew with chapattis & rice. The best thing about the hotel is the polished wood and the remarkable collection of Tanzanian blackwood sculptures. Can't comment on the value as I didn't pay -- was there for work -- but something will be lost if old rooms are torn down rather than renovated.

I stayed in this hotel at either end of a hiking/safari trip with a group of friends; it was booked by our travel agent as part of an overall package.

The pros:
* It's secluded from the busy (overwhelming?) streets of Arusha
* Free bottled water in the rooms
* Buffet breakfast with choice of cereal, toast, eggs, fry-up
* Food Dinner was good - but took over an hour for the starters (soup) to arrive on both occasions
* Seated garden area is shaded and comfortable
* Beers are reasonably priced (3500 TSh)
* Kettle and fridge in the rooms
* Hot water for showers was readily available

The Cons:
* Rooms are really crappy. The decor is awful - there's nothing more depressing to me than a BROWN hotel room, gross!
The first room (Toppi) was really cramped, although the bathroom was huge. The storage space was tiny, which meant we were tripping over our luggage while trying to move around. The bathroom was huge (separate shower and bath), but the shower door didn't close properly (1" gap) which caused the floor to get flooded.

The second room I stayed in was Elephant, which was much more spacious. The bed's headboard/sidetable set wasn't attached to the bed, and kept clanking off the wall whenever I moved. The wardrobe door knobs were broken. There's a small terrace off this room, but the wall isn't finished and you get the impression you're sitting out on a building site. The bathroom in this room is really small, no extractor fan or heater which gives the place a damp stink. Again, the door on the shower unit didn't close properly (and the knobs were broken off).

Neither room had a safe for valuables. There was also no mosquito net, despite the room having quite a few mozzies. There was also no shampoo provided, small thing, I know, but after a week on the mountains, I really wanted to wash my hair! Generally, the rooms were shabby, with lots of small things broken. A lick of paint and a tool box would work wonders.

* Staff were pretty attentive, although it took forever for the dinner to get served. We were over an hour waiting for soup to arrive - surely it's just a matter of scooping out whatever's in the pot! I was fit to eat the table by the time it arrived - I would have preferred that the staff had let us know we needed to order an hour ahead of time (as happened in other hotels I stayed in in Tanzania).

* The TV in the dining room was constantly blaring football matches that no-one was watching. Recommend shutting it off.

Overall, this hotel is dingy and appears to be poorly maintained (despite the courtyard building work that was going on - would prefer to see this effort direct to the bedrooms!). It's located in a nice site, with a lovely outdoor area, but it really needed to be renovated to be considered value for money and to the standard I expect for international safari packages.

Where do I start?!
The hotel was booked for me, and I agreed due to the reviews here...
The hotel is very old, there was no generator at nights so all night is pitch black... There is no AC on the rooms, only fan, which works only if there is enough power to the hotel..
The breakfast is fair, in the evening 50% of the menu is not in stock...
The rooms stincks from anti-mosquito spray, and still there are a few..
There was a problem in my room with the mixi g of the water cold and hot (when there was hot water). No one fixed it.

my initial reaction was that this place was kitschly furnished and i wasn't too impressed with the stuffed animal trophies but the service was excellent, the place was v clean, and the food was v good too, and it came very quickly. and a bonus it has free wireless internet (or with a cable) and satellite tv! would definitely recommend it to others