Gorillas Lake Kivu Hotel

I stayed for just one night whilst on business. First, as far as I can see, none of the rooms are air conditioned whatever it says on the booking sites. It is not too hot though and my room did have a fan which I did not need at night. The room was quite big and clean. It was also quiet in the pool facing room I had. Internet was adequate in the room. The shower was quite good if a bit old. Breakfast was OK with a reasonable selection. Dinner was good, at least the fish I had was. I used the pool. It was good but quite cold. No bad thing after a warm humid day. I plan on returning here next month for a bit longer.

The hotel has seen better days. The rooms were very rundown, the linens were threadbare and the beds were broken. The staff was friendly, but o would recommend looking somewhere else, especially for that price.

THIS HOTEL IS NOT AIR CONDITIONED. We chose it because ********** said it was. The manager told us that was “an error” and that he has been trying to get the booking sites to change it but has had no success. This is a malaria area, there are no windows in the rooms but they have sliding glass doors providing a beautiful view of the pool and the lake but, at night, the only way to get cooler air is to leave those sliding doors wide open and use a fan. No screens, no mosquito nets and wide open doors. I was not willing to take that chance so said we would have to move. The manager then said they did have one suite with a/c but it cost $250 a night. We worked out a deal so it only cost me a couple hundred dollars more than we already paid through ********** but this was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. The staff is amazing, helpful, friendly. The breakfast is a very good buffet. The location is wonderful – across the street from the beach, walking distance to a couple of shops and nice coffee /pastry bakery. Lovely well-kept grounds and pool. This place would be perfect if they had a/c. But, because of that and the malaria potential (a friend who lives here that we were visiting said she has had malaria twice so it is a real possibility) I would choose another hotel.

The staff was friendly and very attentive. The rooms and facilities were clean and comfortable. Spackling and painting are needed in the stairwell leading to the 2nd, as well as the 2nd floor corridor. Nonetheless, I would stay there again on future trips.

Situated close to the lake in a wonderful garden with lush vegetation and a swimming pool with shallow water area.

The Hotel was comfortable and relaxing and close most activities. Staff was friendly and helpful. Very nice breakfast.

We know that the state of Ruanda has a strict and tough Corona protocoll and we don`t want to act against this at any time. We stayed from 13.12.2021 till 16.12.2021 in the Gorilla Lake Kivu Hotel in Gisenyi. The staff was very friendlly an helpful but the manager Mr. N.W. failed many times. Mr.N.W. saw at arrival the positive Covid-PCR-Test of my wife (former PCR- tests were all negative) and a negative Rapid-test of the same day, then he asked us to stay in the room, what we did. Then he promised us a medical consulting and examination (I’am a medical doctor too) at the same day and he promised to arrange a new PCR-Test on the 17.12.2021, after 4hours of waiting he gave us the information that he was trying, this was a lie, on the 17.12.2021 he admitted that he had done anything, but in the morning of this day he came with the police and insisted to her to put my wife a GPS-Bracelett on. At this situation I saw flickering $-signs in his eyes. He treated us as prisoners and not as paying guests, we had no daily housekeeping and nobody took care of us, nobody ask us for our personal daily needs, we get toiletpaper, exchanging of towels only on request even the paid breakfast, he was unable to organize the exchange of a not working lightbulb in the bathroom or to give us a moskitokiller, he allowed noisy und loud gardenparties which disturbed us till 4:00am in the morning. He was unable to arrange a personal talk between my wife and a member of the UN which was send by our niece working by th UN in Goma, we stayed on the groundfloor and a talk was easily made over the balcony. I wanted to say "Good bye" to him on departure day he was inhouse but he didn’t want to see me. We are sorry to say but this is no hospitility or way to treat paying guests, we cannot recommend or appreciate this management. My personal opinion is, he ist the wrong man at this place, a manager’s duty ist to talk to guests and solve problems in a gentle, polite and diplomatic way and make guests feel comfortable and safe. This management is not 3-4 stars worth! The country is very polite, helpful and honest, what we can't say that about the hotel experience in this hotel. We also learned, that we were not the only guests, who make such an experience, really not a recommodation. Thomas ans Annette Guenster