Maru Maru Hotel  

The location from the Ferry Pier is ideal (and walkable), staff extremely friendly and helpful, cozy feeling, and the rooftop terrace is a HUGE selling point.

Check out at 11 AM, although staff was very accommodating and held our bags.

Staff were friendly, good location and room was nice.

Breakfast was a bit basic - for a "5 star" hotel having instant coffee is not up to scratch

Handy location very close to the ferry port and Stone Town. Helpful and friendly staff.

Nothing really to dislike as it delivered what was required and advertised. The wifi was only access able close to reception but it was free.

Great hotel in the middle of Stone Town. Clean, bright rooms and fantastic roof top terrace where you can look across the whole of Stone Town. Very modern, well designed, and very comfortable beds. Loved it.

Instant coffee at breakfast.

No internet in the rooms. Dark roof top bar.

room not terrific , only on web side luxury ones.... no darkness during the nights

Good location for the town. Friendly and helpful staff. Reasonable rates. Adequate accommodation in a nice building,

Very average food quality.

Staff was very friendly and helpful. Clean, Nice breakfast and excellent shower. Nice atmosphere.

Well maintained rooms. Good location in city center of Stone Town / Zanzibar. Magnificent view over Stone Town / Zanzibar from rooftop bar. Exquisite mojitos served during sunset at rooftop bar.

Glass window above the entrance door of the room makes the room at night as brightly lit as during daytime. 5% surcharge if you pay with credit card, while during booking it's nowhere mentioned. Agressive method of reception personal to pay for the room up front. Loud music on rooftop bar during breakfast and dinner.

The location is good, the terrace with bar & restaurant has an amazing view. The staff was very friendly & helpful regarding all requests. The room was perfect, clean and comfortable.

The hotel was not able to accept payment with the Credit Card, so I had to go around the city looking for a working ATM to withdraw cash to pay: not easy.

Excellent roof terrace restaurant and bar Live band at night Cocktail hour on Friday night a shining star hidden in the streets of stone town Good quality freshly prepared food Well priced bar Proximity to other attractions is excellent Organisation of tours and transfers was faultless

Poor network and wifi connectivity Credit card facilities not always working 5% fee on credit card transactions, the only place in Zanzibar that charged a fee and claimed it to be banking law Unchanging exchange rate, was the same for our entire stay

1) - Centrally-located in down-town Stone Town Zanzibar, 2) - Old Arab architecture hotel, 3) - Exceptional top-floor terrace with bar and restaurant over-looking the city and the sea

Slow wifi connection

Great view and nice drinks on the roof top restaurant and bar Friendly staff Good location Beautiful rooms

We liked the air conditioned room with a 2 person shower and king sized 4 poster bed with mosquito netting. Everything is very nicely decorated. The staff at reception is very nice and helpful. The rooftop bar is nice for drinks but skipable for dinner.

The food service staff at breakfast and for 1 dinner (one waiter was very good) was not good. The waitress got our order wrong and tried to guilt us in to paying for her mistake. For the price you pay you get a nice room but no pool or other amenties. The breakfast is also very limited other than fresh eggs or an omelet.

The roof terrace is very nice, staff was friendly and the rooms were nice.

5% extra charge when paying with a credit card was a surprise. Didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

Clean hotel at the center of Stonetown. Friendly staff and good taxi service to the airport.

Dinner at the roof-terrace was not good. Although the view is excellent the seafood that we ordered was not fresh and less than they described in the menu. Strange for an island that is surrounded by many fish and seafood...

Lovely, modern, super friendly staff. Food at the restaurant is delicious and restaurant has a great view!

Using credit cards with them is not super easy, and walking back alone at night can be a bit scary as it's in the middle of a labyrinth of dark streets.

Clean, functional, colonial-style building and rooms

Rooms have no view (but I guess that is the case for most hotels in downtown Stone Town (Zanzibar)

Loved the rooftop Bar, my room was excellent. Bathrooms lovely and spacious, aircon great. Cleaners did an amazing job.

Comfortable room, bed etc, big bathroom, good towels, excellent Mojito

Food was horrible, wait staff unorganized, slow and the not enough tables to seat single people, was told to just sit in the bar, where everyone was smoking

Booking.com needs to do a better job screening these hotels and there listed.

Mosquito net

I had the pleasure of staying at Maru Maru Hotel for my birthday during which I was treated like a king by the staff. Not only did every single staff person seem to know it was my birthday, the housekeeper jazzed up my room with a birthday message written in flower petals. The kitchen delivered a plate of fruit and biscuits on my special day, AND if that wasn't enough, upon returning to my room after 9 p.m., I answered a knock at the door to find another waiter with a birthday cake for me. Apparently he'd been waiting for several hours at the restaurant to sing happy birthday to me and was "tipped off" that I'd returned to the hotel by the front desk. The staff went above and beyond on my special day which made it all the more special. In addition to great service, the room was very nice, and the location couldn't be better. The hotel is steps away from the labyrinth of alley ways peppered with a variety of shops selling local and regional crafts. Within a few minutes walk is a lovely night-market which provides an excellent opportunity to taste local, budget-friendly cuisine (I highly recommend the banana-nutella pizza) and people-watch for hours. I can't wait to celebrate my birthday next year at Maru Maru and recommned it for everyone.

Location. Terrace restaurant view. Room and clean

Restaurant services are on lower level, little choice of menu, evening are item in drink and snack menu missing. For the price they asking, you find much better restaurant in the city

Beautiful design, with an eye for detail including the rooms. Comfortable room and excellent bed, internet connection. Very competent staff, all of them able and willing to accomodate requests. Roof terrace, a breezy place to relax. Excellent Indian food.

Location and staff

no business center