c3 Cowrie Shell Residences

The beach is great, and not many people hassle you to buy things you don’t want or need. The rooms are good and reasonably priced, and the pool is okay.

The service from the helpful male day shift staff was the one bright spot. He tried to fix the broken items. The night shift staff, though, was no help at all and wouldn’t give me an extra key card, even though my husband and I might go out separately. Many guests who seemed to be there for sex tourism also made me uncomfortable as a foreigner. This was the most unpleasant hotel stay of all my travels around the world, and the longest review I’ve written in 20 years of traveling. I wouldn’t recommend staying here if you want a happy experience in Mombasa. The room didn’t match the booking photos. The pictures showed wide bedroom balconies, but the room we were given had only a tiny bedroom window that made it feel suffocating. The hotel said that only one of all the rooms it manages matched the online photos, and that room had broken air conditioning. The fan they gave us was broken too. In the first room, the doors and windows wouldn’t lock and the safe was broken, so there was no security. The other room had a false alarm that kept ringing. We asked for a discount to reflect the room type and facilities we actually got. The hotel said it needed “approval” from Expedia and would do whatever Expedia instructed. After days of lengthy communication with Expedia, it became clear the hotel was refusing to adjust the price and blaming Expedia instead. They kept telling us to pay the full amount first and get a refund from Expedia later, even though we were paying the hotel directly, not the online platform. The whole process felt dishonest.

The location was great, but the one-bedroom unit we were given was either stuffy or had mould. We left within minutes of checking in. They wouldn’t refund us, citing the cancellation policy.

The customer service was great, and the surroundings felt safe. I had a lovely time unwinding, enjoying the sea breeze and dipping my feet in the sand. It was therapeutic.