A three star guest house on Mihango Street, inside the loudest part of the centre. Its 24 hour front desk and free parking are the reasons to pick it. The noise and the after dark emptiness of the pavements are the reasons not to.
01What it is
Diamond Guest House lists the practical things a city stay needs: a 24 hour front desk, breakfast, free wifi, free car parking, luggage storage and dry cleaning, with multilingual staff on hand and a smoking area set aside. The list is thin on the comforts beyond that. There is no restaurant named, no gym, no pool and no airport transfer, so you are choosing a bed and a desk rather than a set of facilities.
What that adds up to is a small, functional base on Mihango Street. The 24 hour front desk and luggage storage suit early arrivals and late departures, and free parking suits anyone driving into the centre. Diamond Guest House suits a short, working stay, not a holiday. It does not suit light sleepers or anyone wanting to walk out after dark, because the pavements here thin out fast after the commute.
02The supplier's photographs
038 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing in Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street
Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street is the busy grid, and it is the loudest, fullest pavements in Kenya: hawkers, phone shops, preachers, and a bus every few seconds. Two parallel streets carrying most of the pedestrian traffic in the country. The National Archives sits at the Moi Avenue end in the old Bank of India building, and the whole stretch is shops at street level with offices stacked above. It is best for street life, errands, and the Archives gallery in the middle of it. The quarter sits 0.27 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 4 minutes on foot in a direct line.
After dark it thins out fast after the commute and is better avoided late. Take a car after dark. That is the trade: you are paying for the heaviest footfall in the country, and the same footfall disappears by evening, leaving pavements you should not cross on foot. It suits anyone who wants the day to happen at street level and is happy to retreat behind a door at night. It does not suit anyone who wants an evening on the pavement outside.
Read the whole of Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street05Booking it
Book Diamond Guest House if you want the centre on foot and a desk that stays open all night, and book early because a small house like this fills on weekdays. 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 Diamond Guest House?+
The address is Mihango Street, Nairobi, in the Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street area of the central business district. It is 0.15 km from the centre of Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street, so the shops, phone stalls and bus stops of that junction are within a short walk.
What does Diamond Guest House actually provide?+
It lists a 24 hour front desk, breakfast, free wifi, free car parking, luggage storage, dry cleaning, multilingual staff and a smoking area. That is the whole of the list. There is no restaurant, gym or pool, so treat it as a place to sleep and work rather than a full service hotel.
Is the area around Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street safe at night?+
No. The pavements here are the loudest and fullest in Kenya during the day, with hawkers, phone shops, preachers and buses, but the quarter thins out fast after the commute. Take a car after dark rather than walking, and keep to the main roads if you do go out.
How do I check availability at Diamond Guest House?+
Availability and room types are shown on app.impt.io, where you can see what is open for your dates and complete the booking. Most rooms there can be cancelled free, so you can hold a room while your plans settle without committing yourself to the stay.
