A three star hotel on Melili Road in Greater Nairobi, on wide industrial land. It works if you have a car and a reason to be in this quarter, and it does not work if you want the Central Business District at your door.
01What it is
Melili Hotel lists the practical things a working stay needs: a 24 hour front desk, free wifi, free car parking, lifts, laundry and dry cleaning, a restaurant and a cafe, and a meeting room. There is a wheelchair accessible route, cribs are available and babysitting can be arranged, and pets are not allowed. The list is thin on the leisure side, and a sofa bed and a surcharge are noted among the room facilities. The property is one to fifty rooms, so it stays small.
Melili Hotel sits on the industrial edge of Greater Nairobi, where the sheds are and where the traffic that feeds them starts. That is the whole case for it: you park, you sleep, you get to a meeting by car. It suits contractors, business travellers with their own transport, and families who need cribs and space. It does not suit anyone planning to walk to the Central Business District or looking for the bars and restaurants of the centre.
02The supplier's photographs
0316 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
These hotels are not in The Railway Quarter. They sit just outside the ten quarters this site covers, on the edge of the centre, and The Railway Quarter is only the nearest of the ten. What that means in practice is that you are in the wider city, not in the grid, and you will be travelling in and out for anything in the CBD.
The nearest quarter is the southern edge of the centre: wide industrial land, sheds, and the reason any of this is here. Nairobi exists because the Uganda Railway stopped here in 1899 to gather strength for the Rift, and the 1929 station, the old yards and the museum of locomotives sit on the CBD's southern boundary, ten minutes below Kenyatta Avenue; the quarter is 0.89 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 12 minutes on foot in a direct line. It is best for the museum, and for understanding the city's whole layout in one afternoon. After dark it is industrial and unlit in stretches. Daylight only, and a car back.
Read the nearest quarter, The Railway Quarter05Booking it
Book Melili Hotel if your plans run by car and you want the west side of the city rather than the middle of it. 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 Melili Hotel?+
It is on Melili Road in Greater Nairobi, not in the Central Business District. It stands 2.32 km from The Railway Quarter, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers, and 3.11 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 39 minutes on foot in a direct line.
What does the hotel have on site?+
A 24 hour front desk, free wifi, free car parking, lifts, laundry and dry cleaning, a restaurant, a cafe and a meeting room. There are cribs, babysitting can be arranged, and one wheelchair accessible route. Pets are not allowed. The property has between one and fifty rooms.
Can I walk into the Central Business District from here?+
You can, but it is a direct line walk of 3.11 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 39 minutes on foot in a direct line. The streets around the hotel are industrial and unlit in stretches, so this is a daylight walk only, and a car back after dark.
What does the guest score tell me?+
It holds 4.2 out of 5 from 880 reviews, which is a solid three star result and suggests guests get roughly what they expect. It does not turn the hotel into something it is not: this is a working base on the industrial edge, not a leisure address.
