Ratings based on 17 Verified Reviews
3.5 Room cleanliness
3.4 Service & staff
3.0 Room comfort
3.1 Hotel condition
Expedia Verified Reviews
by A verified traveler
Posted 26 Dec 2023
I have traveled the world with my family, and HIGHLY recommend the Mayleko Lodge. I selected the lodge at random, and was glad I did. The service was incredible. The Hotel Manger paid personal visits to our room to ensure that we were doing well, and in one case noted we were late for breakfast, and offered to arrange room service so we would not miss our breakfast. The Hotel Manger also arranged sightseeing with a very knowledgeable local guide that my son and I very much enjoyed. The Food in the Mayleko Lodge restaurant was 5 Star quality all the way. Food was fresh and innovatively prepared. Very attentive and perfect service from the restaurant manager and his staff. The hotel grounds are a very large well-manicured garden, with a host of local birds calling the lodge home. Finally, rooms were spacious and perfectly appointed. In short, when in Gondar, this will be the only place that my family will stay from now on when we travel from the USA to Ethiopia.
by A verified traveler
Great hospitality & a gorgeous place!
Posted 24 Dec 2019 on HotelsAmazing experience! The place is beautiful and very clean, the service and the food were top notch. I highly recommend this place to anyone who is visiting Gondar..
Comment from Hotel Management
30 Dec 2019 by Ethiopia G, Hotel Management
Dear Mira,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a wonderful review! We are glad you enjoyed everything at Mayleko from the cleanliness of our hotel to the delicious food served in our restaurant! We would love to host you in the future should you visit Ethiopia again.
Best regards,
Management
by A verified traveler
Beautiful garden
Posted 29 Jul 2019 on HotelsIt was wonderful after sightseeing in Gondar to sit down and see all the birds in the garden. The staff are all friendly. You need cash for everything. There was a gap in the door, They helped us with some blankets. Enough warm water. Worst pizza on the tour but the local food was good. Fresh fruit from the garden for breakfast. I would love to be back.
Comment from Hotel Management
5 Aug 2019 by Ethiopia G., Hotel Management
Dear Mrs. Turid,
On behalf of our staff, we thank you for your time to write a great review! It is our pleasure to make your stay an exceptional one at Mayleko. We also accept PayPal as a form of payment. I apologize about the gap on the door and we are working on it.
Although you enjoyed most of our meals, I will pass your comment about the pizza to our chef.
I hope you had a great time for the rest of your trip in Ethiopia.
Best regards
Management
by A verified traveler
Posted 16 Apr 2019
A beautiful setting. The pool had just opened which was great. Our booking didn’t reflect the room we were expecting as we were given rooms which were sub optimal but we managed to chant this albeit at a price. When it came to settle the bill at the end of our five night stay, they didn’t accept credit cards though.
Comment from Hotel Management
5 May 2019 by Management, Hotel Management
Thank you for your great review! We have three type of rooms and we accomodate our guests according to the type of room they select during reservation. We are sorry that our payment option was not convenient for you, however, in case you were not aware, we do accept paypal payments for our guests. We are glad you enjoyed your stay and we hope you will chose Mayleko again should you visit Gondar in the near future.
Best regards,
by A verified traveler
Great character, very comfortable.
Posted 31 Dec 2018 on HotelsGreat character, hearing the church in the morning was lovely. Don't have high expectations about food, but the lodges are lovely. They are continually improving.
Comment from Hotel Management
3 Jan 2019 by Ethiopia Getachew Ambaye, Hotel Management
Dear Chris
Thank you for your wonderful review! We are glad that you enjoyed your stay to the fullest! We hope to host you again should you come to visit Gondar in the near future.
Best regards!
Management
by A verified traveler from Georgia
SKETCHY BUSINESS
Posted 9 Feb 2018As an avid traveler, this was by far the worst hotel experience I have ever had. Upon our arrival at the hotel we were told by the owner that Mayleko does not work with any travel websites. That being said, it is still showing up on multiple travel sites. We were informed that our reservation could not be honored but that there were tents available to rent and that we could use the pool for a shower. The owner of the lodge only accepted cash, and charged much higher rate. At one point an Expedia representative called the hotel to offer payment over the phone which the owner of the lodge refused. Something sketchy is definitely going on with the woman who owns it.
Comment from Hotel Management
26 Mar 2018 by Management, Hotel Management
Dear Guest,
We are sorry that you had such a bad experience with our payment system. However, we have repeatedly informed our reservation channels including Expedia that we do not have a credit card payment processing system yet, and Expedia is well aware of our policy. It is impossible for us to accept a credit card payment over the phone when we don't have a system established to do such a process.
All our guests have been paying cash upon arrival, once they book with Expedia.
We are working with expedia to make sure that no guest go through the same experience in the future.
by A verified traveler from Atlanta
Owner is an Unscrupulous Fraud
Posted 26 Jan 2018
Pros: Nice sunsets at the restaurant, but I give credit to light rays and the atmosphere Not to the hotel. Staff, aside from the owner, was kind.
Cons: Get rid of the owner, change the process for payment, complete the "pending" construction, and become more transparent with your reservations.
Don't book this hotel via an any website. In fact, don't book at this establishment at all. The mgmt of the hotel pulled a bait and switch on me and six others at a very inopportune time.
Having booked a reservation for Mayleko through Expedia I received multiple emails confirming my reservation - and that I would not need to follow up to confirm. Expedia's price was approximately $45 per room. The manager, in con artist fashion, played dumb to the Expedia reservation when we arrived on the weekend of Timkat (big Ethiopian celebration in which hotel/hostel rooms are fully occupied). Mger subsequently noted that she had two rooms available at approximately $200 each. Given the isolation of the hotel (approximately 20 mins from Gondar) and the scarcity of rooms on Timkat weekend, she realized we had no choice but to pay..
We might have been okay with paying $200 per room on Timkat Weekend had it been advertised appropriately. Unfortunately, we have yet to recoup our credit card payments (one week later) and we paid mgmt in cash ($200 x 4 = $800). We double-paid. I'd like to place more blame on Expedia, but Mger/ower did not seem concerned with our predicament and made that clear by up charging us for multiple items.
While the space has potential to be a top-notch lodge, it's run by an unscrupulous huckster. I can sympathize a business run with cash, however, I have less sympathy when dealing with hundreds of dollars...and when we had already paid.
I do not recommend!
Recommended
for Getaway With Friendsby A verified traveler
No partnership with hotels.com
Posted 21 Jan 2018 on HotelsWE arrived at the hotel and they said they had no booking for us. They clarified that they have no partnership with hotels.com and would not honour the booking made online. We had to find another hotel at the last minute which was twice as expensive therefore we expect a refund from hotels.com for the prepaid booking.
Recommended
for Everyoneby A verified traveler from San Francisco
Nice quiet comfortable with fresh air
Posted 28 Oct 2017It's a beautiful comfortable unique place to stay for a few days. It's a little bit far from town but not bad at all. It's very close to the airport. Staff and managers are wonderful, helpful and friendly. I would love to come back here again
Thanks for making my stay so pleasant.
by A verified traveler from Seattle
Horrific!
Posted 8 Sep 2017
Pros: Absolutely nothing. After 108 countries I've visited, this may be the worst of all.
Cons: Absolutely everything. If you're going to advertise on an American based, English speaking website, I at least expect, English speakers.
Location: Just don't come here. Skip Ethiopia all together. If you must come, just go see "Lucy" in Addis Ababa and get out as fast as you can!
I just picked this hotel based on price and reviews. But, it wasn't too long until there were problems. This hotel includes free airport pickup, so I tried to arrange by phone, website and finally eMail.
On check-in, still no English. No information on b'fast. No map. They were trying to explain they needed a voucher or PayPal something but I'd paid already. It was intolerable.
The grounds are unkempt. To stay out of mud and water, I had to walk on concrete bags to get to Reception. It looked like it hasn't been cared for in quite a while. A lawnmower and weed-eater would do wonders.
I get to the room and there's a padlock on the outside of the door. There's not a fire code in the world that would permit this. Not to mention no fire alarm. Expedia says says there's 24 hour room service. But, no phone in the room. How shall I order ROOM service?
The room was dirty. There were bugs all over the place -- flying and crawling. I moved the covers to see a silverfish type bug crawl out. I killed a handful of mosquitoes in the first 5 minutes. The drapery was dirty. The shower curtain was filthy. There was an old soap wrapper in the shower. There were bugs and rat droppings (I guess) on the ledge in the bath. Clearly, cleaning wasn't a high priority here. No shampoo. No WiFi. No TV. No fan or AC.
In a word: horrific!
