A four star hotel on Waiyaki Way in Westlands, with parking, a restaurant and a shuttle, and a location that only works if your day is on the western side of the city or you are content to reach the centre another way.
01What it is
Raha Hotel & Suites lists the working pieces of a four star stay: a 24 hour front desk and security, free wifi, free parking, a restaurant with breakfast and lunch, room service, laundry, a lounge, luggage storage, currency exchange, car rental and a shuttle service. Rooms come with a desk, refrigerator, safe, TV, shower and WC, and there are non smoking rooms and a smoking area. What the list is thin on is leisure: no pool, no gym, no garden or outdoor space of any kind is given.
What that adds up to is a hotel built for a working stay rather than a holiday. Raha Hotel & Suites sits in Westlands on Waiyaki Way, which is 4.28 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 54 minutes on foot in a direct line, and it is 3.68 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. That removes it from the centre and from easy wandering, so the hotel suits someone with business in Westlands or the western side, or with a car, and it does not suit a visitor who wants to walk out of the lobby into the Central Business District.
02The supplier's photographs
0335 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 Raha Hotel & Suites if your plans put you in Westlands rather than the centre, since the shuttle and the free parking are the parts of the offer you will actually use. 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 Raha Hotel & Suites?+
It is on Waiyaki Way in Westlands, at Westlands Court on Waiyaki Lane, in Greater Nairobi. That puts it west of the centre and away from it, so the address matters more than usual when you decide whether to stay here.
What facilities does the hotel list?+
A 24 hour front desk, security, free wifi, free parking, a restaurant with breakfast and lunch, room service, laundry, a lounge, luggage storage, currency exchange, car rental and a shuttle. Rooms have a desk, fridge, safe, TV, shower and WC. No pool or gym is listed.
How do I get into the Central Business District from here?+
You do not walk it. The hotel lists a shuttle service and car rental, and there is free parking if you drive yourself. The centre is not on the doorstep, so plan the trip there and back rather than expecting to stroll in from the lobby.
How do I check availability at Raha Hotel & Suites?+
Availability and room types are shown through the booking link on this page, where you also confirm the dates you want. Most rooms can be cancelled free, so you can hold a room while you settle your plans.
