“Not reccomended”

“excellent”

“Very good place.”

“Upani house Diani best place to be”

“Worse time ever!”

Response from the owner Thank you for your feedback, we rely on our guests to know what we are doing right and where we fall short in terms of service delivery. However, I'll take the liberty to let all future guests know that you were problem guests from the start. We made as much effort to make you and your partner as comfortable as we could by agreeing to all your requests. We even gave you a free upgrade from a standard room to a full 3 Bedroom Villa just for two, as a free upgrade, one for which you would normally pay 6 times more, to make sure you enjoyed your time at Upani. This does not seem to have resolved your issues, in fact you went on to look for MORE issues. And the fact that you have decided to leave a negative review here in addition to the other platform through which you booked shows that this is now personal. As the owner, I never had such a conversation with you as you claim, perhaps a member of my staff may have, knowing that we take reviews seriously, I am not aware. I mentioned that we always seek to resolve issues on the ground to resolve any problem, none of which you were willing to do. Considering that you paid $39 a night due to an offer at the time you booked, yet got a free upgrade for the exclusive use of our $300+ a day pool view villa, from your indication of it not being value for money I'd conclude that you would have preferred to stay completely for free. We usually find the most difficult guest to be those like you who are seeking some type of free stay which needless to say, is not sustainable for us as a business. Further to that, we received your email in our inbox asking us to respond to your issues, long after you had checked out and left the negative review, which we have simply never encountered in the past except in cases where a person is looking for a refund. If that is what you are seeking, do feel free to say so, rather than taking this roundabout route, and seeking to malign our holiday villas while you do so. Regarding the place being dirty, are you referring to the oven or the entire place? A dirty oven is a housekeeping issue and simple to resolve, and while it for sure should not have been dirty, the oven is now clean. It hardly warrants a 1-star rating. The house is cleaned daily, the floor, depending on the time of day you go there, has sheddings from the makuti roof, a fact we clearly state on our listing and I quote "We have a natural thatched roof made with natural materials ("makuti') and local wood. For this reason, you may from time to time encounter little insects that like to live in this environment. While we make every effort to make the roof as inhospitable to them as possible, due to the climate they will seek out the cool inner sections and may also cause fine sawdust to accumulate here and there as they make themselves comfortable. We clean the house daily, twice a day in some areas and also treat the house and compound as much as possible while also bearing in mind your safety as guests. Therefore we request that you do bear that in mind during your stay and if the natural roof may be a problem for you then think twice before booking. It has not been a problem for most of our guests in the past, and if you are familiar with coastal architecture then you will hardly notice it. " End quote. We get guests that sometimes don't take the time to fully read our descriptions before booking, such as in your case. However, we pride ourselves in being able to resolve situations. I would not recommend you as guests to any host at all since even seeking any resolution fell on deaf ears. Next time, just cancel your booking and save your hosts the trouble.

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not TripAdvisor LLC.

“THERE IS NO BETTER HOME THAN UPANI”

“BEST PLACE IN DIANi”

“Not as Advertised”

Response from the owner As you were obviously in Alina's group, thanks once more for posting this review as you have proved my point that it's personal and really not business. Not sure I've seen any group like yourselves before that seem to have made it your personal mission to post negative reviews. Thankfully, most users are extremely reasonable and I will repeat here the same things I mentioned in the previous SINGLE negative review from your colleague. "Thank you for posting this review because you now give us the chance to use this as an example to anyone that would seek to book with us, and with any property really, of just how not to go about it. As you can see from people that stayed just before you arrived, in fact, the 2nd listed review below yours posted only 1 day earlier and also on reviews from the other sites we are on, we give our guests an excellent stay. But every so often, about every 10 to 15 groups or so, there is one particular person in a group that comes, often no more than one person in the ENTIRE group, that is completely unmanageable and unreasonable. And you are that person. Not only did your group arrive some minutes to midnight, which is perfectly okay when people communicate in advance, our property manager stayed on site with you until well past 1 am to attend to any issues you had. She even showed you the alternative accomodation when you felt the first one did not meet your needs the next morning. But you waited till she had retired for the night, and was asleep in our onsite staff room and then called the booking site to cancel, claiming you couldn't reach us, yet the propery manager had let you know she was on site as we do for late arrivals and could be called by the security guard. Someone who was honest would not have to go through that type of deceit. And yet, it didn't prevent you from staying the night, not paying a single cent, and leaving at your leisure the next morning to your cheaper identified accommodation, with one less night to pay for. Having welcomed guests for the past 3 years, and had mostly glowing 5-point reviews on TripAdvisor until your review just now, all we can say is your poor communication and deceitful nature made a perfectly manageable situation even worse. We pride ourselves on our communication, as we would like guests to be 100% sure and aware of what they have booked for. In your case, you made an instant booking and simply were non-communicative about things, to the point where you mention you felt we pestered you. There is a reason for the process that we use, as we find it provides guests the best experience. When you are not forthcoming with your plans and expectations before arrival, and simply showed up, with no clear understanding of our set up and also not having provided clearly about what you need, and then make unreasonable demands on staff at the last minute, that is a recipe for disaster. Please understand that we are not a hotel, but a vacation rental, and things must be planned in advance. For example you needed vegan meals to be cooked and we asked you to provide the list of ingredients and the meals your guests would like, only for the vegan options, at which point you went silent. Yes, our property is self catering, which means you will always provide the funds for your groceries, which you called "extra money" should you choose to make use of our chef, this service is one of the most appreciated by our travellers as you can see from our reviews, but very much optional, you don't pay an extra cent for it unless you book a non self-catering unit. And you omitted to mention that we had already provided you a full menu based on the standard diet as we do with all our guests, really something that we are not obligated to do, but we do to make the arrival and stay smoother, but you wanted a commitment on the vegan options and went silent as earlier said when we gave you the way forward. Very unlike most of our clients that fully appreciate our communication in order to be 100% sure that their holiday expectations are met. The toddler beds you claim are full sized single beds, which are set dimensions and easy to corroborate, not sure who would offer a toddler bed to an adult as you claim. And the "open holes" are actually the ventilation windows that are designed in most swahili style homes, calling it a hole is far from accurate, it is an intricately designed, brick faced window vent that allows for air flow in humid areas, I can only imagine that you are not familiar with swahili architecture. And that lack of knowledge contributed to your feeling of insecurity, yet we have 24 hours security and emergency response, and night security guard. I myself and my family stay often at property, as well as many international guests, which you can see from our reviews, who are used to highly secure areas, and they and we feel very secure. All I can say is, this review is the exception, and not the norm. Yes, there were elements that could have been improved on, the kitchen fridge had items from a guest that departed that day and left them behind when staff was done with cleaning, which have been stream-lined and we apologize that your first night did not go the way you planned. We've always strived to make sure to ask all people visiting whether the number of rooms is enough for them, provided clear pictures, agreed on the allotment of rooms for the stay in advance, as its easy for details to not be clear when arriving guests do not communicate. You seem to have made this a habit, as a travel agent of some kind and I would urge people to steer widely clear of you. In fact, your posting here leads me to realize that it was extremely personal and really not business at all, when guests have had concerns they have always been ready to discuss and find a resolution that works. Often times behaviour of your kind points to having found a perceived better deal elsewhere and needing to justify that or get out of a contract. We are reasonable people and communication goes a long way. I would invite past and present clients to be kind enough to disprove this unfounded claim about our property and invite any potential guests to review all other reviews we have had and you will find that 95% and more of them are positive, in fact, are glowing, that's an overwhelming majority, I'll let the numbers speak for themselves. We have had an almost 4.8 out of 5 rating on Tripadvisor until this one review, making it only 1 negative out of 20, I think the statistics can speak for themselves."

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not TripAdvisor LLC.

“Deceitful and Filthy”

Response from the owner Thank you for posting this review because you now give us the chance to use this as an example to anyone that would seek to book with us, and with any property really, of just how not to go about it. As you can see from people that stayed just before you arrived, in fact, the 2nd listed review below yours posted only 1 day earlier and also on reviews from the other sites we are on, we give our guests an excellent stay. But every so often, about every 10 to 15 groups or so, there is one particular person in a group that comes, often no more than one person in the ENTIRE group, that is completely unmanageable and unreasonable. And you are that person. Not only did your group arrive some minutes to midnight, which is perfectly okay when people communicate in advance, our property manager stayed on site with you until well past 1 am to attend to any issues you had. She even showed you the alternative accomodation when you felt the first one did not meet your needs the next morning. But you waited till she had retired for the night, and was asleep in our onsite staff room and then called the booking site to cancel, claiming you couldn't reach us, yet the propery manager had let you know she was on site as we do for late arrivals and could be called by the security guard. Someone who was honest would not have to go through that type of deceit. And yet, it didn't prevent you from staying the night, not paying a single cent, and leaving at your leisure the next morning to your cheaper identified accommodation, with one less night to pay for. Having welcomed guests for the past 3 years, and had mostly glowing 5-point reviews on TripAdvisor until your review just now, all we can say is your poor communication and deceitful nature made a perfectly manageable situation even worse. We pride ourselves on our communication, as we would like guests to be 100% sure and aware of what they have booked for. In your case, you made an instant booking and simply were non-communicative about things, to the point where you mention you felt we pestered you. There is a reason for the process that we use, as we find it provides guests the best experience. When you are not forthcoming with your plans and expectations before arrival, and simply showed up, with no clear understanding of our set up and also not having provided clearly about what you need, and then make unreasonable demands on staff at the last minute, that is a recipe for disaster. Please understand that we are not a hotel, but a vacation rental, and things must be planned in advance. For example you needed vegan meals to be cooked and we asked you to provide the list of ingredients and the meals your guests would like, only for the vegan options, at which point you went silent. Yes, our property is self catering, which means you will always provide the funds for your groceries, which you called "extra money" should you choose to make use of our chef, this service is one of the most appreciated by our travellers as you can see from our reviews, but very much optional, you don't pay an extra cent for it unless you book a non self-catering unit. And you omitted to mention that we had already provided you a full menu based on the standard diet as we do with all our guests, really something that we are not obligated to do, but we do to make the arrival and stay smoother, but you wanted a commitment on the vegan options and went silent as earlier said when we gave you the way forward. Very unlike most of our clients that fully appreciate our communication in order to be 100% sure that their holiday expectations are met. The toddler beds you claim are full sized single beds, which are set dimensions and easy to corroborate, not sure who would offer a toddler bed to an adult as you claim. And the "open holes" are actually the ventilation windows that are designed in most swahili style homes, calling it a hole is far from accurate, it is an intricately designed, brick faced window vent that allows for air flow in humid areas, I can only imagine that you are not familiar with swahili architecture. And that lack of knowledge contributed to your feeling of insecurity, yet we have 24 hours security and emergency response, and night security guard. I myself and my family stay often at property, as well as many international guests, which you can see from our reviews, who are used to highly secure areas, and they and we feel very secure. All I can say is, this review is the exception, and not the norm. Yes, there were elements that could have been improved on, the kitchen fridge had items from a guest that departed that day and left them behind when staff was done with cleaning, which have been stream-lined and we apologize that your first night did not go the way you planned. We've always strived to make sure to ask all people visiting whether the number of rooms is enough for them, provided clear pictures, agreed on the allotment of rooms for the stay in advance, as its easy for details to not be clear when arriving guests do not communicate. You seem to have made this a habit, as a travel agent of some kind and I would urge people to steer widely clear of you. In fact, your posting here leads me to realize that it was extremely personal and really not business at all, when guests have had concerns they have always been ready to discuss and find a resolution that works. Often times behaviour of your kind points to having found a perceived better deal elsewhere and needing to justify that or get out of a contract. We are reasonable people and communication goes a long way. I would invite past and present clients to be kind enough to disprove this unfounded claim about our property and invite any potential guests to review all other reviews we have had and you will find that 95% and more of them are positive, in fact, are glowing, that's an overwhelming majority, I'll let the numbers speak for themselves. We have had an almost 4.8 out of 5 rating on Tripadvisor until this one review, making it only 1 negative out of 20, I think the statistics can speak for themselves.

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not TripAdvisor LLC.

“A relaxing, stress-free retreat”