Amboseli Serena Lodge Review
General Impression: 
Details:
Duration of stay: 2 nights / Safari
Check-in / Check-out:
Check-in Process:
Check-out Process:
Concierge Service: N/A
Staff @ Front Desk:
Room / Bathroom:
Bed, quality of sleep:
Bathroom, Shower:
Room Atmosphere:
WiFi / Internet:
Cleanliness:
Food & Beverage:
Breakfast:
Bar:
Restaurant:
Lounge: N/A
F&B Staff:
Paul‘s Mix:
Pool:
Spa:
Hotel Location:
Mojito Rating 
:
:
General Customer Care:
Staff attitude, interaction and responsiveness:
Social media interaction:
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= bad, a lot of work needs to be done
=not good, you will be busy with corrections
= good & normal, nothing special
= high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
= topnotch, leave me here!
= Half a Point/sheep
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The Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge is located within the Amboseli National Park. It takes about 40 minutes from Neshanani Gate to get to the Lodge.
The lodge is nestled on a small hill in a lush of green trees. You have a beautiful view over a swamp right in front of the lodge.
Check-in:
The check in was a complete disaster. The agent was unfriendly, unmotivated and did everything like a robot.
It felt like getting into an assembly line and not like checking-in in a "luxury“ lodge. There was no warm welcome at all.
Speaking of lodge, the Serena Amboseli is more a hotel than a lodge and you can see that everything is set up for mass processing of tourists. No personal touch at all.
All staff at the front desk are super arrogant, don't even greet and if you have a question they are condescending. I have never seen so unuseful staff at a frontdesk at any other place.
Guest only disturb!
Decoration wise the reception and sort of lobby are super dark and cold. Rather an unpleasant feeling instead of a welcoming one.
Check-out:
Check out was the same disaster as check-in. The agent showed me an invoice over 19 thousand shilling. He charged my credit card with 20 thousand something. So I asked if they have a credit card
surcharge. He said no. I asked why the difference, he said he forgot something to add on the bill. So I let him show every single receipt. He never explained anything or talked to me.
No thank you for staying with us, nor was everything okay
Room:
We were assigned to a small double room on the first line.
The room in size is a bit small but doable for only two nights.
The interior design is held in dark wood and lots of Kenian and Massai decor with bright colors. We really liked it as it makes the room so much friendlier. Unfortunately also here lots of
small things broken and it shows no attention to detail.
The big big asset of our assigned room was the small terrace overlooking the swamp under the hill. We could observe herds of elephants and other animals feeding. Beuatiful nature view and absolute African safari feeling.
The bathroom is nice and ok in size. Also here you have a view over the swamp and a nice walk in shower.
Attention with the shower, there is only hot (and I really mean hot) water available during the day if you want to shower as the pipes are heated by the sun.
There is free coffee and tea in the room as well as two big bottles of water which are refilled daily.
WiFi works really well throughout the entire camp. Speed is okay.
Restaurants / Bar:
The camp includes all meals in the fare. All drinks have to be paid separately except for some coffee and tea before the game drives. All meals are served at the restaurant in form of a
buffet for lunch and breakfast and as a mix (buffet and a la carte) for dinner.
Breakfast and Lunch can also be requested as take away in boxes for your game drive.
We skipped breakfast the first day and took it along in a box on our game drives.
We preferred to go out early on our drives and to skip it.
The second day we had breakfast at the lodge and it was super delicious.
Lunch was served as a buffet which consisted of a salad buffet, a massive hot buffet (Western and Asian Style) as well as a live pasta cooking station. There was also a dessert buffet with
fresh fruits and cakes. Soups are always served out of the kitchen.
The food was super delicious. Always fresh and really tasty.
Dinner was served as a mixed form of buffet and a la carte.
Soup and main course are served a la carte. The salad as well as starter, dessert, South East Asian hot dishes are served as a buffet and there is always the live pasta cooking station.
All the food served was super delicious, fresh and tasty. Thanks to the buffet there is something for everyone.
Staff at the restaurant for lunch and dinner is good. Nothing out of the ordinary but good. They are very attentive but and try to interact with the guests.
The Restaurant staff is the only one at this property, which shows some signs of customer service.
The bar is also located next to the lobby and restaurant.
Most of the staff does not even greet when you come in.
The bar inside is very dark and unpleasant. Outside is a nice seating area.
We tried a Mojito but it wasn't drinkable as it was made with salt instead of sugar.
We gave them a second try on the second evening. It just took 25 minutes to get 2 softdrinks and 2 drinks because the 3 staff where busy serving two tables (one was us).
The Lodge also offers a small little curio shop with some souvenirs.
There is a fantastic looking pool at this property with great view over the park. But the water is glacier cold. Impossible to use and that is why we have seen people on the sunbeds bud noone
in the water.
The Lodge has a small spa and offers treatments and massages. We have tried 2 massages and they have been great. Awesome massage therapist.
Summary:
All in all it was an okay stay.
Unfortunately you have not many other choices if you want to stay inside Amboseli park.
The room was okay, food was delicious and the rest forget about.
This camp/lodge is set up for mass tourism and not to create some memories.
We have experienced super unfriendly staff, working like robots and not interested at all in what they do. For some guests are a disturbance which bring money. Only a few staff know what customer service is.
Would I reconsider it for a future stay?
Most probably not. Amboseli isn't such a big park and two full days are enough to explore. I would rather recommend to look for a lodge / camp close to a gate and stay outside.
In our eyes just because this camp is inside the park it is not worth it
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
-If you are interested in more details, please send me a private message and I will be happy to share.