Hotel berhampiran Paroisse Saint Joseph, Dakar

Lovely hotel and facilities are wonderful. Rooms very comfortable with great beds and good showers. Nice amenities too... robes, slippers, etc. One disappointment was the inconsistency in the service we received. For instance, went to the restaurant in the hotel. No one stopped by our table for about 20 minutes, and finally we flagged someone and ordered drinks to start. 40 minutes later, we still had not gotten our drinks - so we left the restaurant and instead went upstairs to the lounge. Service was excellent there. Another example, the pool is open until 8 p.m., but found it impossible to get a towel at 5:30 p.m. Just a bit disappointing for a 5-star resort.

A few days prior to my stay, I sent an email enquiring about airport transfers as my flight would arrive in the middle of the night. No reply. On my day of arrival, after having organized the transfer myself, I called the hotel to let them know I will be coming very late, and they did pick up the phone and spoke English. (And they finally replied to my email after I had checked in and stayed one night, only to let me know they do not organize transfers and referred me to Hertz...) The receptionists speak English and seem reasonably friendly. Check-in was quick, check-out not so. The room was very bare bones, cramped and ascetic, with a rather strong, musty smell hanging around. The floor was made of hard plastic and was filthy, don't wear white socks! There was no luggage rack, probably because there simply is no room for one. There was, however, a desk and chair, a safe and a bed that's great for one person but would be incredibly narrow for two. The pillows were worn out and lumpy. For a hotel built in 2011, I would expect power outlets by the bed, but that was not the case here. No fridge. A/C worked well enough for December, but won't probably be too helpful in summer. Wifi was free and unlimited, but spotty and slow. Don't plan on teleconferencing here. A 0.5 L water bottle was provided and replenished daily. The bathroom came with no bars of soap or shampoo. There was a wall-mounted liquid soap container on the wall, similar to the ones you can find in public toilets. It said, ”hair, body and face wash”. I guess you could wash your dog, clothes and car with it, too. There was a bath mat and two bath towels, no hand towels provided. Water in the handheld shower was warm and pressure was okay. The carpets in the hallways were in desparate need of deep cleaning. Buffet breakfast was served in the lobby from 6:30 to 10 and cost a reasonable 8000 CFA. It was your usual affair: nothing to get excited about, but it will give you a good start of the day. Some hot and cold items, juices, yoghurt. The fresh fruit was nice and the croissants excellent. The same compound has a Novotel hotel right next door, and their informal restaurant on the ground floor serves lunch and dinner. There is a buffet (dinner 17 000 CFA) as well as à la carte, including the famous chicken yassa. The pool is shared by the Novotel and the Ibis. While their homepage claims it is heated, this was not the case, and in December, nights are cool so the water was a bit cold, but bearable. It was open from 9 am to 7 pm. The pool attendant was a grumpy old man who wanted your room number but didn't understand English, not even numbers. Pool towels were left to dry in the sun and then reused without washing, which is absolutely disgusting. I suspected it at first and then got proof by seeing the attendant simply place used towels to dry on furniture on the pool deck, folding them nicely afterwards. And then checked my towel to see that it was both filthy and smelly. Wow. Th

I’m in two minds about this hotel - there’s a lot of great aspects but equally a lot of improvements needed. In the days leading up to my stay I tried to reach out for assistance with transport from the hotel, but unfortunately there was no response to email and difficulty with English over the phone. Fortunately taxis are easy enough to source at the airport but allow at least an hour, and my return took two hours in peak traffic. Checking in was an easy process with staff on hand to help with luggage despite it being an early hour of the morning. Staff were friendly and quickly explained the facilities and although it felt a basic affair it was quick. My room was on the same level as reception and was listed as a Superior Single room. Fortunately this didn’t equate to only having a single bed and the room was pretty spacious. With a tiled floor throughout and effective air-conditioning it was a cool room despite the hot weather and with a separated living area by a step it would be a comfortable space for an extended stay. There was a large desk with kettle but only a single coffee sachet provided, which felt tight despite the single occupancy. There was a large bottle of mineral water however. The TV was wall mounted opposite the bed, a decent enough size for the room but with rather poor picture quality and only a single channel in English from the US. The selling point for the hotel rooms has to be the sea facing views though, along with the balconies. This is a nice space with the seats and the sound of waves crashing on the rocks below a great feature, although I’m not sure I’d feel so relaxed during stormy weather! The bathroom was an okay space with plenty of storage space around the sink. Again, only a single item of each toiletry was provided, and none of them seemed to match, but there were enough towels of decent enough quality. Bizarrely the toilet seat was too small for the actual toilet and there was no form of door or curtain on the shower which made it feel a bit of work-in-progress area. The shower head was good, but with very sensitive temperature control and inconsistent heat, but at least a large unit. Overall it was a comfortable enough room. There were some bugs which could be found, small within the lower living room area, some larger hiding in the gaps around the wardrobe, but not something which couldn’t be put to the back of the mind. A lot of the decor appeared to be water damaged and was really due a touch up, both within the bathroom and main bedroom ceiling. Housekeeping weren’t always the quietest in the morning, but they always observed the privacy sign and there was zero noise from the adjacent rooms. On the lower level is the restaurant, and below that the bar. Both overlook the ocean but have very limited seating outdoors. The air-conditioning inside is very effective and the staff all very friendly, but somewhat limited with English. With the lights off during the day it didn’t always feel the most cosy

For the price, I expected average. This hotel is amazing. Gym, restaurant, cityscape view, and 5-star service. It’ in the center of the city so easy access to everything. Highly recommend if you’ll be doing lots of touring. Would definitely stay here again.

Great location, very clean and professional. Employees are also super friendly. I would suggest to the managers to developp a ”culture” of tips (ei; puting an envelopp in the rooms so clients can show their appréciation of the cleaning, add the option for tips in the interac machines used at the restaurant on the fort floor,etc.) so the employees get increased working conditions.

This place is truly awful. I travel Africa for a living so I have experienced many lovely hotels across the continent. This is not one of them. The place is palatial - I would describe it as ”faded decadence, a relic from the past”. The rooms are perpetually damp and uncomfortable, with A/C that cannot be shut off so I spent much of my time freezing in my room. The WIFI is terrible, works intermittently in rooms and not at all in conference areas. The grounds are far too spread out with the conference facilities a 5-10 minute walk from the main building - making it unwieldy to return to your room midday. The food at the restaurant is barely passable. Worse yet, I put a ”do not disturb” sign on my door permanently for the 5 days and nights I was there as I did not want my room cleaned and didn't want anyone entering without me there. Despite that, on at least two occasions, staff tried or did enter my room (once while I was sleeping, which felt a bit creepy). But the worst of all is that somebody entered my room and stole $200 (leaving another $250 behind with the hopes it would not be detected, I am guessing?). At first, the hotel management ”appeared” to take this seriously. They interviewed me not once but twice in their management offices, taking copious notes and asking about lots of detail with lots of pomp and decorum. They said they had cameras and card readers that could identify who the culprit was and promised to take rapid action and get back to me soon. You know how this story ends - I never heard back from them, despite assurances that they would email me the next Monday upon my return to the US. It struck me that they wanted to put up a pretense of ”looking into it”, but the minute they realized I would not make a public fuss about the incident, they fell into inaction. So in conclusion, I would say the hotel is not very safe and management doesn't truly care about security issues. Go somewhere else. Dakar is filled with many wonderful hotels so you won't lack for choice.