MIC Hotel

Not much...

Hôtel was not like on the pictures. It's just old building close to the noisy bus station. We requested to have a bath like on the pictures, the answer was a yes, once there, we didn't had it. So we asked. They give us an old room but with bath. But.... It was not working!!! Couldn't take a shower! We waited for 1hour as they said they will find a way. When we came downstairs, they were talking together and just say that it couldn't work. So, after we said that we wanted to take a shower (strange isn't it?) They gave us back a room with shower. The option was: "take the room with shower or go somewhere else" at 7:30pm in the dark... Thanks for the option. Staff, and even manager was totally not helpful at all and quite rude. Noisy place because of the bus station, not there fault but still a reason to not go there

What went well.  This hotel is very close to the Ubungo bus station The property has a fence and a security guard at the gate.  I booked a deluxe room which was very large, with an access to a private little verandah where one can sit and enjoy the outside views - see photos of the views.  The air conditioner worked well and the water was flowing in the bathroom taps.  I ordered food in the restaurant and after a few glitches, the right door was delivered and it was hot and delicious. I waited for my 2000 shs change which didn't arrive but would have tipped anyway as the food was nice. 

What didn't go so well  The bathroom has a very old and rusty jacuzzi with a very dirty shower handle which gives little confidence about the cleanliness of the facility.  The toilet seat was broken and discoloured. It could do with a few manitainance fixes to the taps and the toilet.  There was only one towel in the bathroom and having booked for two people I wondered what the problem was. Asking for an additional towel at the reception I was reassured that it will be provided but this didn't happen. The one that was available was not dry giving little confidence regarding cleanliness. If you decide to stay here I suggest you bring your own towels.  Breakfast is included in the room price, but this also was very poor for Tz standards. They only had bread slices, maandazi, bananas, water melons and soup. So if you needed any proteins then you only had peas soup which I didn't fancy and I didn't see any guest going for it. There was instant coffee hot water and milk.  Overall  If what you want is a place to lay your head at night and don't care much about cleanliness or having a good breakfast then this place is for you. I think the property would benefit from renovation of the basic facilities and good regular deep cleaning. The jacuzzi could be removed and replaced with a working shower which is easy to clean. For 55 USD per night you should get a better service than this in Dar es Salaam.

I paid for 4 breakfasts. I went down to have one on the first morning but the people serving were rather indifferent, the spread of food was dismal - I respect local tastes and so on to which the hotel catered - but there was no effort made to accommodate non-local visitors. The quality of everything looked dodgy and I couldn't even bear to look any further at the offerings. The staff could not speak English which made it even more difficult. I made a hasty retreat. The breakfast is actually an insult to their guests, be it local or foreign. They could at least try to make some effort to accommodate everyone and not feed their guests the rubbish quality of food that was on offer.

The so -called breakfast. My door didn't lock too well from the inside. Windows couldn't be closed properly. Except for the poor manager, the rest of the staff are not interested or helpful, and the location is really not on. On the monday I woke up to an incredible cacophony coming from the nearby bus terminus I presume. This was before sunrise. It woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep. The same on the following two mornings. The hotel is situated in a slum so don't expect smooth sailing.