Konokono Beach Resort and Isaraya Over Water Villa

I am conflicted about this stay. This being our 6th vacation on Zanzibar, and island we have fallen in love with and her people. The pro are as follows. Beautiful Situation Beach is gorgeous Staff were friendly and attentive Food was great Rooms are clean and well proportioned with clean linen and fresh towels The cons are. The hotel needs maintenance, the thatching and beams in the rooms are rotting. The septic tank near the dining area omitted a pungent aroma quite often There are no working fridges in the rooms, spoke to the manager who promised to attend to it, but in over a weeks stay nothing materialised. There is a beach bar about 300m down the beach that plays music for their sunset party that plays until 22h00 at a very disturbing volume (saying that, if you can’t beat them, join them!) The lunch menu is very overpriced for what it offers, we went to the above mentioned beach bar for lunch on those days we stayed in the area. As a family of grandparents, parents and child we did enjoy our stay. Would I recommend Konokono, I don’t think so as there are so many options on the island. To grow their clients and encourage return quest the will need to do some serious maintenance.

Oh I don’t even know where to start from!! This property was probably wonderful at some point but now is just ruined and nobody seems to care! We first stayed at no 19 where it was full of dirt, bathrooms always smelled of s**t no matter what, they don’t have water most of the times so you cannot flash the toilet which was anyway broken. Staff don’t care too much - they would listen to your concerns and that’s it. Won’t do much as the manager doesn’t care. They won’t clean the villas mini pool if you don’t give them something, the outside patio again is full of dust and monkeys s**t and they never wash it off. Breakfast is minimal, just some doughnuts, one type of cereal with milk, eggs, sausages and beans and that’s it - there are cats which we love but they were all over the tables. And while you go get something else to eat they will go up on your table and eat your food. But the worst was one night when the toilet ceiling started raining and the whole bathroom was full of water and the light was also flashing!! With a toddler and a baby with us we called them at 2am to check what’s going on and they tried to repair the boiler which was on villas rooftop and this made it worse as all kind of insects came from the ceiling and now everything was full of water and insects. They gave us another villa but that night was ruined. Also, what you see in the pictures is not like that anymore. All the rooms have had the TV’s removed and also all the mini fridge’s doesn’t work etc

I arrived last week for a 5 day stay however next morning we packed our bags and left. My payment was done in advance and non refundable but that was my own choice because I did not want to have my holiday messed up. For a 5* accomodation and dito price level this place is way out of standard. We had urine smell in the bathroom, dirty private pool with bird faeces and unclear water. Cats on the tables during lunch and dinner (in 5* ??? are you kidding me ...) The matress is used up and we felt and heard the springs all night. Sorry but this place is not well maintained and managed.