Haile Resort Gondar

Although the hotel is a bit old, lacks an elevator and air conditioning, considering the local conditions, it's a good place to stay. The grounds are spacious and cool, the staff are enthusiastic, there's a large parking lot, and the breakfast is good. Overall, I'm satisfied.

Stayed two nights (booked by the tour company). I was supposed to stay a third night, but demanded to leave. There is a beautiful view, but that’s where the positives end. The company is building a new hotel in Gondar, and this place is in a state of total neglect. The elevators haven’t been working for months, and my room was on the third floor. Considering all the mishaps (see below) and the phones not working, I went up and down the stairs tens of times. The location is noisy. You can hear church music all day long, and barking dogs at night. In the first room I was assigned the phone didn’t work and there was only one working power socket (all the others didn’t work). It took 30 min to convince the front desk to give me another room, even though the place was nearly empty. The second room had a huge gap between the door and the jamb, which required two turns of the keys to lock. The phone worked initially (not later). There was a mini-fridge, which didn’t work. No AC, ceiling fan or window screens. Comfortable bed and pillows. Shower with good water pressure, but the water wasn’t very hot and it was very slow draining. There was a power outage during the second night, which also cut off the water supply to the room. After 2.5 hours, I walked down three flights in my PJ and they finally turned the generator on. In the morning however, the power went out again, and I was told that they had run out of fuel. In the late afternoon there was another power/water outage. The staff refused to turn on the generator and completely ignored the few guests. That’s when I contacted the tour company and demanded to be moved to another hotel. Service in the restaurant is exceedingly slow, even though I was often the only person in the dining room. Even pancakes for breakfast took over 30 minutes. Most staff (especially in the restaurant) speak minimal or no English. The manager said they were all new, because they have huge staff recruitment and retention problems. Wifi was ok (when there was power). Avoid this place.

The staff is very friendly, always smiling, and extremely reliable. They made our stay even more pleasant.