Meliá Zanzibar

“Beautifull resort, amazing staff”

The hotel is beautifull and has so much to offer in terms of activities, nature, beautifull view points. The staff were truly one of the highlights of the hotel. All are very welcoming, friendly and helping you with a smile. We would like to highlight Bruno and Muhidin who provided us with excep… more

The hotel is beautifull and has so much to offer in terms of activities, nature, beautifull view points. The staff were truly one of the highlights of the hotel. All are very welcoming, friendly and helping you with a smile. We would like to highlight Bruno and Muhidin who provided us with exceptional service and experience during breakfast, lunch and dinner ensuring to have a good laugh every day. They go the extra mile to ensure exceptional experience. Also Fahad, Daleyni and Abdul from the entertainment team were amazing and so much fun. The food was good however we would have loved to have more local cuisine options for diner. Also we would have loved to hear more local/African music entertainment during dinner rather than western music most of the time. Swahili night was an amazing experience for both the food, music and entertainment. We were in a Premium Garden room. The rooms are beautifully decorated and very spacious. We did have an issue with our toilet which we wish was handled better. Melia Zanzibar gave us an unforgetable experience and we would love to return soon!

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“Decent overall..things to be cautious about”

We stayed at Meliá Zanzibar for four nights on an all-inclusive basis. Overall, I would give the experience 3/5. There were definitely some very good aspects to the stay, but for the price and the level the resort presents itself at, I expected more. Check-in was good and the staff were welcoming.… more

We stayed at Meliá Zanzibar for four nights on an all-inclusive basis. Overall, I would give the experience 3/5. There were definitely some very good aspects to the stay, but for the price and the level the resort presents itself at, I expected more. Check-in was good and the staff were welcoming. Our luggage was taken to the room and everything was explained properly. The butler service was excellent throughout our stay, as was the buggy service. There was a WhatsApp number you could message whenever you needed a buggy, and we found them to be prompt and reliable. The all-inclusive package was also quite comprehensive and included almost all of the restaurants on the resort, with only a small number of items carrying additional charges. One of the biggest disappointments for us was the food. Considering the standard and price of the resort, we found most of the on-site restaurants to be average at best. Unfortunately, on our final night both my wife and I also became quite unwell with what appeared to be food poisoning/gastroenteritis, and we had to call the on-site doctor. To be fair, the doctor himself was very good and helpful. However, when we initially requested a doctor through reception, we were immediately told that there would be an additional charge. Visitors to Zanzibar are required to have the relevant travel insurance, which we did have, but nobody initially asked us about this. It was only when I specifically mentioned our insurance to the doctor that he took our passport and insurance details so that the treatment could be handled through that instead of us being charged directly. I feel this should have been explained more clearly from the beginning. We also had a couple of issues involving money and our final bill. On the first day I asked reception to change a $100 note into smaller denominations. They didn’t have the change at the time, but to their credit they contacted me themselves the following day and exchanged it for ten $10 notes. However, on another occasion I gave reception a $50 note to exchange. They only had $30 available at the time and therefore still owed me $20. I chased this once or twice and was told they would get back to me, but nobody did. I eventually had to remind them about it again when checking out and had the $20 deducted from the final invoice. More concerningly, when checking the final invoice, I noticed an additional charge for a spa treatment that neither of us had ever had. When I questioned it, I was initially told that we had been to the spa, which we definitely had not. The charge was eventually removed, but between this and having to remind them about the outstanding $20, I would strongly recommend checking your final invoice carefully before paying. There are certainly positives here. The resort itself is beautiful, the butler and buggy services were excellent, and we encountered some genuinely helpful members of staff. However, the average food, becoming ill on our final night, the confusion surrounding the doctor/insurance, and the mistakes with money and our final bill took away from the experience. For a resort in this price bracket, I expected a more seamless experience and greater attention to detail. Overall: 3/5.

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“Nice hotel: shame about the staff. Give it a miss.”

Nice hotel (appearance wise) but the average member of staff is fairly inept, which suggests that the management team is also inept. This is a lovely property: the buildings are spread out across a large area which gives a peaceful ambience. The rooms are fairly nicely appointed, and the pool area… more

Nice hotel (appearance wise) but the average member of staff is fairly inept, which suggests that the management team is also inept. This is a lovely property: the buildings are spread out across a large area which gives a peaceful ambience. The rooms are fairly nicely appointed, and the pool areas and restaurants are generally pleasant. However, most staff give the impression that they are either untrained or basically incompetent. Simple requests are often dealt with chaotically and demonstrate a lack of foresight and organisation. In many cases, it looks like the member of staff is doing something for the first time. For example: 1. At dinner one evening, I requested a bottle of water which resulted in a large amount of searching around the restaurant despite the fact that water was being served on most tables. 2. We ordered wine. There were no wine glasses on the table (this was the case for all tables on the restaurant, which is totally fine). The waiter turned up ten minutes later with a bottle of wine and no glasses. The fact that there were no glasses on the table seemed like a surprise to him. He then ran around the restaurant for several minutes before returning with two glasses, one of which was dirty. Subsequent refills were slow. 3. Coffee in the Level restaurant at breakfast would often take 10 minutes to arrive, despite there being more staff than customers. I could go on. The strong impression I get is that staff are not being trained properly nor supervised adequately. Staff are without exception very friendly, but it seems like someone has clearly decided that friendliness is an acceptable substitute for competence. Away from the staff problems: 1. The quality of the all inclusive food is somewhat mixed, including in the (supposedly premium) Level restaurant. The beach bar and pool bar have a fairly cheap feel about them. 2. Drinks are often served in plastic rather than glasses which is not good. 3. There is a considerable amount of intrusive, loud piped music in public areas at almost all times of day. If you want to relax by a pool without rubbish, loud music blaring in your ear then there is only one choice, being the spa pool which has a no children policy. In the main pool and the Level pool there is no escape - they have gone to considerable trouble to ensure that speakers cover every inch of the space in order to guarantee that you have no peace. All in all, very disappointing. Definitely not a five star property. If I could remember how much I paid when I booked it months ago, I'd probably feel ripped off.

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