Imani Suites Runda

Marriette was our host. 1. She charged us $8 for a full English breakfast and $10 for dinner. Bacon, baked beans, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes lost their way to our breakfast table. During dinner, 4 people (in our group of 12 adults and 4 kids eating free) didn’t get food. The Chef claimed he cooked only what Marriette delivered to him hence he couldn’t do anything about the quantity of food. On 26/7/18 breakfast wasn’t served with the excuse that when the chef came by, the house was locked whereas the night before, when asked about the availability of the chef she promised he will sleep on site. When asked to refund our money for that missed meal and a pre-paid dinner, she accused us of cooking her rice, cabbage and other vegetables, and was reluctant to give a full refund, till we got another person (Duncan) involved. It’s amazing how guests can cook rice that didn’t make it into the house with the chef who was locked out. We did indeed eat rice that morning, rice cooked by friends in their home for us. 2. The internet never worked while we were there, except on our last night. The excuse given by our host was that,service quality in the neighborhood was poor, this was after several excuses of technicians coming by to fix the problem while we were out sightseeing. After also reporting same to Duncan the RUNDA neighborhood mysteriously had its internet issues rectified. 3. On 31/7/18 we came back from Lamu to find no towels, no toilet paper, none of the charcoal we purchased to keep us warm in the chilly Nairobi weather and some rooms had no running water. When the live-in caretaker Milly was contacted she asked us to call Marriette for all our needs (including toilet paper). Guess what? Marriette’s phone was off. We made do with paper towels we found in a storeroom. 4. Milly the caretaker offered to supply us traditional artifacts to buy through a seller she was friends with on 25/7/18, fortunately we wanted to see variety so we went to the market ourselves. We came back at night to find Marriette in the house with Milly and a gentleman with beads, bags and slippers spread across a couch. The prices stated were as much as 6 times what was stated in the Masai market. Marriette was the person brokering and mediating our negotiations. 5. On the morning of 25/7/18, I attempted to use the washing machine, Milly denied me access with the excuse that Marriette will complain about the power bill. So I hand washed my kids’ clothes out in the cold; with freezing water. Marriette upon confrontation said I had rights to the machine as I had paid for that service. I didn’t see any action taken in terms of an apology or the calling of Milly (the caretaker) to book. 6. This is a beautiful house, no two rooms are the same. The artwork on the walls and attention to detail in the rooms is commendable; except in the bathrooms. Half of my bath water made it outside the bath because of a poor tiling technique and there were no floor towels to compensate making it dangerous to use the bathroom in my room (I cannot speak to what went on in the other rooms). The heater in my room sat directly on the shower and the temperature could not be regulated, so you either singed or froze yourself. Apart from the fireplace downstairs there are no other means of keeping oneself warm in this house. It’s a house of CHILLS and it got as bad as 3 degrees Celsius.