House of Waine continues award winning trend

The House of Waine in Karen. Photo/Margaretta wa Gacheru 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

In Summary

• Kenyan-owned boutique hotel is a favourite with travellers on TripAdvisor, a global travel review platform.

 

Kenyans are certainly getting used to winning awards in all spheres of life. Our long-distance runners have been winning marathon prizes all over the world.

And of course, Lupita Nyongo’s Academy Award, the Oscar, is something all Kenyans celebrate and identify with.

Even the Kenyan-owned boutique hotel, the House of Waine in Karen, has just won the (online) Travellers’ Choice award for the second year running at www.TripAdvisor.com.

“We won in two categories,” said HOW’s property manager Steve Nzioka. “In 2013, we won in the ‘small hotel’ category (since the hotel has just 11 suites) and the ‘luxury hotel’ category as well. Then this year, we won the Travelers’ Choice award.”

Experiences

The Trip Advisor site is a global platform that offers travellers the opportunity to review hotels around the world and share their personal experience.

For instance, visitors to HOW have posted opinions online ranging from “Sanctuary in the heart of Nairobi” and “Fantastic home away from home” to “Classy and serene.”

The accolades have come at an opportune moment since House of Waine is about to celebrate a delicious decade of proudly providing elegant five-star service to both international and domestic visitors.

Starting this month and running through April and part of May, HOW will offer a special 10 per cent discount on all their luxury accommodations.

They already have special rates and services for honeymooners, including a free upgrade for newly-weds to stay in the Honeymoon ‘Malaika’ Suite.

They also have special rates for groups needing cozy ‘get-away’ conference space. The Conference Hall whose walls are covered with contemporary Kenyan art comfortably seats 20.

And just next to the hall is a glass-filled terrace that looks out on a lush ever-green two and a half acre garden, complete with an outdoor solar-heated swimming pool and adjoining bar.

The House of Waine was originally built as an elegant private home back in the 1970s. It was bought in 2002 by an indigenous Kenyan family who took two years to totally refurbish the place, aiming to meet world class standards.

The family kept the hard wood floors and mahogany bannister leading upstairs where most of the suites are to be found.

“Each room has a name and a theme,” says Nzioka who reeled off the relevant room names: Sahara, Bustani, Manyatta, Ziwa, Tembo, Pwani, Safari and Makan.