A 3 star hotel on Ojijo Road in Greater Nairobi, with parking, a restaurant, a lounge and a 24 hour front desk. Whether it works for you comes down to one thing: you want the central quarter nearby but not the nights inside it, and you are not relying on that quarter for dinner or an evening out.
01What it is
Red Ruby Hotel is a 3 star property on Ojijo Road, in Greater Nairobi rather than inside the central quarter. The list is practical and leans towards the business stay: free wifi and internet access, a desk, a telephone, a 24 hour front desk, express check in, luggage storage and copy facilities. You get free car parking and a smoking area. Rooms are non smoking, with a bathroom, WC, shower, towels, toiletries, slippers and bathrobe. There is a restaurant, bars, a lounge, room service, breakfast in room, banquet space and special diets. Where the list thins is anything beyond that: no pool, no gym, no airport transfer, nothing for children beyond a cot if you ask.
For a stay, that adds up to a working hotel with the basics covered and nothing decorative. The room comes with the small things already in it, slippers, robe, toiletries, so you pack lighter. Coffee and breakfast in room save you going down, and room service covers a late night without leaving the building. Red Ruby Hotel suits someone coming to Nairobi for business or a short stop who wants a room, a desk, wifi and a parked car, and who does not need the hotel to be the evening. It does not suit you if you want to step out of the lobby into the centre at night, or if you expect a pool, a gym or a shuttle.
02The supplier's photographs
0333 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
These hotels sit outside the ten quarters of the centre this site covers. Biashara Street and City Market is only the nearest of the ten, and it is where you would be heading, not where you are sleeping. Take that as the shape of your stay: you are in the wider city, just outside the ten quarters, on the edge of the centre, and anything in the CBD means travelling in and out rather than stepping out of a lobby.
The quarter itself is the market one, 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line. 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. The streets are narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. It suits kikoi and kitenge cloth, curios without the tour-bus markup, and an hour of architecture. It is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so plan the return before that.
Read the nearest quarter, Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
Book Red Ruby Hotel if you want a working 3 star with parking and wifi rather than a central address, and confirm what you need before arrival. 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 is Red Ruby Hotel in Nairobi?+
It is on Ojijo Road, in Greater Nairobi, outside the central quarter. The listing puts it 2.12 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 27 minutes on foot in a direct line. That places you near the centre without being inside it, so plan how you cross that gap.
What does the hotel have in the room?+
Rooms are non smoking and come with a bathroom, WC, shower, towels, toiletries, slippers and bathrobe, plus a desk, TV, telephone, coffee and free wifi. There is a 24 hour front desk, room service, breakfast in room, luggage storage and housekeeping. No pool or gym is listed.
Can I park, and is there somewhere to eat?+
Free car parking is on the list, along with a smoking area. For food there is a restaurant, bars, a lounge, room service, breakfast in room and banquet space, and special diets can be catered for. Having your own car helps here, since the property sits outside the walkable centre.
What does the 4.2 guest score mean?+
It is 4.2 out of 5 from 442 reviews. That is a solid, consistent record rather than a perfect one, and it is what you would expect from a 3 star doing the basics well. Read the recent comments for what previous guests flagged, and weigh them against what you need from the room.
