A four star apart-hotel on Lower Kabete Road, west of the centre and far enough out that the city is a separate trip rather than the view from the window. It suits longer stays and people with their own transport. It does not suit anyone who wants to walk to the Central Business District.
01What it is
The Arches Accola lists apartments rather than single rooms, and the kitchen is the centre of the offer: an oven, a microwave, a refrigerator and a washing machine, with towels, sheets, toiletries and cleaning provided. There are family rooms, a desk, an iron and board, a TV, free wifi, free car parking, a balcony, a terrace and a garden. Rooms are carpeted and non smoking, with a bathroom and WC, a shower, a smoke detector, an alarm clock and a wake-up service. The list is thin on the things a hotel normally supplies: no restaurant, no bar and no gym appear at all, and the four star rating rests on the apartments and the parking rather than on service.
What that adds up to is a base for a stay that runs to weeks rather than a night or two. At The Arches Accola you cook, you wash your own clothes and you park your own car, and the balcony, terrace and garden give you somewhere to sit that is not the room. The Arches Accola sits 14.2 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. It suits families, people on longer assignments and anyone driving. It does not suit a visitor who wants the centre on foot.
02The supplier's photographs
0330 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 Biashara Street and City Market, and they are not in any of the ten quarters of the centre this site covers. They sit a long way out, in the wider city, and Biashara Street and City Market is only the nearest of the ten quarters, the closest thing to a centre you can point to. You are outside the grid, in Greater Nairobi, and you will be travelling in and out for anything in the CBD.
The quarter you would be travelling to is the market quarter. 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 narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. Best for 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. 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 The Arches Accola if you want an apartment with a kitchen and parking rather than a room with a restaurant downstairs, and check the calendar before you commit to dates. 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 The Arches Accola?+
It is on Lower Kabete Road, in Greater Nairobi, well outside the Central Business District. The site records it as 14.82 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 186 minutes on foot in a direct line, and 14.2 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers.
What does the property actually list in the rooms?+
Apartments with a kitchen, including an oven, a microwave and a refrigerator, plus a washing machine, towels, sheets, toiletries, cleaning, a TV, a desk and free wifi. There is a bathroom and WC with a shower, a smoke detector, an alarm clock and a wake-up service. Family rooms, a balcony, a terrace, a garden and free car parking are listed.
What is getting into the centre from Greater Nairobi like?+
It is a separate journey, not a walk. The nearest quarter, Biashara Street and City Market, is 14.2 km away. The central quarter is a daytime one: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so plan to arrive while it is still light and to travel back by car or taxi.
How do I check availability and hold a room?+
Go to app.impt.io and pick your dates. Most rooms here can be cancelled free, so you can hold one while you sort out transport, and the booking is confirmed on the spot. The site has no prices, so check the calendar for what is open on the nights you want.
