Arusha Serena Hotel

The price is so high!

We stayed at this hotel on our first day before the start of our safari. Our stay was comfortable in a cosy hut style cottages. The hotel was not busy, and we received a lot of attention. The staff were friendly. We had a 3 course vegetarian meal specially made for us and it was tasty. A good setting outside of busy Arusha town, yet easily reached by car. I would recommend this hotel to those who wish to stay in a quiet, well kept grounds away from town centre.

Terrible place. First, You should have double lock in your room otherwise hotel staff could come in to the room late night. Second, Front of my room, all collected dishes from room services are there without cleaning. Third the beeping sounds have bothered us to sleep. Do not come this hotel. Not safe, dirty. I have good experience of other Serena lodge except this one.

The hotel is located a few km outside of busy downtown Arusha. Over the past 2 weeks we have stayed in 3 Serena Hotels…one in the Serengeti, one at Lake Maynara, and now here in Arusha. Overall I found this hotel to be the most disappointing of the 3. While the structure and history of the hotel are significant, the hotel lacks a pool, the buffet has limited options compared to the other 2 hotels, and the overall helpfulness of the front desk staff was less than stellar. Upon arrival, we were created with a cool towel which was appreciated but the interaction with the front desk was rather frustrating. We had 3 separate bags delivered to the hotel earlier in the week from a mountain guide (bags from Kili climb that were dropped while we were on Safari). When we mentioned this to the desk staff, they literally went back to what they were doing, seemingly not to care and it was our current Safari guide (native Tanzanian) who searched and found the appropriate staff to locate our bags. The other issue was on the back end of the stay. After checking out, I was sitting in the lobby with my two friends awaiting transfer to JRO. Our plans for lunch were undecided as we had already checked out. We had several staff stop and encourage us to eat at the buffet lunch. After the 3rd ask we decided to do so. We sat, ate and ordered some water and drinks. Near the end of the meal, the waiter alerted us that lunch was not included and we were to pay $13/e plus drinks. This would have come to roughly $63 USD. Upon following server to the front desk, the presented bill was for approx 270,000 Tanzanian shillings (approx $112 USD). I questioned to bill and the front desk stated that I was misunderstanding and to bill is what it was. I again questioned it. She said the waited would speak with the manager. While this occurred to ran and charged by credit card. Seemingly no compensation was to be made. This miscommunication on their part and overcharging and lack of righting the situation is disappointing esp considering what was told to us and it being a buffet meal. On top of this, the front desk attendant smiled and chuckled during the exchange as if it were funny. This was off-putting and as mentioned disappointing when a service industry underdelivers..