A 3 star hotel on Magadi Road in Greater Nairobi, built around the car and the function room. What decides it for you is whether you have business out here or a reason to be in the centre, because this is not a base you can walk out of.
01What it is
The Smith Hotel is a 3 star property on Magadi Road, and the list it gives is long and largely practical. There is a 24 hour front desk, 24 hour security, air conditioning, free wifi, free car parking and a safe, which is the core of the offer. On top of that come a fitness centre, an outdoor pool with a pool bar, a garden and terrace, a lounge, a games room with darts and karaoke, a night club, restaurants, a bar, room service up to breakfast in the room, laundry, dry cleaning and a business centre with copy facilities. Where the list is thin is everything off its own grounds: Greater Nairobi is car country, and the property leans on its own car rental and shuttle rather than on anything you can reach on foot.
For someone staying here, The Smith Hotel works as a self contained place: you arrive, you eat, you swim, you use the gym, you sleep, and you drive to whatever brought you. That suits conference and banquet groups, families who want the playground, family rooms and babysitting, and anyone whose day is already out this way. It does not suit a visitor who wants the Central Business District at the door. The distance to Upper Hill and Community, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers, is real, and you will use the shuttle or a car. Pets are allowed, there are non smoking rooms, and the address is a driving address.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 14 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
These hotels are not in Upper Hill and Community, 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 Upper Hill and Community is only the nearest of the ten quarters to them, which is not the same as being in it. Treat the quarter as a reference point, not an address. Anything you want in the CBD means travelling in and out.
The quarter itself is the western ridge above the centre: new concrete on a ridge, built for the car and the conference room. It is not the CBD proper but the ridge immediately above it, and the place most of the CBD's office space has been moving to since the 2000s: the tallest towers in the country, the big hospitals, the aid agencies, and an expressway ramp to the airport. It is best for meetings, a quiet night close in, and a fast run to the airport, and after dark it is safe and dull: hotel bars, and a ride anywhere else. The quarter lies 1.9 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 24 minutes on foot in a direct line.
Read the nearest quarter, Upper Hill and Community05Booking it
Book The Smith Hotel if your reason for being in Nairobi is already on this side of the city and you want everything on one plot, rather than if you mean to spend your days in 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 is The Smith Hotel?+
It is on Magadi Road in Greater Nairobi. It sits 18.22 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 228 minutes on foot in a direct line, so treat it as a place you reach by car and leave by car, not on foot.
What does The Smith Hotel actually list?+
The property lists a 24 hour front desk, 24 hour security, air conditioning, free wifi, free car parking, a safe, a fitness centre, an outdoor pool and pool bar, a garden, a lounge, a games room, a night club, restaurants and a business centre, among other things.
What is it like getting into the centre from here?+
It is not a walking proposition. Greater Nairobi is built for the car, the hotel runs a shuttle and a car rental service, and the honest answer is that you organise a ride for anything beyond the grounds, including anywhere in the centre.
What does the guest score mean?+
The Smith Hotel scores 4.2 out of 5 from 3090 reviews. That is a solid, settled record rather than a perfect one, and it lines up with a large 3 star property that does the practical things well and keeps its guests on site.
