Kiriri Garden Hotel

We stayed in 3 hotels during a recent trip to Burundi and this was by far the best one. The hotel is modern and everything is in great condition. Most of the staff spoke English which was very helpful. Our room was spacious with nice air conditioning. The bathroom was also large. We had access to several English language tv channels. The restaurants and bars at the hotel are very good. They have poolside service and a nice bar by the pool. A breakfast buffet was included in our room rate that was very good. My only complaint is that the WiFi was spotty. Prices are high by Burundi standards. If you can exchange $USD (and probably Euros) on the black market you can save about 60% by exchanging and paying the hotel with cash. Our tour guide facilitated this for us and we saved a lot of $ here and elsewhere in Burundi.

It is likely the nicest hotel in Bujumbura. Comfortable bed, spacious room, rain shower head, good Indian food. Wifi is not great, music from bar can be heard in rooms, smell from bathroom. Staff at front desk is not friendly, they do the bare minimum. You pay in full when you arrive, they accept credit cards and dollars, you cannot use up your BIFs to pay them. No ATM in the lobby and the hotel does not offer exchange services. There is an elevator to the room. The room is spacious with a comfortable large bed. One side of the hotel has a nice view of the pool, garden and city view but you also get noise from the bar. The other side has view of the street with people running. The rain shower head is nice but no door to the shower so the floor gets wet. I stayed in two separate rooms over two nights and both had a smell of sewer in the bathroom. In one the smell was so bad that I switched rooms, but the second room had a similar issue. The smell also affects the towels in the room. I find that the biggest negative about the room. There is tea in the room but no coffee. There is a safe but the battery was low. One room had a USB port but it wasn’t working. A second room did not have a USB port. Buffet Breakfast is included but it is the same every day, it gets tiring, the hotel needs to mix things up. There is an omelette station, low quality black coffee, fruit, vegetables, breads, cooked foods that are supposed to be hot but are cold. By the last day I really wanted to go elsewhere for breakfast. If you want better coffee go to the lobby, they have an espresso machine, but cappuccino is 17,000 BIF. The spa is nice. 100,000 for hot stone or hot towel massage, 40,000 for gel manicure and 45,000 for regular pedicure. Brigitte the masseuse is good as well as Belyse for nails.

Nice business hotel. Clean professional. Great restaurant. Loved the Indian food in particular. But also the goat. A little oasis in bustling Bujumbura with nice views of Lake Tanganjika. I would recommend it to business trips and tourists alike.

We had a wonderful experience at Kiriiri Garden. A beautifully decorated place with lovely art. The staff was friendly and helpful. I will stay there again!

Kiriri Garden is probably the best hotel in Bujumbura. Large rooms, nice garden and great views on Lake Tanganyika. The gym and the pool are also decent, breakfast and restaurant (dinners) as well (dinner was even slightly cheaper than in other comparable restaurants). The hotel is very close to the center, about 10 min drive. Located next to heavily guarded government buildings, we felt safe to stroll in the neighborhood; for example by taking a hike to one of the nearby campuses on the hilltop. There is another restaurant nearby (2 minute walk), Belvedere, if one gets bored of the food in the hotel. Said this, and as highlighted by some previous reviews, the grumpiness of the staff was striking. I barely saw a smile or heard “good morning” (in any language). Even the owners, who were constantly present, turned their eyes when passing, not to speak about bothering to greet during the entire two week stay). It could reflect the overall resentment toward (white) tourists we felt throughout our stay (what we told was that the local politicians are still eager to push the narrative of “it’s the fault of colonialism” which is subsequently reflected in general attitudes). The fact that the country is one of the poorest in the world doesn’t help, of course. In any case, it will take a long-long time before I’d return to Burundi as a tourist.

I spent 10 days in May-June 2023 as part of a business trip. The place is fantastic. Great view over Bujumbura, nice and fresh garden, huge rooms with all comforts and a quick commute to the city centre. However, the service is rather poor. There are hardly any smiling, helpful faces at the reception. Service levels are pretty average. Surprisingly, in this French-speaking country, only a few of the staff could even speak French. The music in the restaurant is too loud, there is not enough tea or coffee in the room, there is no ATM in the lobby and the food is average. With such a great location and facilities, they could do much, much better and make this hotel an absolute winner - advice to management, please train your staff better and motivate them to provide good customer service.