Footprints House

When looking at the reviews for a place to stay in Diani we found Footprint house and it sounded like the perfect place for us. Maybe our expectations were a little too high, because clearly this is a very simple B&B and not a hotel. If you know that, it may be a good choice and we did enjoy our stay, especially because it was not fully booked. However, after working in the hospitality industry for a while, we are really critical and we noticed a few things that were disturbing the good impression. First of all the room was bland and lacked some basic amenities -  a second night stand or a small table to put some stuff on, or some chairs would have been nice features - the small vase with fresh flowers was a nice touch on the other hand. While the public areas were nice and a good place to chill, with a water dispenser and a fridge to be used by guests, and some dogs and cats lying or wandering around, which was fun, the garden was really neglected, everything looked abandoned, the deck chairs falling apart, the pool was a decent size and good for swimming but the surroundings were completely empty, no chairs, no beach umbrellas, no plants or color, grass between the terrace tiles, just uninviting - this area could be absolutely fantastic, but at the moment it is dull and mediocre at best. Same goes for the breakfast, of course it was basic, after all you pay a very small price and cannot expect a huge buffet, but why not present the items you offer in a nice way, the jam was put on the table in its original metal tin, the margarine in the plastic packaging, where every day every guest would just use their own knife to spread it - not very hygienic, the sugar was in lumps as it came out of the fridge, as did the honey. I understand the necessity, but then you need to think about a different dispenser, possibly one that works! You could choose your breakfast items by ticking them on a list, but after a few days it got quite boring.It was always toast, eggs, sausage, potatoes, beans and fruit -nothing wrong with that, but why not offer a little change, maybe some cereals, a glass of juice, add a different fruit from time to time, or maybe some pastries on Sunday...? Everyone was friendly and if you asked you got the information you needed, but it was never volunteered - for example we read that it was possible to eat in, but no one ever told us about it. Arranging a transfer in advance went well, even with a last minute change, but almost everything was arranged via email. Fortunately there were hardly any guests, because it got really loud when someone was in the public area, you heard everything in our room and also had the lights shining through a window above the door. What's the verdict? Honestly we left Footprint house disappointed, what could have been an outstanding experience, scoring full points, only was average for us, we were also wondering about reviews raving about the lush gardens, beautiful path to the beach, or grea

After a long train journey via Mombasa we arrived at Footprints to be told by the owner that we might not be able to stay because our son was only 9 years old and their policy is for no under-12s. This was a bit strange as the UK Airbnb site we booked through had no mention of this and *********** states that children over 8 are welcome. I even had to put the ages in when I booked. This was not the welcome we had experienced everywhere in Kenya but ultimately we were allowed to stay after thinking we would have to move elsewhere. Overall we had a really nice stay at Footprints. The family room was huge and the helpful staff served up a lovely breakfast each morning. The swimming pool and the beautiful gardens was a real highlight. There's not heaps to do in the immediate local area. The beach is stunning and only a few beach boys. On the main road there's a few decent places to eat and a nice little Swahili place called Speedy's on a little road to the beach. A trip to the Kongo is definitely a must and we also visited Pallet Cafe (a 20min tuk tuk ride to the south) which was on a lovely, very quiet, stretch of beach.

It is difficult sometimes to trust the point of view of other people, however, one thinks that those who write reviews do so honestly but not in any case. We made a reservation here since most people say it is a fantastic place, now I do not know, if they are false reviews but it is the only thing I can think. We arrived late at night and it was a big surprise sadly not good to see the place, the common areas I can say look normal, but the room was horrible, it was a nightmare to spend the night there, we had the room on the ground floor, the bathroom was a fright, too old, rusty totally neglected, a fan full of rust, a carpet that can no longer more than so much dirt, the walls destroyed and in the morning we could see a totally neglected garden a poor breakfast, In short, the place is a disaster. We immediately canceled the reservation, we never saw any owner in the house, instead he called us on the phone to say that he accepted the cancellation of the reservation, it was the only good thing, however we lost half a morning to get something better. I recommend you go somewhere else, in diani there are better options than this, we chose it especially for being in front of the sea but there are also other options facing the sea for a few dollars more. Avoid this place at all costs if you don't want to have a hard time.