Zanzibar Beach Vacations

Lovely stay at the Mizingani Seafront. Extremely helpful and attentive staff, clean/comfortable rooms and a nice quiet pool area

Overall this is an okay place to escape for a short period of time. The staff are nice and helpful, however: - if you do “all inclusive” expect more things to be excluded than included. They are not very generous with this. - very strict hotel policies that impact guest experience. For example we asked for a late checkout and inquired if there was any guest arriving to use the same room that day. The staff said no one was coming to use the room, but if we wanted a late check out it would be charged $50 (USD) to use the room for two more hours. This is just poor hospitality and guest experience management. As soon as check out time came we were charged even for a bottle of water. - amenities: the property itself is great but small things like the gym are in very poor condition. Additionally bar hours are limited and they call close by 11pm. - staff: this is definitely where they do well with very nice staff, but again expect them to follow strict policies with no exception or flexibility.

Overall this is an okay place to escape for a short period of time. The staff are nice and helpful, however: - if you do “all inclusive” expect more things to be excluded than included. They are not very generous with this. - very strict hotel policies that impact guest experience. For example we asked for a late checkout and inquired if there was any guest arriving to use the same room that day. The staff said no one was coming to use the room, but if we wanted a late check out it would be charged $50 (USD) to use the room for two more hours. This is just poor hospitality and guest experience management. As soon as check out time came we were charged even for a bottle of water. - amenities: the property itself is great but small things like the gym are in very poor condition. Additionally bar hours are limited and they call close by 11pm. - staff: this is definitely where they do well with very nice staff, but again expect them to follow strict policies with no exception or flexibility.

While the Melia is a large property, below are pros and cons. Pros: Great pools. The golf cart service to get around is great and needed. If you are a "Level" guest you have personal concierge service to help you book activities and get room service. The villas with own pool are a wonderful family get-away to relax in. Cons: You may have items stolen from your room (we had multiple items of lower value stolen, which I suspect the young staff wanted to try - but the value isn't the point, it's that you can't trust items being left in your room). There is only one dine out option at Jetty Restaurant that offers a unique menu, other Melia's tend to have more. Depending on what level of patron you are you may also get to eat at the Level restaurant which has a set dinner menu. There isn't a lot of beach for walking on when the tide is in if you are looking for lots of walks. We also found getting our in-room water refilled was a continual problem, we'd ask for water in the morning and at 7 pm still be asking for water in our room. You are also far way from Stone Town, so if you want to explore other island areas be prepared for 1 12/ hour drive across or up island, which can take a large portion of your day. Finally, management's idea of help after I submitted a survey was to give a resort credit to replace our lost items - not helpful.

Overall this is an okay place to escape for a short period of time. The staff are nice and helpful, however: - if you do “all inclusive” expect more things to be excluded than included. They are not very generous with this. - very strict hotel policies that impact guest experience. For example we asked for a late checkout and inquired if there was any guest arriving to use the same room that day. The staff said no one was coming to use the room, but if we wanted a late check out it would be charged $50 (USD) to use the room for two more hours. This is just poor hospitality and guest experience management. As soon as check out time came we were charged even for a bottle of water. - amenities: the property itself is great but small things like the gym are in very poor condition. Additionally bar hours are limited and they call close by 11pm. - staff: this is definitely where they do well with very nice staff, but again expect them to follow strict policies with no exception or flexibility.