Our trekking group stayed at the Jacaranda for 3 nights during the middle of January -- a safe period after the political riots at the beginning of the month. As you can imagine, the typical high-season crowds were not there.

The staff was courteous and friendly, the rooms were clean with strong showers, the pool area and food were quite good -- especially the hot breakfast buffet.

In all, I am not aware of any complaints from the 18 of us, and for me, I appreciated the comforts of an oasis. The Pizza Garden was an unexpected find for pretty good pizza and beer. Best nearby restaurant, however, is Haandi, across the street for excellent Indian food (dinner only).

Disco music all night and construction work all day. Had one meal which took ages to arrive and spent most of the night in the smallest room! Not to be recommended.

Stayed at this hotel for one night before setting out on our safari. After having just landed from a night flight with no sleep on board we were hoping for a bed but who checks out at 6 in the morning? Still there was plenty of tea and coffee and the Rhino Safaris rep took the time to do their welcome meeting etc etc. A room was soon available but we had gone past tired so thought we would make a day of it in Narobi. The hotel has a customer relations person who makes arrangements for you. We decided on the giraffe sanctary and she made the arrangements called one of the duty taxi drivers who took us and waited for us, well worth it.

The staff we encountered were all friendly and spoke fairly good English. Food was OK with no unwanted effects for us if you follow. The rooms have bottles of water in them and this was common place as you can't drink the water. Luggage was left here for a week as we went on safari and was stored securely.

As for reports of excessive noise we can't comment as we were asleep by 9pm we were so tired.

I stayed at the Jacaranda in May of this year with out tour group Saga on our first night .Its a lovely hotel and the staff couldn,t do more for you. the rooms and food were excellent, One of our group was taken ill the last few days of out tour and after being in hospital was taken back to the Jacaranda where she was very well looked after by the staff until we returned .We never found it at all noisy. Rosemary Mitchell.