Skynest Residences by CityBlue, Nairobi Westlands

The shared spaces were filthy as well as the rooms. There was hair all over the gym, and marks on the floor outside the lifts stayed there all week without being cleaned. In our apartment, cleaning often happened very late, and almost every time the staff came while we were in the room and disturbed us. They either had no hoover or were too lazy to get it. They mopped from the bathrooms into the rest of the apartment with the same water, left long hairs everywhere even though neither of us has long hair, and didn't clean the bathroom properly. There was excrement on the toilet brush, and I felt sick each time I went into the bathroom. The worst part started on our first night. We were put in a room beside incredibly loud, bass-heavy clubs. After a 16-hour journey, we arrived at 3am and couldn't sleep until 7am. That room was uninhabitable and shouldn't be rented out. We complained the next day and were moved, but they stalled about refunding the first night for the rest of our stay. Operations manager Priya was useless. They offered things that didn't apply to us, told us to contact booking.com because of a processing issue, then refused to refund us even after we spoke with booking.com. Priya didn't respond when I raised it with her. Thankfully booking.com gave us some credit, so a big thank you to them. They advertised squash courts, but wouldn't rent us a racket or ball. Expecting travellers from across the world to bring their own for a week's stay is unreasonable. They also advertised a washing machine but provided no detergent, and the shop downstairs didn't sell a suitable small amount, only a 1 kg minimum. Breakfast was shockingly bad: no choice, and what they served wasn't eatable. The coffee was terrible too.

The staff who welcomed us were magnificent, and dining at Slate is a must. There's also a market on site, and the location is close to central Nairobi with easy pick-ups for excursions. On my second visit to Nairobi, we stayed in a spacious two-bedroom, 2.5-bath apartment that worked well for our party of three. It had a kitchen, laundry room, and large balcony. Skynest is now my favourite place to stay when I visit Nairobi, and I highly recommend it. I'll definitely be back. Thanks to the Skynest CityBlue, Westlands team!

The pool and gym are real pluses in this apartment building. They're well equipped and maintained, and add a lot of value. The squash facilities are another story: unless you bring your own rackets from home, for instance from Europe, you can't really play. That's unreasonable when travelling to Kenya. The serious problem is the two nearby clubs, which stay open very late, often until 8 a.m. and sometimes even 9 a.m. on weekends. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays the noise makes the whole building shake, so sleeping is impossible. It makes living here unbearable and seriously hurts the overall comfort.

We came hoping to relax for the last few days of an otherwise amazing trip around Kenya, but the noise and breakfast made that hard. The walls seemed to vibrate along with the noise, which went on until 5:30 a.m. It was awful. Breakfast was disappointing too: stale bread, lukewarm milk, no fresh juice, and even salt and pepper were hard to find. With a nice, spacious flat and a washing machine, the place had potential, but don't advertise breakfast as included when it's like this. Certainly not at that price.