Lovely hotel, GREAT staff, special thanks to Mangi and Griffin our sweet friends, GREAT food although there is little choice.
We booked a junior suite for 2 weeks and payed about 4500€, airco not working and no light in the bathroom and it took us 5 days to get it fixed, room was crowded with minibugs too...
If You like to swim in the ocean and lay on the beach then DON'T book Malindi because the beachboys will drive you absolutely CRAZY. The entertainment is also WAY TOO PUSHY, waking you up for an activity?
Just book a Safari in Kenya, Tsavo East is breathtaking, but do it in combination with a private beach in Zanzibar if you don't like to get mad on holiday...
If You think you will be able to handle them, think again cause they just keep on following you wherever you walk and when you tell them you have come just to be together and enjoy the ocean they get REALLY rude...
So we payed 50€ a few days for a taxi to take us to a quite beach and also have lunch and drinks over there while we had an all in! Chesale and Papa Remo are beautiful and much more peaceful, so if you have already booked, just go there!
Kenya safari we will be back, Kenya beachboys damn you!

Our stay was pleasant , the rooms are African style no TV , there is a very nice reception/lounge area where you can relax & watch TV there is also free WI-FI ,but the time we were there we were unable to log on. I traveled with 2 young kids and they loved the entertainment provided by the franco rosso team . The beach is not one of the best as the sea has many weeds , but there is a lovely BIG pool overlooking the beach .
I would go back again..

The hotel is well maintained,built in typical African rooftop style. The staff is generally friendly, especially the waiters and cleaning teams. The rooms are tidy, airy, no television. We stayed in one of the garden suites and our package had complimentary laundry service (great when travelling with teenagers) and a filled mini bar. Key for the safe and towels come with a deposit which is returned (or the credit card slip is torn) upon checking out. The private beach is shielded from the beach boys and is continuously cleaned and guarded. Nice but no so big swimming pool. When we were there (end July) the hotel was hardly filled (maybe 25%), which was for us great. Their high season is August so be prepared for some mass tourism...or avoid it all together. There was already the noisy disturbance of the bar and lobby since the garden rooms don't have any real windows. Around the lobby you can connect to the hotel's wifi (I just asked the reception the wepkey). The food is good although somewhat monotone Italian (80% of the visitors are Italian). We also had the feeling that some of the hotel staff (especially the animators) were more interested in selling their own little business than taking care of the well being of their guests. There is a small fitness in the adjoining spa (African Dream). You can go for a jog on the beach. After a while the beach boys know you and they leave you alone.

Just remembered I never wrote a comment after our experience at Tropical beach to warn others. We arrived late evening with a toddler of 2. We booked and reconfirmed room at ground floor. Apparently they over booked and wanted to put us in a room for one night and then we had to move. Or just stay on 1st floor all of our stay. The Italian manager, who only came to see us after one hour, was absolutely rude to us and very customer unfriendly, just told us it was overbooked , not his fault and we had to deal with it. It didn't help that I speak Italian but e didn't know I did. Then after making lots of fuzz, we were 'upgraded' to the hotel next door: Coconut Village. Indeed more stars but not our taste, certain crowd, entertainment and too noisy. This 'nice upgrade' also ment a room next to the parking, that had people passing the whole night. We specially requested and paid for sea view and were in a room at parking looking out at a piece of grass! Next day we moved back to Tropical Beach, finally the room we booked. Hotel was fine, pool nice, rooms less ' boutique design' and spacious as on photoos on Internet, and not really a sea to swim in (weed) or beach to walk barefeet. This shoudl be mentioned in hotelinfo. The food was fine, but had 2 times serious stomach problems the next day (and we live in Syria, so my stomach is used to quite some bugs) . Good thing was, the staff is very friendly and you can use facilities at hotel next door. Manager didn't do anything to make us feel a bit better after initial bad start.
After our trip I complained with Central Planhotel and never heard anything about it. We are expats and travel quite a lot. I will never go to a Planhotel anywhere again, and cannot advise you to do so too if you want to make sure you have a stressless holiday. Of courseI realise things in Kenya are different from Europe, but that;s why I chose an Italian Management hotel! It seems they are just out to make money and pleasing customers is not the managements priority. Pity.
Fam. Muli-van Akkeren, Damascus, Syria