Bonjour and salutations from Essque Zalu Zanzibar,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for such a wonderful feedback on both Essque Zalu Zanzibar and your experience on the island in general. It appears you had a fabulous time both on safari and visiting Zanzibar and we do appreciate your selecting Essque Zalu Zanzibar as your hotel of choice for your stay on the island.

Going through the elaborative points of the up and down sides of Essque Zalu is of great interest and we do sincerely appreciate your time to comment on them for our knowledge and for us to understand the gap you felt, if any, and to rectify further.

To clarify on the downsides, please see below:

1. The reason that we do not have a beach is a deliberate one rather than an accidental one; the reasons being the owners wanted a secluded space away from the crowd of beach boys that is now increasingly becoming a nuisance and a security threat in Zanzibar and since Zanzibar has a policy of public beaches, the owners wanted a spot that they are in control of who enters their premises rather than have movement of unauthorised folks and as your second point indicates that the beaches of Kendwa and Nungwi were full of beach boys which you found irritating is exactly what the owners foresaw before building this hotel.

2. Indeed Nungwi and Kendwa are one of the best beaches on this island offering white sandy beaches, turquoise blue oceans and the sun to light it all up; and the experience of being there on the white sandy beach, seeing the normal day-to-day buzz of the place is beautiful, albeit the crowd of tourists from nearby hotels enjoyng the beautiful outdoors in these areas. The sunsets are truly stunning and colourful! Essque on the other hand is ideal for the sun rise - a colourful hue of lazy orange and red lighting the dawn skies is a sight worth remembering and it never ceases to amaze us all everytime we see it.

3. The menu at dinner time changes every day except for the swahili menu which stays the same, but the Non-Veg and Veg options each of which are 4 course set menu meals varies from day to day. We do appreciate that you found the food very tasty and good and we are quite flexible in a way that the chef is always available to discuss on the meals should you want to experience something out of the menu - we do apologise for not reaching out to you during your stay to discuss on this opportunity.

4. You are correct, we do not have a proper gym but a comfortable and airy fitness centre to give our guests the opportunity to exercise for short durations so that they can thoroughly enjoy the tranquil ambience found at Essque Zalu. Moreover this also was a deliberate action as we wanted to have different ideologies than our other 5 star counterparts and did not want to create an artificial atmosphere of weights, air conditioned gyms and to have any rigid training schedules by gym trainers - we wanted our guests enjoy exercising in the open air in a natural environment.

5. We do understand that you found the extras quite pricey however we are extremely competitive if not better priced than other 5 star hotels on the island. Beverages in places like Kendwa and Nungwi invariably will be cheaper than Essque mainly due to the location - theirs is a basic place using very basic structures, served by local untrained bar men, offering very basic services while on our side cost of everything is relative to the quality offered - rest assured even we enjoy changing scenes once in a while and thoroughly enjoy being in Nungwi or Kendwa beaches to enjoy the local bars there.

6. The cost of excursions are high is because of the distances covered. A one way trip to or from Stone Town costs around USD 100 as an average so a return should cost USD 200 - in that case if an excursion costs around USD 80 per person is very well priced considering you are also getting a tour with a professional tour guide + return transfers back to the hotel. If we were close to Stone Town, definitely this would have worked out more cost effective and allow me to stress that our excursion rates are much cheaper than other 3-4 star properties in the same area.

7. This feedback of tip hunting is indeed a major eye opener for me and my team of managers. Thank you very much for mentioning this as we will now try and monitor these traits in our service personnel as by our standards and ethos, this should never be happening and we will take remedial action on this. Our apologies if at all you experienced such behaviour but rest assured this is not the norm here. We will do our best to sort this out internally.

8. The views are justifiably awesome and you are correct in saying that although we are located quite far from stone town and that going everywhere requires a taxi, the views, the ambience and the experience of being at Essque Zalu is worth it.

9. Thank you for your feedback on the bars having no atmosphere and being soulless. Usually the bar is abuzz with other guests early in the evenings however as our hotel is more of a honeymooners location, our guests do want to retire early after their meals and those who had a busy day want to finish their meals early and head off for a good nights sleep. Nonetheless, as this is the first time we have heard such a remark, we will surely take this into perspective and try and change the lighting and ambience to rightly bright and warm so that guests do not feel unwelcome due to the brightness.

10. Our sincere regrets for the branding of the corporate clients - that was our first and last time we allowed branding in public areas and will not happen again. All guests of ours are treated as equals and we had no intention to inconvenience any of our other guests due to the corporate group.

We are hopeful that the above explanations to your feedback sheds light on the concerns raised however we are in turn extremely grateful for pointing some of the things out for us to rectify and to see how can change some of the aspects mentioned by you.

With thanks and warm regards,

Nicolas Konig
General Manager