Kiriri Garden Hotel

Location: The hotel is situated on Kiriri hills, providing stunning panoramic views of Bujumbura and Lake Tanganyika. It is conveniently located near the city center and government buildings, offering a safe and peaceful environment for guests to enjoy.(based on 1 review)

We booked an Executive Suite which was on the third floor with large windows on two sides and great views of the city and Lake Tanganyika in the distance. The suite was large and nicely furnished but there was not one single shelf or drawer for clothes. These are the good features but now for the long list of bad. The water in the sink and shower was a trickle and the temperature was impossible to adjust, so it was always either scalding hot or very cold. It took three complaints to reception before they finally fixed the pressure a little but not the temperature on our last of three nights. There was no box of tissues or slippers and when we called to ask for them we were told to use toilet paper, or they are available for sale in the hotel shop. There were no amenities whatsoever. The first night my wife and I both ordered the local grilled Capitaine fish, which we’ve had many time in other countries on this 7 week African trip and loved, but here we think the fish washed up on shore after it died of old age. The wine prices are very high even for mediocre wines but I suppose that’s because of import duties. Service was very slow and unfriendly to boot. The staff are very poorly trained, actually not really trained at all. Only one young, female server ever smiled and made us feel welcome. The breakfast buffet is poor especially for an alleged 5 star hotel. In the afternoon it took forever for the waiter to understand that my wife wanted a glass of wine and not a whole bottle, and that’s even though we speak French. On the last night, after a big lunch, we just split a $25 pizza for dinner and it gets the award for the absolute worst pizza ever, one that we suspect was a commercial frozen one. We loved Burundi, which far exceeded our expectations but this hotel was horrible.

It is likely the nicest hotel in Bujumbura. Comfortable bed, spacious room, rain shower head, good Indian food. Wifi is not great, music from bar can be heard in rooms, smell from bathroom. Staff at front desk is not friendly, they do the bare minimum. You pay in full when you arrive, they accept credit cards and dollars, you cannot use up your BIFs to pay them. No ATM in the lobby and the hotel does not offer exchange services. There is an elevator to the room. The room is spacious with a comfortable large bed. One side of the hotel has a nice view of the pool, garden and city view but you also get noise from the bar. The other side has view of the street with people running. The rain shower head is nice but no door to the shower so the floor gets wet. I stayed in two separate rooms over two nights and both had a smell of sewer in the bathroom. In one the smell was so bad that I switched rooms, but the second room had a similar issue. The smell also affects the towels in the room. I find that the biggest negative about the room. There is tea in the room but no coffee. There is a safe but the battery was low. One room had a USB port but it wasn’t working. A second room did not have a USB port. Buffet Breakfast is included but it is the same every day, it gets tiring, the hotel needs to mix things up. There is an omelette station, low quality black coffee, fruit, vegetables, breads, cooked foods that are supposed to be hot but are cold. By the last day I really wanted to go elsewhere for breakfast. If you want better coffee go to the lobby, they have an espresso machine, but cappuccino is 17,000 BIF. The spa is nice. 100,000 for hot stone or hot towel massage, 40,000 for gel manicure and 45,000 for regular pedicure. Brigitte the masseuse is good as well as Belyse for nails.