Beautiful old home, one block from ocean. Beautiful wooden four posters netting enclosed. Some view of ocean. Friendly helpful service. Much nicer, it appears, than other hotels which look fancy on the outside. This is a find and excellent value.

This is a charming, authentic guesthouse in a great setting near to the seafront, the Forodhani Gardens, the old city, and The Africa House. On arrival we were delighted to be upgraded to the Sultan room and given a cold bottle of bubbly as they knew it was our 10th wedding anniversary. This was a lovely touch. In the evening we ate at the Beyt al Chai restaurant and enjoyed a really great seafood dinner with a nice bottle of wine. We stayed here for two nights, which was a perfect amount of time to explore Stone Town.

I hate to give a bad review - especially when everyone that we dealt with was so nice - but this hotel was just not up to the standards that I'm accustomed to. My husband and I stayed here after 10 days on Safari and on the beach in Zanzibar. The other hotels that we stayed at during our trip were absolutely amazing. Perhaps that is why I was so disappointed with the Beyt al Chai. Although I wanted to stay at the Serena Inn, we stayed here on the recommendation of our travel agent (who must have been getting a kick-back). This is a very small guest house, it is very old and I suppose some people would find it charming. However, I found it seriously lacking in comfort and modern amenities. My biggest complaint had to do with the bathroom which was only separated from the sleeping quarters by curtain. If you are sharing a room, this can be rather uncomfortable. Moreover, there is no shower – only a large bathtub that they advertise as a “Jacuzzi”. We were also turned off by the fact that there is no safe in the room – you have to put your valuables in the communal hotel safe. All of that said, the management and staff are incredibly nice and accommodating (one of the Masai actually escorted us to/from dinner at another hotel). The hotel has a good location directly across the street from the Serena Inn (but somewhat removed from the center of town). And I hear that each of the rooms is different (and some have a shower or separate bathroom). I suppose if you know what you are getting into, this could be a nice place to stay. I was just expecting more.

We booked Beyt al Chai for an overnight stay while enroute to a resort on the northeast coast of Zanzibar. Prior to booking I had carefully researched the hotel and readily admit we had some concerns having read one particularly negative review on TA. At that stage I had consulted other sources who suggested the reputation of Beyt al Chai was good and that the review wasn't indicative of the hotel's usual reputation. These contacts eased our apprehension and we booked an overnight stay.

Our initial concerns were for naught. Beyt al Chai is a lovely old mansion which oozes charm and has been sympathetically restored. The public rooms are quite nice and there are authentic Zanzibarian touches throughout. The staff was friendly, efficient and the service great. The hotel is also within walking distance to local attractions as well as to restaurants and shopping.

We had arrived a little ahead of schedule to find that the electricity in the standard room we had booked was not working. Tom, who had been the manager for the past four months, welcomed us warmly and apologized for the inconvenience. After check in he took our bags, secured them in another room and suggested we have lunch while our room was being serviced. However when we returned the electrical problem had still not been corrected. Tom was again very apologetic and promptly upgraded us to a suite for the night.

As reviews on TA have suggested the restaurant at Beyt al Chai was quite good. In fact our lunch was wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the curried seafood soup which was one of the best entrees I had had while in Tanzania. Our room was spacious, nicely decorated and the bed was comfortable. The only thing we didn't like was that the bathtub (no shower) and toilet were both in a corner of the room and the water was only lukewarm. This may have been a bigger concern had we been staying longer.

Prior to catching our flight to Dar several days later we again stopped at Beyt al Chai for lunch. Even though our previous stay had only been overnight' the staff recognized us immediately and within minutes Tom was in the restaurant welcoming us back!

Although our stay was brief and there were a few concerns, the service and ambiance at Beyt al Chai was wonderful and we enjoyed our overnight stay. Kudos Tom! Keep up the great work!