Underwhelming and disappointing
After our 3 night stay at loldia house i felt compelled to write an honest review for my fellow travelers who are considering staying at this property. The good, the bad and the ugly.
After reading all the other positive comments on trip advisor about loldia house ( all date over 1 year ago though) we made our booking, feeling excited for our trip that lay ahead. After 1 year of not being able to go on a holiday due to covid, we set out on our trip with our 10 month old and 9 yr old, our first trip as a family of 4.
After a 3 hour drive from Nairobi, we arrived at Loldia house. Reading all the covid compliance measures on the website before hand, we felt reassured that these measures would be met. We were greeted by friendly staff, all displaying different ways of NOT wearing a mask correctly. Some had only the mouth covered, some had the mask on the chin. The photos online of luggage etc being handled with gloves was not proven to be true. Bare hands that we could only pray had been sanitized, handled our belongings.
We were then told that our room was ready in the main house. We had actually booked the family top cottage. Therefore, our room was not ready. We had to wait over an hour for the room to be ready, with a crying, tired and hungry baby. This was an hour after the check in time of 11am.
On our arrival to the family cottage, which is a drive up from the main house, we entered into a very dated looking, dusty, dirty, stained furnished abode, which was not the welcoming accommodation we had been expecting. Unconvinced of the ‘ deep clean’ that was supposed to happened before we moved in due to covid, we inspected the cottage and then spent hours sanitizing the whole cottage ourselves. We were glad we did, as the dust and dirt picked up only confirmed our suspicions of the lack of cleaning and hence hygiene.
The cottage however, does have a very good view of the lake and the setting is quite peaceful. We had our own room stewardess, Peter, who we must say was helpful and did the job that was required of him, best to his ability.
We had requested all our meals to be sent to the cottage for our convenience during our stay, all confirmed prior to booking.
The food at Loldia as advertised on their website as amazing, is far from it. The only thing amazing about the food was how amazingly bland, average and poorly presented it was. They say a picture says a thousand words. Please view the images yourself attached to understand how underwhelming, disappointing and infuriating our dining experience was. A far cry from the money we had paid for our meals. We were served the most disgusting looking cooked banana desert- or should i say “banana turd”. The following day, we were served for desert, ice cream which had been prepared fresh with cream that had gone bad. After we complained about it, the following day, we received ice cream again which was off. A serious breech to food health and safety standards.
The chef, who was a very polite and helpful guy we felt was probably working to his best based on what ingredients and resources he had available to him. The blame therefore lies in the poor training he has received and the poor management involved with meals and the cheapness of management in sourcing inferior and inadequate ingredients. We must emphasise that he did make our baby meals really well, and as we requested, which we were very satisfied about and also organised them and ensured they arrived at the requested time.
The setting of the main house is quite pretty. The grounds are beautiful. You can get a good view of the lake from all parts of it. The pool area is very nice and a peaceful place to relax. You also get a good view of the lake. The pool water however was very cold and with the climate of Naivasha, without it being heated, the pool is of no use.
On the last day, we were told there was a power outage in Naivasha. Hence, we were not able to shower in the morning as there was no hot water. The top cottage does not have a generator and only an invertor which ran out of battery over the course of the day. Therefore, resulting in no electricity.
At night, with still no hot water, we had to resort to bathing our baby with minimum water in a bucket that had to be boiled for us. When we complained that we had not showered all day, we were told there was nothing really that could be done other than wait hours, possibly till midnight, for the water to get reheated again when the power returned. We therefore had to have a cold 9pm shower which left us shivering as temperatures in Naivasha drop to around 10 deg at night. You would expect that in Kenya, where power outages are fairly common, the property would invest in a better power back up system. It is unacceptable to expect guests who have paid a high rate per night to be have no access to hot water, hence no showers for the day.
Being a well traveled family, fortunate to have experienced many luxury hotels all over the world, we must say that this is the first holiday we have ever been to where we could not wait to get home. The high price tag to stay at Loldia house and the reputation of staying at a “ Governor’s camp” property does not reflect the experience you actually get, and does not offer value for money. We feel cheated as a result not only for the money we lost on this underwhelming trip, but the time and opportunity we wasted on this long awaited trip that will hold no special memories.
Needless to say, we will NEVER be returning here or to any other “ Governor’s camp” properties if this is what is on offer.
208 reviews
Lake Elmenteita Serena Camp
