Oceanic Hotel Dakar

We spent a week at the Océanic in October. The rooms are spacious and clean in a great location. The staff were all really welcoming, helpful and friendly. The room staff especially really made our holiday special and the lady on reception sorted any issues as well as offering help/advice if needed. I would recommend staying here if you want a stay in a local area with the best staff.

We had issues on our visit to West Africa and went back to Dakar and this hotel three times. That's how comfortable we were with this hotel so we came back due to the price, good room size, nice staff, and that old school ambiance.

We chose this hotel due to reviews here and the location in Dakar. Having traveled in various African countries it sounded like a good deal. We arrived after busy working days in Senegal (for my wife) and Burkina Faso (for me) in the Oceanic. So we needed some calm and quiet and thought - since the hotel is away from the main streets - this would be alright. It was a Thursday night during the Football World Cup 2022 - we would have expected some noise, but since all the games had ended at 21:00 - the night should be calm and quiet. We had some food outside and arrived for the night at about 23:00 with a tremendous noise. - "oh, it's just the neighbours, they will stop at midnight" - that's what we were told at the reception - this happens every Thursday - apparently. Now if you check my pictures - you can see there is absolutely no noise canceling in the rooms - neither the door, nor the window keeps even a whisper outside - but especially no bass from a 200.000W Karaoke machine. So - incredible noise until about 00:15 - then slowly but steadily the noise went ... We were told this only happens on Thursday - so we left Dakar on Saturday for a tour and decided to give the hotel another go for two nights on our return to Dakar before we headed back home. Big mistake. We arrived back on a Tuesday about a week later. After a long trip all through Senegal - again - for some quiet winding down. And then it started - Tuesday night - Metallica in your room - I am serious - even if I raised my computer volume or the TV volume to the max - no way it could be louder than the noise that entered from the neighbours. Incredible. 22.00 - the receptionist went over to the restaurant and asked them to turn the music down - result: the music volume in the room went down from Metallica, let's say to Johnny Hallyday. So I went down again at 23.00 and asked the reception to go over there again, to call the owner, the police or to find us another room. Now the nightmare starts. The receptionist was repectless and told me to find a new hotel - if I am not happy with my room and the noise. He will not call the police - and the owner already called the neighbours - everyone helpless - as we found out. I stayed at the reception until 00.15 - the music was still going strong - we were offered nothing - they were helpless and the receptionist rude (he never came back to say he was sorry, neither did the owner encourage that - since we met him again the following night - he barely looked at me). The next morning the owner of the hotel came to explain to us, that there is a political issue and that he can not do anything about the noise. The police will not do anything (that is what he was telling us) that's why he will never call them. Well - if you never try, you never know, as Coldplay said. He told us that they had an agreement, that there will only be noise on Thursdays - we saw how that agreement worked out... And what an agreement that is - I guess that should be