The Residence Zanzibar

Recent Reviews: 3017

• User:Starryflower

  Trip type:

  amazing place

  01 May 2026

  Get ocean view villas, its worth the price, but even garden pool villas are amazing. we loved our stay. Connie Lin, Guest Services / Front Office at The Residence Zanzibar, responded to this review Dear Starryflower,We are happy to hear that you enjoyed your stay with us and loved the villas. Your kind words about both the ocean view and garden pool villas are greatly appreciated and we are glad you were able to experience the beauty and comfort we aim to provide.We sincerely look forward to welcoming you back again, whether here or at any of our sister properties around the world. It would be our pleasure to host you again for another memorable stay.Warm regards,Connie L.The Residence Zanzibar

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• User:zebedees

  Trip type: Couples

  The best resort on the island.

  15 Mar 2026

  We have stayed here a few times before at the same time of year and always found it to be a wonderful holiday. This time, we arrived in the afternoon and were very warmly welcomed with a quick check-in and cooling drink. The villas are large and beautifully decorated with air-conditioning to cool down in the hot weather and their own individual plunge pools which are regularly checked for water quality.The grounds of the resort are beautiful with a small troup of monkeys, but beware of them stealing food, and a lovely little friendly cat who comes round at meal times.All of the staff are very friendly and helpful and a big thank you to all of the staff in the restaurants, Hellen, Farida, Sulesh and everyone else. There is a buggy with a very friendly and helpful driver to take you between your villa and anywhere else on the resort that you want to go. We particularly enjoyed the swimming pool which is great for exercise or just for cooling down if the weather is hot and a mid-afternoon ice-cream service around the pool is a real treat.A great stay and hope to be back again. Connie Lin, Guest Services / Front Office at The Residence Zanzibar, responded to this review Dear zebedees,Thank you so much for your lovely review and for choosing to stay with us again, it’s always a pleasure to welcome you back. We are happy to know that you had another wonderful holiday and that you enjoyed the villa and the warm service from our team, especially Hellen, Farida, and Sulesh.Your kind words truly mean a lot to all of us, and we will be sure to share them with the team.On your next visit, we would love to take you discover a different side of the village, perhaps a visit to our neighbouring village to experience the local way of life, and a chance to see the magnificent baobab tree, a true symbol of nature’s beauty and life here.We look forward to welcoming you back again soon for another memorable stay.Warm Regards,Connie L.The Residence Zanzibar

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• User:PrincessLKA

  Trip type: Couples

  Almost perfect

  11 Mar 2026

  We absolutely loved this hotel, the rooms are incredible (we had a beach villa) the food is beautiful and I am still dreaming about the cocktails!! The location of this hotel is exactly what we were looking for, we had just been on a week safari and this was perfect to relax for the second half of our honeymoon! The staff are amazingly friendly and they cannot do enough for you, we liked a drink in the villa before bed and they always made sure they brought them to us so we didn’t have to take them on our bikes! The spa is also lovely! The service is amazing and somehow everyone seems to know who you are! The only problems we had with the hotel are… 1. We were put in the wrong room initially we were given a garden villa, I wouldn’t have minded as they are beautiful, but we had paid extra for the ocean villa so asked to be moved, they moved us to one villa about an hour after we arrived (1am) I was in my PJs, they then moved us again the next day at lunch time after saying it would be 10am so we didn’t miss out on a morning while we waited around. But once we were in the right room it was incredible! 2. There are loads of power cuts at the hotel. It happens usually from about 3pm and goes on all afternoon and evening, we often ate in the dark and sat in the dark in the villa. We were told it is island wide however as we were the end villa we could hear that the property next door had music on. 3. There is no room service included in the all inclusive package, if you want room service you have to pay for the items and a $10 service charge. 4. Late check out. I was originally told that a late check out (5pm) was going to cost $250 however we negotiated to $100, we were then told at dinner that we had to pay that night (I assumed we’d pay with the rest of the bill on check out) so a buggy was waiting for us to take us to reception to pay. So we missed our last nights entertainment and last orders, which put a bit of a dampener on the last night.Those points aside I would absolutely come back to this hotel and Zanzibar to do some more exploring oh and get a mango martini! Connie Lin, Guest Services / Front Office at The Residence Zanzibar, responded to this review Dear PrincessLKA,Thank you very much for taking the time to share such a thoughtful review of your honeymoon with us. We are truly happy to hear that you enjoyed the vacation and especially the warm service from our team. It means a lot to know that your time with us was a relaxing and memorable part after your safari. Regarding the room allocation, the internal information we received indicated a Garden Villa, once we realized the wrong assignment, our team tried to rectify it immediately. However, we completely understand that the waiting time and the multiple moves, especially after your late arrival, must have been frustrating. For that, we are truly sorry and thank you for your understanding.Concerning the power interruptions, occasional island wide power cuts do unfortunately happen in Zanzibar. Our resort is equipped with generators, which are activated within a minute to ensure that guests at least have emergency lighting or flashlights available for safety. We understand that this can still be inconvenient, and we appreciate your patience during those moments.About the late checkout charge, we would like to kindly clarify this matter. According to our records, we were unable to locate a paid late check-out. It is possible that we may not be reviewing the correct information or villa number, so we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to look into this further. If you could please contact us at clin@theresidence.com with any details, we would be very happy to investigate and better understand what happened.Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback and for highlighting several aspects of your stay that you enjoyed. It truly means a lot to our team. We would be absolutely delighted to welcome you back to Zanzibar in the future. Next time, when you return, let’s make sure we will have the mango martini together at the jetty while enjoying the sunset.Warm Regards,Connie L.The Residence Zanzibar

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• User:Lori H

  Trip type: Couples

  Gorgeous resort terrible food

  04 Mar 2026

  Resort is beautiful. The. ViIlls was amazing. It would have been a great experience except….. The food is absolutely horrible. I mean terrible. Even the deserts were gross. By far the worst food I’ve ever had and you are trapped there. It’s an hour drive anywhere else so you are stuck with what they serve. I ate the same salad for every meal and it wasn’t great. It was just somewhat consumable. Even the pizza was bad. They offer no snacks. My husband will eat anything and even he struggled. Connie Lin, Guest Services / Front Office at The Residence Zanzibar, responded to this review Dear lorihE7455EM,Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We are happy to hear that you found the resort beautiful and enjoyed your villa. However, we are truly sorry that we were unable to make your stay more memorable, particularly the food selection. Your comments are very important to us, and we sincerely regret that the dining experience did not meet your expectations.Please be assured that your feedback has been shared with our culinary team for review and improvement. We would greatly appreciate it if you could share a bit more detail about the dishes or flavours via email: clin@theresidence.com, as this will help us better understand your preferences and continue improving our offerings.We wish to have the opportunity to welcome you back in the future. Should you choose to visit us again, we would be delighted to arrange for our chef personally meet with you to discuss your tastes and ensure a dining experience that is much more enjoyable.Thank you again for your valuable feedback and looking forward to hearing from you. Warm Regards,Connie L.The Residence Zanzibar

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• User:loveindia46

  Trip type: Family

  Fantastic Hotel, incredible Staff!

  04 Mar 2026

  My sister and I spent an absolutely amazing week here! The quality of the Villa was first class, spotlessly clean and extremely well appointed. The private pool was beautiful and very clean, the patio had a perfect mixture of sun and shade. The ‘room ladies’ Margaret and Sofia were wonderful, friendly, helpful and efficient. The staff in general were absolutely fantastic, friendly and helpful, from the porters to the maintenance team. The evening buffet was varied and tasty, breakfasts were a delight, to sit in the open air looking at the sea! A special mention for Justina and Ibrahim who were so lovely to see every day at the buffet. Please remember to be nice to these people, they are working whilst we are living the dream!The hotel pool is huge, clean and in a wonderful environment. Safari Blue was a fabulous day excursion, as was a 1day safari to Mikumi National Park.The wildlife at this hotel is off the scale, Elephant Shrews, Hyrax, Pygmy deer, lots of different birds, colobus monkeys! I really can’t recommend this hotel enough! Power cuts are a small inconvenience when one is in paradise!We’ll be back. Thank you all at The Residence, Zanzibar. Connie Lin, Guest Services / Front Office at The Residence Zanzibar, responded to this review Dear loveindia46,Thank you so much for your beautiful message. It truly means a lot to all of us to know that you and your sister had such a wonderful stay with us.Your kind words about our team have been shared with everyone, especially Margaret, Sofia, Justina and Ibrahim, they were so happy to hear that they helped make your stay special. Your appreciation truly reflects the spirit we hope every guest experiences here.We would be absolutely delighted to welcome you both back to paradise at any time.Warm Regards,Connie L.The Residence Zanzibar

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