Hotel LE PELICAN

The restaurant is nice, and the beach is about a three-minute walk away. Management seems reasonable.

I booked through the Airbnb website, where the hotel offers a few apartments at a subsidized rate. It’s a brilliant idea. During my three-day stay, the room was clean and well lit, with working hot water and AC. I also had a kitchenette with a microwave, cutlery cabinet, fridge, and sink. The final 150 metres to the hotel are on a terrible stretch of road, especially in the rainy season, even though the hotel is right along the main beachside avenue. Finding food outside the hotel is hit or miss. I noticed Lome doesn’t have many street food options like Lagos, Accra, or Abidjan, and that’s quite noticeable.

The garden and exterior look fine, but the inside feels like it deserves only one star out of five. The kitchen is another letdown: about half the restaurant menu is usually unavailable. You can decide for yourself, but I strongly wouldn’t recommend staying here. It’s the worst place I’ve seen.

You may wait hours for food, and when it finally arrives it’s cold, as if it came straight from storage. The taste is unforgettable in the worst way. Internet is no better: if you need social media, browsing, or email, forget it. They keep saying a technician will come shortly, but nobody ever does. The staff don’t smile, and they need serious hospitality training. This is the worst hotel I’ve stayed in. Coming back for food would feel like voluntary suicide.