A four star homestay in Greater Nairobi, set on Kigwaru Gardens Drive at the city's transport edge rather than in the centre itself. It has a kitchen, a garden and parking. Whether it works for you depends on whether you have a car, because this is not somewhere you walk out of an evening.
01What it is
Melrose Homestay & Garden lists the things a self-contained house needs rather than the things a hotel sells. There is a kitchen with an oven, microwave, refrigerator and coffee, a lounge with a fireplace, a dining desk and a sofa bed, and rooms with a balcony or terrace onto a garden. Bathrooms come with a shower, WC, towels and slippers. Housekeeping, laundry service, cleaning, sheets, an iron and board, free wifi and free car parking are listed, along with a safe, smoke detector, first aid, non smoking rooms and family rooms. Pets are allowed. The list is thin on hotel furniture: the bars entry is not backed up by a restaurant, there is no gym, and no airport transfer is named.
What it adds up to is a house in Greater Nairobi with the facilities of a house, nine and a bit kilometres out from the centre. Melrose Homestay & Garden suits a family or a small group arriving by car who want space, a kitchen and a garden, and who will treat the city as a place to drive into rather than to step out into. It does not suit anyone without a vehicle, anyone who wants to walk to dinner, or anyone whose days are built around the CBD. The street is a flyover, a roundabout and a market that starts before the light does, a transport edge rather than an evening one, crossed by car.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 2 more on the supplier's own record. Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
These hotels are not in Ngara and the Globe, and they are not in any of the ten quarters this site covers. They sit a long way out, in the wider city, and Ngara and the Globe is only the nearest of the ten. Treat that as the honest starting point: you are outside the centre, and anything you want in the CBD means travelling in and back out again.
The quarter itself is the northern edge, where the grid loosens and the roads north begin. The Globe Cinema roundabout is the CBD's northern hinge, the fruit market beside it opens at four in the morning, and Museum Hill is the next rise beyond. The street feel is a flyover, a roundabout, and a market that starts before the light does. It suits early markets and the walk up to the National Museum, and it is a transport edge rather than an evening one, crossed by car. The quarter sits 0.81 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 11 minutes on foot in a direct line, but that measures the quarter, not your hotel.
Read the nearest quarter, Ngara and the Globe05Booking it
Book Melrose Homestay & Garden once you have settled how you will get around, because the car parking matters more here than the room type. 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 Melrose Homestay & Garden?+
It is on Kigwaru Gardens Drive in Greater Nairobi, outside the central business district. The address sits 9.1 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 114 minutes on foot in a direct line, so treat it as a base you reach by vehicle rather than on foot from the centre.
What does the property actually have?+
A kitchen with oven, microwave, refrigerator and coffee, a lounge with fireplace, a garden, balcony or terrace, family rooms, non smoking rooms, laundry, housekeeping, free wifi and free car parking. Pets are allowed. There is no restaurant named and no gym, and the bars entry stands without a listed kitchen for it.
How do I get into the centre from here?+
By car. The property is 8.41 km from Ngara and the Globe, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers, and the road out is a transport edge rather than an evening one. Plan to drive in and back rather than to walk, especially after dark.
How do I check availability and cancel?+
Availability and room types are shown when you book through app.impt.io. Most rooms there can be cancelled free, so if your plans around the car and the drive into town are uncertain, that gives you room to change your mind.
