It is only a 10 minute walk from the falls so if all you want is to be close by it is the right place to be. However, we were not very happy with the room and in particular with the bathroom - very poor lightening and nothing special to it. Service was also not great. Lots of employees walking around but not much attention to the actual needs of the clients. Really needed to tip to get a good service, rather than having a good service to get a tip. We are not very demanding and we are rating highly the rest of the hotels of our stay in south africa but this one was definitely were the services was poorest. Overall, not too bad, but if it wasn't for the location, we would have probably rated it more on the poor side.

As two Scots who were brought up on stories of David Livingston, a trip to Victoria Falls was high on our bucket list and it didn't disappoint. After extensive research we decided that the Ilala Lodge met both our requirements and our budget and after 3 nights at the lodge we can state that it matched these perfectly. From the first moment that we arrived at reception we were treated like honoured guests by all the staff, everyone of whom was polite and courteous.
We had a standard room on the ground floor which opened out onto the gardens. The room was very clean, comfortable and well presented. The food and the service at the bar was superb and of a very high quality.
The hotel was only 10 minutes walk to the falls, although you do have to walk the gauntlet of locals trying to sell you very valuable memories of your trip. There are tourist police who should help keep this annoyance to a minimum but they seemed to spend a lot of time sheltering from the sun.
We took a helicopter flight over the falls, a sunset cuise on the hotel's boat the Ra-ikane and a night drive in the Victoria Falls reserve. We were very lucky to see Black Rhino in the reserve but the highlight of that trip for us after 8 visits to Africa was finally seeing a dung beetle :)
However, the highlight of our trip to Victoria Falls was to see Dr Livingston's wonderful discovery, oh that and a three night stay at the Ilala Lodge.

Travel issues on a recent holiday found us staying, unexpectedly at IIaIa Lodge for a weekend in mid-December. A car (air-conditioned!) and friendly driver arranged by the lodge, met us at Victoria Falls airport and quickly took us to the Lodge - we felt like special guests. And what a great place! Our comfortable rooms (with inter-leading door to our teenage daughter's room) opened out to beautiful lawns, complete with birds and animals incl. warthogs and the odd baboon. Meals were taken on the verandah restaurant outside, the food was good and the service was excellent. Excursions included an Elephant Ride and a breakfast cruise down the Zambezi, plus relaxing pedicures and back massage.

We were two couples spending three nights at Ilala Lodge, and we couldn't have asked for a more lovely and charming place to stay.

We thought that the rooms were well-designed and used wood as an attractive feature. All the amenities we needed were provided (they were super-generous with the soaps).
We had a patio with a view of the lush garden and the mist from the Victoria Falls, which is also the view from the hotel terrace - lovely to sit at all day, if you don't feel like doing anything!

The restaurant was very good with an excellent wine list (many Johannesburg restaurants could learn a thing or two from Ilala - and the wine prices are reasonable. Two of us live in the Cape winelands, by the way, and are used to comparing wine prices!).

We looked around, and ate at, the famous Victoria Falls Hotel (The Livingstone Room there is far too pricey for what you get - and the wine prices come as a shock after having eaten at The Palm Restaurant at Ilala).
The history is interesting, granted, but Ilala has so many old prints or reproductions of earlier times and travellers passing through, we were fascinated - and it creates a lovely atmosphere.

Add to all that the staff who were so helpful and friendly and natural - the result was, to us, an unbeatable pace to stay.