Tulip Inn Juba

I've stayed at Tulip before, and yes, these were better days. The place looks run down – broken tiles, wallpaper peeling off, a leak in the bathroom. To top it off, I had bedbugs. They sorted it out quickly, but it makes me wonder if this happens often. The bright side? Their restaurant is pretty good but popular, so the place can get noisy in the evenings. The best part is the staff. They're always friendly and helpful, no matter what. They're the real stars here. In short, the staff is great, but the hotel needs work to be what it used to be and to be up to its potential.

The food is excellent but the rooms are dated, poor water pressure, loud noises at night from the septic tank being pumped abd the staff is indolent. Several incidents occurred, including entering my room when it has a do not disturb sign up and trying to deny that, not being informed of when the kitchen closed as the waitress was too busy flirting with vips visiting the restaurant and even worse: early morning construction that goes on for hours with no warning so if you plan to sleep or work from the room you can’t. Between the hard beds and the non stop noise, I had several headaches. Go for the food but sleep elsewhere.

Spent a week at Tulip. We he hotel is ok, some security and rooms were clean. We had a corridor outside our window which meant we could not leave it open, and had to close the curtains whenever we wanted to change etc which wasn’t ideal. This was on the fourth floor and not sure if this issue applies to all rooms. The gym was ok, though only one working treadmill and no exercise or yoga mats. The pool is ok, quite shallow but located right next to the bar so very ‘public’. Breakfast was fine but limited and totally monotonous. A bean dish (like foul), sweet potatoes in peanut sauce and viennas. Plus rollies, a few pastries, a bit of fruit and cereal. But that’s it. And it is unchanging. Some mango would have been good! It is literally falling from the trees all over the place. The restaurant at other times is pricey but not too bad. Lastly, on weekends there was a lot of noise - DJ and a real party. Great if that’s your thing but obviously not if you want an early night. It does the job, but a few improvements would go a long way.