LIA Hotel

After staying at this hotel four years in a row, I’ve watched it get worse each year. The place is dirty, there were cockroaches in my bathroom, and the hot water ran brown. Most of the amenities were broken, and even basic things stayed unrepaired: the room door handle, bathroom light, toilet that wouldn’t flush, and a faucet handle that came off. They never had the items listed on the menu, the power was unreliable, and many lights didn’t work. The staff have also become very difficult to deal with. I can’t tell whether that’s laziness, incompetence, or both. We had to pay up front, which I didn’t mind, but they wouldn’t prepare our receipt. They said it would be ready by dinner, but it still wasn’t there when we went to sleep. In the morning, staff said they’d lost it. Instead of making another one, they kept us waiting for several hours while they “searched” for it. Then, half an hour before checkout, a staff member tried to get us to leave so a new guest could take the room. We weren’t ready to go and had paid for it, so we refused. I’m surprised this hotel is still open. I’m guessing its closeness to the airport and the airport shuttle are what keep it going. We won’t stay here again. Anyone in business looking to make an easy buck could open a small, high quality hotel near Lungi airport and offer a free shuttle. Every Westerner coming to this country would be fighting to spend their money there. Someone should make it happen.

The staff were kind, friendly, and helpful. When the air conditioning in my room didn’t work, they moved me to another room right away without me needing to ask. The hotel is basic and a little worn, but I still found it safe and comfortable. There’s a very nice vegan chickpea Ghana Curry on the dinner menu. The rooms are large and have mosquito nets, air conditioning, a wardrobe, safe, fridge, basic TV, and a decent number of plug sockets. The bathrooms have good water pressure and hot water. For convenience and the hotel choices in this area, I’d recommend it.

Brussels airlines put us here after we found out our flight wasn’t running that day. It’s very run down, and I’d stay again only if I had to. It was clean enough by Africa standards, the showers were hot and didn’t leak much, and the air conditioning worked well. The food was okay, and breakfast was typical African hotel fare.

For an early morning flight, this hotel is the only alternative to staying overnight at the airport. Getting to the airport takes about an hour by boat, and arranging one is difficult because there aren’t proper schedules. The hotel was clean enough and the service very good, though the food wasn’t the best. I was unlucky with the internet, which was down, but otherwise it’s fine for one night.