Park Hyatt Zanzibar

Put simply, this hotel promises (by virtue of it being a Park Hyatt and its marketing, not to mention charging around $600 per night for a standard room) a consistently excellent experience, and it completely fails to deliver. There are a lot of staff but they are either not well trained, lazy or both. Considerable blame in this regard must be attached to the various tiers of hotel management. There is minimal attention to detail. Service is routinely slow. There is little or no appreciation of what a top drawer hotel should be like. The following all happened during my stay: 1. I had to ask for a bill three times in one of the restaurants. 2. There were no towels at the pool on two separate occasions, nor any staff on duty to ask for one. 3. There were cleaning materials (long extendable pole, brush and spray) left lying in the pool or around the pool area for extended periods of time. 4. There were more staff in the bar than customers but the staff stood there chatting while not acknowledging nor serving customers. During my first visit to the bar, I heard four separate customers complain about the slow service. The staff clearly didn’t care. 5. The place settings at breakfast did not include spoons. There were no spoons available at serving stations. When I asked a member of staff for a spoon she looked totally clueless and flapped around for a considerable period of time. 6. Coffee at breakfast would typically take up to 10 minutes to arrive, despite the restaurant being not at all busy. 7. Despite there being a large number of staff on duty at breakfast they would typically congregate well away from customers and make no effort to scan the room to see whether any customers needed attention or serving. 8. The bowls at breakfast for fruit and cereals were on one occasion hot, as though they had just been removed from a dishwasher. Who wants to eat from a hot bowl? I could go on. In fairness, all of the above was discussed with the hotel manager at the end of my stay who acknowledged the shortcomings and made (inadequate) financial recompense. However, none of this really compensates for a thoroughly disappointing stay. The manager’s view was that the service standards can be explained and accounted for by the local staff having lower “exposure” to western service standards. If this is true then: 1. Hyatt is knowingly charging a premium price for a service it knows it cannot deliver. 2. The hotel has been open for 11 years. Isn’t this enough time to train staff? Every single member of staff (and especially those in management positions) who works here should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves to promise so much and then deliver something that is just so astonishingly bad. This hotel badly lets down and taints the Park Hyatt brand and reputation. It is difficult to envisage any circumstances where I would choose to stay here again. Avoid, avoid, avoid, unless you’re just after somewhere which looks nice on Instagram. If you do choose to stay here: the beds are very comfortable, but you will be woken up by the call to prayer at 5.20am. Pack earplugs.

I went to Stone Town for a weekend and stayed at the Park Hyatt. The room was lovely, clean, very well maintained and appointed. Good shower and bathroom set-up. My sleep was excellent. Overall the service was friendly and helpful. However, there were a number of areas that require work, and at this price point, that is why I gave the 3 stars. The pool and beach hardly had anyone servicing them - I had to flag down a waiter every time from the bar area, going searching for someone. I made a few simple service requests like more water and I had to call back repeatedly to get it delivered. Some of the common areas are not well maintained. The sliding glass door in the hallway next to my room was not working and had to be opened manually with great difficulty and there are so many cobwebs in the lobby. The location was good, far enough outside of the old city but close enough to wander around.

Spent one night here at the start of our holiday in Zanzibar. Wonderful welcome, lovely room and exactly what we needed after a long journey. Best location in Stone Town, right on the Ocean. Everything you need is within walking distance, the little boats over to Prison Island leave just by the hotel. Highly recommend.

This hotel is beyond stunning. The suite we got upgraded to using a guest of honor pass was beyond beautiful. Extremely clean. Incredible views.

Wonderful staff, attractive rooms, beautiful common areas. Loved dining with a view of the Indian Ocean. Highly recommend.