everything in this hotel is very old , decoration, furniture , even clothes and haircuts of waiters. rooms are very noisy , windows do not close well , far from hermetic , AC also is very noisy but you have to afford it otherwise it will be too hot to sleep.
quality of food is below average ( we tried dinner and breakfast ) some of the waiters are friendly

Stayed at the Serena Hotel for two nights prior to our safari. Rooms were nice and comfortable. Very pleasant stay and would love to go back! We ate of the hotel's seafood restaurant and were very impressed with its delicious and fresh choice of seafood.

perfectly situated in the center of Nairobi, easily accessed from different areas,
the rates are slightly on the higher side, but the hotel got everything to offer, good food, large garden offering very nice sitting areas to enjoy the greenery, for the bird lovers among you, if you pay good attention, you can find quite several birds species flying around the garden...you might get lucky and have one of them singing on your window in the morning.

remember to ask a room facing the garden, much better view and if you're early bird - you will enjoy a silluette purple sunset

I'm a regular Serena guest. I must say though that I do prefer the Kampala Serena. The Nairobi Serena is simply just showing its age, I suppose. Its a bit darker, the furniture older, etc. But still perfectly lovely. Centrally located. Overall good and efficient service, decent-to-good wireless internet access throughout the hotel. Good selection of satellite TV options.

Breakfast buffet is good, room service is okay (wish for a larger menu -- but I say that about all hotels).

Avoid copy/printing business travelers, like most Africa hotels, crazy expensive prices.

I do like the gift shop -- actually they have two, one with toiletries, phone cards, snacks, postcards/stamps, etc. The other with jewelry, baskets, and other local crafts/arts (priced high of course, but no worse than the airport and much higher quality than you'll find there). You can change currency to Kenya shillings here, but cannot change Shillings back to USD/Euro/etc. There is an ATM right next to the hotel, less than a block away which is convenient.

I've now spent a total of 3 weeks in 2012 and 2013 here and overall I have been satisfied, though this time I had a terrible AC unit in my room that simply did not cool the room enough during the day.