A 3 star conference and meeting property on Waiyaki Way in Westlands, part of Greater Nairobi rather than the centre itself. What decides whether it is right for you is how much of your day belongs to a booked room, a banquet or a meeting, and how little you need the streets outside it.
01What it is
Desmond Tutu Conference Centre is a 3 star property on Waiyaki Way in Westlands, and its list is built around people who are there to meet rather than to wander. Banquet space, meeting rooms, a business centre, free wifi and a 24 hour front desk are the working core of it. Around that sit a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, a concierge, laundry and dry cleaning, lifts, luggage storage, a safe, free car parking and wheelchair access. The thin parts are the ordinary hotel ones: a garden, a terrace and a smoking area cover outdoor space, and there is no pool or gym on the list. Twelve photos are on file.
What that adds up to is a property for a conference delegate, a trainer, a committee or a company booking a room it can put a banner in, and for anyone whose day is settled before they arrive. Desmond Tutu Conference Centre suits a guest who wants the meeting upstairs, the meal downstairs and a car parked without a search. It does not suit someone who came for the centre on foot. This is Greater Nairobi, 4.24 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers, and Westlands is not a quarter you can treat as the centre. If your evenings are meant to be spent out in the CBD, stay in the CBD.
02The supplier's photographs
0319 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
Before you book, be clear about where these hotels are. They sit well outside the centre, in the inner suburbs, and they are not in any of the ten quarters this site covers. Biashara Street and City Market is only the nearest of those quarters, which is not the same as being in it. You are in the wider city here, and every trip into the Central Business District is a journey in and out.
The market quarter itself is narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. The oldest retail streets in the city: Biashara for cloth and haberdashery, Muindi Mbingu for flowers, and the 1930s City Market hall behind them for produce, curios and a fish counter. Jamia Mosque's three silver domes close the block. It is best for kikoi and kitenge cloth, curios without the tour-bus markup, and an hour of architecture. After dark it is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. It lies 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line.
Read the nearest quarter, Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
Book this one only once your dates and meeting space are fixed, because the property is sold on the working week rather than on passing trade. Most rooms here can be cancelled free, and you book them through app.impt.io. Every confirmed booking removes one tonne of CO2, at no extra cost to you. Five percent of what you pay comes back as IMPT credit, out of the hotel commission rather than added to your bill.
Facts on this page come from the booking supplier's record: star class, address, photographs and facility list. Guest scores come from verified stays. Nobody from this site has stayed here; the quarter copy around it is this site's own.
06Questions
Where exactly is the Desmond Tutu Conference Centre?+
It is on Waiyaki Way in Westlands, inside Greater Nairobi rather than in the central business district. It stands 4.84 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 61 minutes on foot in a direct line. Treat it as a Westlands address and plan your day around that.
Can I walk from here into the centre of Nairobi?+
You can, but the distance is real rather than a stroll round the corner, and Westlands is a separate quarter from the centre the site covers. If your days are built around Biashara Street and City Market, this property is on the wrong side of that trip.
What does the property actually have on site?+
Banquet space, meeting rooms, a business centre, free wifi, free car parking and a 24 hour front desk, with a restaurant, a cafe and a bar for meals. Laundry, dry cleaning, a concierge, lifts, luggage storage and a safe cover the rest. There is no pool or gym on the list.
What does the guest score of 4.3 out of 5 mean?+
It is the average of 499 reviews, so it reflects a settled pattern rather than a single stay. Read it as a solid working hotel where most guests got what the property promises. It says nothing about how close you are to the centre, which is the thing to weigh.
