A three star hotel on Raphta Road in Greater Nairobi, out beyond the quarter this site covers, with a garden, a restaurant and parking that you drive into. Book it if you have a car and want quiet, and look elsewhere if you plan to walk into the centre.
01What it is
PrideInn Hotel Raphta carries a three star rating and lists the working basics rather than anything more. There are 51 to 100 rooms, a 24 hour front desk, free wifi, free bottled water, free parking, a restaurant and a bar, room service around the clock, and a garden with a picnic area. Rooms come with a bathroom, shower, towels, toiletries, a bathrobe, a hairdryer, an iron and board, a safe, a fan, a TV and, on some, a balcony. The list is thin on the side that matters to a business guest: there is a meeting room and concierge, but no fitness room, no pool, no airport transfer and no stated business centre.
What that adds up to at PrideInn Hotel Raphta is a plain hotel that does the housekeeping well and expects you to arrive by car. The front desk is staffed at every hour, there is laundry and dry cleaning, luggage storage, a wheelchair accessible entrance and wedding services, which suggests the property leans on functions and on guests who stay more than one night. It suits drivers, families in adjoining rooms, and anyone who wants a garden and a bar at the end of the day. It does not suit a visitor whose trip is the centre itself.
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
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 PrideInn Hotel Raphta if you are driving and want the quiet of Raphta Road rather than a base inside the centre. 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 PrideInn Hotel Raphta?+
It is on Raphta Road in Greater Nairobi, 4.21 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. That puts it outside the walking centre, so treat it as a base you reach by car rather than on foot.
Is it a good base for the Central Business District?+
Only with a vehicle. It sits 4.83 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 61 minutes on foot in a direct line. Coming back in the evening along that line is not something to plan on, so decide on transport before you book.
What does the hotel actually offer in the room?+
Each room lists a bathroom, shower, towels, toiletries, a bathrobe, a hairdryer, a safe, a fan, a TV and, on some, a balcony. Free wifi, free bottled water and an iron and board are there too, and the room list stops at those basics.
What does the guest score tell me?+
It has 4.3 out of 5 from 1230 reviews. That is a solid, consistent return across a lot of stays, which fits a three star hotel doing the plain things well: staffed desk, laundry, parking and a garden. It does not promise more than that.
