A 3 star hotel on Moi Avenue opposite Jevanjee Gardens, built for people whose day is in the CBD: business travellers, shoppers at City Market, anyone here on appointments. The guest score is strong, the facility list is long. What decides it is that this quarter empties in the late afternoon.
01What it is
The Clarion Hotel lists the full working set: 24 hour front desk, concierge, business center, meeting room, free wifi, lifts, luggage storage, laundry and dry cleaning. It also lists a restaurant, a cafe, bars, a lounge, a fitness center, a spa and shops on site, with free car parking, a shuttle service and wheelchair access, and it is a 3 star property. The list is thin in one place: a spa is named, but nothing in the facts says what treatments it offers or when it is open. There is a surcharge somewhere in the facilities, and the facts do not say where.
What The Clarion Hotel sells is convenience inside the working day. You can hold a meeting, eat, print, park and sleep without leaving the building, which matters in a quarter where the halls shut in the late afternoon. It suits people whose Nairobi is appointments, suppliers and City Market, and who want a room close to all of it. It does not suit anyone hoping to step out after dark. Away from the office hours, this is a quiet part of the centre, and The Clarion is a base, not a night out.
02The supplier's photographs
0324 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing in Biashara Street and City Market
These hotels sit in Biashara Street and City Market, the market quarter, narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. This is 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. The quarter sits 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line.
This is a daytime quarter. The halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so plan on being elsewhere for the evening and for a ride back. It suits anyone who wants cloth, flowers, market produce and old city fabric on the doorstep, and it does not suit anyone who wants company after dark or a hotel bar to fall into.
Read the whole of Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
Book The Clarion Hotel if your days are in the CBD and your evenings are early. 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 The Clarion Hotel in Nairobi?+
On Moi Avenue, opposite Jevanjee Gardens. It sits 0.43 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 6 minutes on foot in a direct line, and 0.33 km from the centre of Biashara Street and City Market. That puts it inside the business district, not on its edge.
What facilities does The Clarion Hotel have?+
A 24 hour front desk, concierge, business center, meeting room, restaurant, cafe, bars, lounge, fitness center, spa, shops, free wifi, free car parking, lifts, laundry, dry cleaning and luggage storage. Some facilities carry a surcharge, and the facts do not say which, so ask at the desk.
What is the area around the hotel like?+
The street is narrow and shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one family wide. It is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. Plan dinners and evenings elsewhere, or stay in the hotel bar.
What does the guest score mean?+
The property carries 4.2 out of 5 from 2139 reviews, a solid score across a large number of stays. That is a strong signal for a 3 star hotel in the CBD. It tells you the basics are handled, not that the place is luxurious.
