A four star suite hotel on the Kilimani ridge, next to Yaya Centre, built around the car and the conference room. It suits people in Nairobi for meetings who want security, parking and a dining room on site, and it does not suit anyone hoping to walk into the centre.
01What it is
Zarafa Suites Hotel lists the full apparatus of a business hotel: 24 hour security, parking, lifts and a cloakroom, a restaurant, room service, banquet space, a concierge and laundry. It adds a barber and beauty salon, massage, a casino, shops, car rental and a shuttle service, with babysitting and medical service on call. The list is broad rather than deep. There is no pool, no gym and no garden, and the leisure side is largely outsourced to the salon, the massage room and the casino.
For someone staying at Zarafa Suites Hotel, that adds up to a working base in Kilimani, next to Yaya Centre, on a ridge of new concrete. You arrive by car, park, eat in the building and meet in the banquet rooms. It is safe and dull after dark: hotel bars, and a ride anywhere else. It suits conference and business travellers, and families who want babysitting and a doctor on call. It does not suit anyone who wants the centre on foot.
02The supplier's photographs
0319 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 Upper Hill and Community, and they are not in any of the ten quarters this site covers. They sit just outside the ten quarters, on the edge of the centre, and Upper Hill and Community is only the nearest of the ten. That puts you in the wider city rather than in the grid itself, so anything in the CBD means travelling in and out rather than stepping out of a lobby into it.
The ridge above the centre is new concrete, built for the car and the conference room: 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 sits 1.9 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 24 minutes on foot in a direct line, though that is the quarter's own distance and not a walk from these hotels.
Read the nearest quarter, Upper Hill and Community05Booking it
Book Zarafa Suites Hotel if your days are in Kilimani or the conference rooms and your evenings are a taxi. 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 Zarafa Suites Hotel?+
The address is Kilimani, Nairobi, next to Yaya Centre. It sits on the Kilimani ridge, 4.09 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 52 minutes on foot in a direct line. The street is new concrete, built for the car and the conference room.
What facilities does the hotel list?+
It lists 24 hour security, parking, lifts, a restaurant, room service, banquet space, a concierge, laundry, a barber and beauty salon, massage, a casino, shops, car rental, a shuttle service, babysitting and medical service. There is no pool, gym or garden.
How do I get into central Nairobi from here?+
Kilimani is in Greater Nairobi, 2.64 km from Upper Hill and Community, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. This is a daytime quarter and the halls shut in the late afternoon. Plan on a car or the shuttle for the centre, not a walk.
What does the guest score mean?+
The score is 4.4 out of 5 from 9 reviews. That is a small sample, so read it as a general signal rather than a settled verdict. It suggests people who stay here are broadly satisfied, but there is not enough volume to call it conclusive.
