Name: Changu Beach Resort
Address: Paje Road Jambiani,Paje Road, Paje, Paje, Paje, 0000, Tanzania
Rating: 7

Air conditioning

Smoking areas

Ticket assistance

Express check-in/check-out

Garden

Outdoor furniture

General

Room service

Family room

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Wardrobe/Closet

Mosquito net

Rooms

Ironing

Laundry

Luggage storage

Wake-up service

Services and amenities

Diet menu (on request)

Restaurant

Snack bar

Packed Lunches

Meals

Internet access

Internet

Airport transportation

Car rental

Transfer

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Bike rental

Fishing

Sun Deck

Recreation

Parking

Swimming pool

Outdoor pool

Beach facilities

Water sport facilities

Private beach

Beach/pool towels

Next to the beach

Pool and beach

Fax and copy machine

Business

Diving

Cycling

Snorkelling

Sports

Beauty services

Beauty and wellness

Babysitting and childcare

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the resort

Room amenities

Zanzibar International Airport

Changu Beach Resort

Paje

Despite a nice setting in front of the water, we were very disappointed, as an impression of being fooled... the restaurant is to be avoided absolutely, very expensive, not good.

Running away

We stayed for a week and loved it here.  It has all of of what you would look for in a resort without paying the high rate.  Excellent value.  The pool was bigger and cleaner than several resorts nearby.  The room was basic but clean.  The bathroom, very basic, but had what it needed.
Screens on windows and mosquito nets were good.  We had a room with a balcony in the building a bit away from the water and we were very happy with it because it gave us a private place to sit. The staff are lovely and friendly.  The beach front restaurant was a great location.  We got a great breeze coming in from the water every day and it was nice to eat with a view. Many of the resort restaurants have the restaurant away from the beach, so this was nice. Wifi was available only at the restaurant. And there were lots of places to relax on the property as well. I would come back here again.

Excellent location, with AC and Pool.

I'm putting this down in bullet points (there's so many points to make) and supplying photos as evidence. 

In summary, this area is beautiful, but just DO NOT risk your holiday staying at this place and certainly don't pay money up front to this dodgy manager Ernest before seeing it in person.

- Broken pool tiles that cut my daughter's feet, twice.

- Broken sheets of glass in the back entrance area.

- Filthy bathrooms with water often not working (i.e. no showers or able to flush toilets), and no hot water.

- Very dodgy electrical work in bathrooms (waiting for a serious accident to happen).

- Air conditioning either poor or not working (took them hours to replace batteries in remote control to then find out it didn't work after all). One of our two room's airconditioning was programmed to only come on at night - and no one had any idea how to change it.

- It took HOURS for food to arrive (I'm not kidding, even a simple frozen pizza heated up)

- We even assemble a bed in our room after it was dumped out the front. Due to there being not enough rooms for our group (despite paying in full upfront and sending several email confirmations), Ernest ended up buying some bed frames and mattresses which were dumped outside with no instructions on assembly.

 - Rooms are not cleaned every day, there weren't enough towels and you need to ask for extra toilet paper (which they ran out of on one day).

 - Frequent power cuts.

   - The light in of of our rooms wasn't working - after asking several times to fix it they attempted to change the bulb. When that didn't work they abandoned it altogether with no explanation.

- Staff are nice, but the manager hasn't trained them (they bring a tea pot, but forget the tea bag and cup. They bring breakfast, but forget cutlery EVERY MORNING)..

- They only accept cash on site, not credit cards.

- Internet does not work in rooms, only in bar area.

- If you do eat here, I suggest to look at their kitchen fridge beforehand - full of fungus. 

- Ernest makes Basil Faulty look competent. He resorts to hiding in his room or drives away to avoid awkward conversations and doesn't answer his phone. Staff won't do anything without this autocratic manager giving his approval. 

- We witnessed several families arrive only to be told to "wait for Ernest" as no rooms were allocated/available (we saw one couple actually give up and leave to the neighbouring hotel after being told to wait for hours on end, with no replies from Ernest).
  
Above all else - and perhaps most frustratingly - there was never any attempt at apology, Ernest was arrogant and defensive, and left his poor staff to deal with angry customers at the first opportunity. We had to fend for ourselves.  

Overall, this place is severely neglected at best, dangerous at worst!

I hope this feedback saves the holidays of others visiting beautiful Zanzibar.

Ernest, don't bother responding to this - read and understand what damage you're causing to others.

Severely neglected at best, dangerous at worst - DO NOT RISK YOUR HOLIDAY HERE

We were traveling to Zanzibar with a group of friends for new years. Ernest, the owner and manager of Change Beach hotel, had received some positive reviews so we contacted him in October to arrange for accommodation for 3 nights. Ernest insisted that we pay the entire amount upfront to secure the rooms, so we obliged and made payment in October.

Fast forward to the December 31st: We arrived in Zanzibar at around 1pm, tired from the trip and eager to get to our hotel. Ernest met us in Stone Town an hour later. He casually informs us that there are no rooms in his hotel, as he has sold them to someone else, and that as an alternative we should stay in some lodging in Stone town for the night. It wasn't a suggestion, he was telling us that was what we should do because he would not be offering us accommodation for the night. He made no efforts to find us alternative accommodation that worked for us. (Note: Stone Town and the hotel we had booked was about a 2hr drive apart. Our hotel was along the beach and we had also made plans (pre-paid for) to have dinner and attend a beach party within the beach area.) 
We sourced for accommodation on our own and had to split up the group due to availability issues.

Next day: We now head over to Changu Beach. Rooms were still not ready. We had booked 4 rooms. Got access to 3rooms at around 6pm, and access to the 4th at around - 10pm. (We later found out that the 4th room had actually been occupied, but the guests decided to leave because they were not satisfied with the conditions). So if those people hadn't left, we would have been less one room.

Hotel issues: Towels not readily available. We were given 1 towel per room, and told there were no more towels available. We had to ask to be provided with bathing soap. Food takes 2 hrs minimum to prepare. Rooms were not cleaned from the day of our arrival until we left. Hotel staff not professional.

We eventually got our money back for the night we did not spend at Changu  Beach.

In summary, not a pleasant experience at all. I will not be going back to Changu Beach Hotel.

Sad state of affairs - Not going back

Writing from the comfort of my living room. Extremely upset that an almost perfect vacation was ruined by Ernest and his team of incompetent staff at Changu Beach Resort. 

Fast rewind - We were a group of 9 friends most of whom were visiting Zanzibar for the first time. To ensure that we secured our booking, we spoke to Ernest the owner in early October. Ernest insisted that we settle the whole amount prior to arrival. This was rather odd but we needed a place to stay desperately as we were running out of time and costs were rising by the day. We paid. EveryGaddumb dollar for the whole stay! Having confirmed our booking of four rooms, we embarked on intricate plans to ensure that ushering 2019 was a success. 

On New Years eve we arrived in Zanzibar and Ernest insisted on meeting us in Stone Town as opposed to us finding him at his hotel. Things went SOUTH hereon onwards. Ernest informed us that he had sold our rooms for the first night and booked us in a sub par motel in Stone Town - 90minutes away from where we were meant to be! Inconvenienced and without any refund, we were left to find our own place to stay. 

On 1st of January, we arrived at Changu Beach Resort and despite having booked four rooms, only three were available.. We were forced to stay outside waiting for existing guests to leave and rooms to be cleaned. We got access at 5pm - not midday as previously advised. Ernest was nowhere to be seen and his phone was off the whole day. 

The fourth room was only available at 7:30 pm! The rooms were basic. No towels available. There was water rationing so the shower kept going off mid shower. Not to mention the extremely low pressure. 

The food took four hours every time we ordered and the staff were unapologetic and some times rude. The customer experience was appalling.

Breakfast included two pancakes, eggs, a banana, a tiny watermelon slice and an overripe  pawpaw. Not that this is bad but it would be nice to disclaim the menu prior to visitors booking to stay at the hotel. 

Did I mention that there is no wifi in the rooms?

At the end we counted our losses, cornered Ernest into refunding our money for the first night and went on to find our own fun. 

We left today pretty disappointed and annoyed. Blacklisted this establishment and would strongly advise against staying here.

Look away!

Upsetting New Year experience. NOT RECOMMENDED. Look away

We planned to stay here in December -January over the new year period. We met our host (Ernest) in Stone Town to organise transport to the hot and he proceeded to unceremoniously inform us that we should stay in stone town for the night of 31st because it was a better idea. It turned out that he had sold our rooms to other guests and without consultation paid for accomodation for us in Stone Town.

Since we had evening plans in Jambiani, we could not stay in Stone Town and we had to organise and pay for our own accomodation for 31st despite the fact that we had paid to stay in Changu(in full ) over 2months prior.

Accomodation- Basic accomodation but the main problem is they dont clean the rooms daily. We didnt get towels or sheets in all the rooms. Bathroom is terrible.

Food- The food is okay. It takes a while to prepare though since everything is done from scratch.

Cleaniliness- The hotel needs to clean its common areas and the rooms on a daily basis. We ate outside one night and they still hadnt cleaned it the next day.

Host is the worst. Hotel is basic

The recommendation was only for the resort's restaurant. After testing the bar in the afternoon that offers very competitive drinks, we decided to have dinner at the restaurant that evening. Wrong! We ordered 2 changu, the restaurant's specialty. The fish, besides being small in size, were not very good: cooking with oil and not grilled on fire. Not so tasty. In short, very disappointing. Okay for the bar, level resto, go your way!

Disappointing restaurant.

The truth is, I don't know how to score this establishment. The staff is trying. The owner is trying. But no. No problem is being said all the time. In that sense, it relieves me because I no longer feel the pressure of coming from the country tomorrow. From the kitchen the first few days, having to sleep in the weather in a hammock the last night due to a lack of electricity and unbearable heat. I still have another night without electricity and consequently without air conditioning. Another night in a hammock for that local weather. However, the site, which is not the accommodation, is fine. I could go on but no if it is worth the trouble of wasting time wasting the tide and getting the positive out of the site. I need to improve (Nothing) in the long run, I want you to receive a respectful and respectful approach, and I hope that all of you will always try to solve these problems.

Everything is susceptible to improvement or deterioration.

I got a room near the bar. It was a small room with air conditioning. In the room was a bed and a cabinet with shelves. The bathroom was very small. The room had a problem with water pressure and no hot water at all. The problem was not solved, because most of the rest was spent in hotels with friends and showered there. The towel was not given until she asked. The water was also always asked. The service staff were mostly smiling girls, but more helpful with the boys. The food didn't like it, there was nothing to compare, because they ate in other places. The territory was good, the pool, the beds, the quality. But it wouldn't stop here.

I wouldn't have stopped in this place anymore.

My experience with this restaurant has been declining: first time small fish and lobster at an affordable price (too much), but the second time I found myself almost doubled in prices and poor service with a waitress who dared to stop me - two days later - on the beach asking me for more money because she had made the wrong calculation.....experience not to be advised

Changu Beach Resort

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