We will always remember every moment at Pinewood beach resort. Evans received as so well and took us to the reception desk which was professionally manned by Meshack. We enjoyed the express check-in from Meshack. Well done Meshack. In the restaurant we met two friendly guys. Wycliffe the waiter and Nixon the chef who made us enjoy the stay even much more. We promise to be back soon. Owen and Linda Ajima. Big thank you Pinewood staff with their big hearts.

We stayed three nights at this place, including new year, and had very mixed impressions. The hotel itself is lovely, a bit at the outskirts of Diani which makes the beach also less crowded. They are having a nice pool, good beach area and two outdoor bars.

The hotel clearly targets overseas tourists (we are residents), and we had very mixed experiences there.

Really outstanding was the food (we have booked half board). Very evening the dinner was set up at a different area (beach, pool,..), very cool. While we normally not like buffet style
dinners they offered a mix here. Barbecue, cooking in a wok...very nice selection but also very good quality and very tasty (and my wife and myself are foodies). Same applies for the breakfast. Really great!

The dark side was the service sector. The staff was very friendly but also very unattentive and obviously not properly trained or guided.

We ordered a bottle of champagne upfront to be in our room at arrival. Even confirmed by email this was not executed, it took them three hours to organize this after arrival and we got a half warm bottle (which we did not even open). Same picture at the bar: impossible to get a cold beer at the beach bar („problems with the fridge), the smokers did dump the cigarette butts on the floor as no ashtrays were provided and it did not happen once, when we were at the bar area, that somebody asked if we want an additional drink. You always had to go, ask and wait for a fortune of time. Same happened when we moved our room - were told „somebody is coming“, called a 2nd time after one hour and finally I walked to the reception to get this done.

These are the annoying experiences and always shows that there is a management problem - the people itself have been friendly and helpful.

So summarized:
- nice atmosphere, nice place
- excellent chefs and food, outstanding
- poor management and service quality

This leads to a average rating.

I was disappointed by this place, which was OK but nothing special. Rooms were quite bare, with only one chair and one stool apart from the bed (two singles pushed together to make a double), basic Swahili style shower, and no TV. One quite small swimming pool, which would be overcrowded if the resort was busy. Lots of seaweed on the beach (other hotels rake it up). Food was fine but again nothing to write home about. Solidly only a two or at most three star hotel, but with a four to five star price tag. On the positive side, the staff were very friendly and tried their best, given the difficult situation of COVID-19.