Evergreen Bungalows in Bwejuu

Fire in our room and rats in our bed. During our stay we had a fire at midnight in our room from faulty electrical wiring, Evergreen are lucky we were awake and managed to put it out as the roofs of all rooms are thatched palm leaves, so a very dangerous situation for ourselves and other guests. There are also no fire extinguishers (we had to throw bottles of water onto the ceiling) or a safety protocol as it took over 20 mins to find a single staff member and inform them of the fire. Throughout our stay, we had swarms of ants across the floor every night and the room was full of mosquiotes (not an issue elsewhere) and then had rats running around the room as the room is completely unsealed with huge gaps in the roofing. The bedding stank of rat urine and the mattress was badly stained. This issue culminated with a rat biting my boyfriend while he slept in the bed which is completely unacceptable and highly unsantiary. The owner has since blamed us for the vermin infestation from bringing food into our room which is unbelievable as guests should be able to bring sealed food into their room and the hotel itself serves food to your room. The food was substandard, and is not on par with other restaurants/ hotels in the area. I was violently ill from the seafood platter (having not eaten anything else or anywhere else that day) which meant I missed a long awaited scuba diving experience and an on-call doctor had to be found. We were since told by locals that this is common knowledge in the area and they've heard of many Evergreen guests getting sick from the seafood. After raising the above issues and demanding a full refund/ compensation and our onward transfer to a new hotel covered we were met with hostility from the owner, while airbnb were incredibly helpful and insured the compensation. As someone who is involved in the tourism industry in southern Africa and lives in a national park, I would never blame guests for vermin and would be incredibly embarrassed if one of my rooms set on fire while they lay in bed, I would be thanking them for saving my hotel from burning down and the potential injury to staff and other guests. Having moved to a different hotel after Evergreen and having an amazing time in a clean, safe room I would highly recommed avoiding Evergreen and spending your hard earnt money on somewhere that will prioritise your safety and experience instead of providing the bare minimum.

My partner and I booked to stay at Evergreen for an eagerly awaited break from the 16th to the 23rd of December 2023. What a disappointment. We took our time looking for a place on the island that wouldn't be over run with tourists, had a good beach, good reviews, reasonably priced, a place to unwind, and from what we could see online Evergreen looked perfect! How wrong we were. Our first night our room was over run with ants and we had a rat running around in our room (we have a video). The bed and bedding all smelt like rat urine as well. On top of the ants and rats, there were mosquitoes and moths which resulted in us having a very unsettled night. On the second day we ordered a sea food platter from the Evergreen restaurant. This meal proceeded to give my partner violent food poisoning which resulted in her being bed ridden for two days and missing out on a scuba dive experience (main reason for coming to Zanzibar). We were later told that it is local knowledge not to eat seafood at Evergreen as there is a very good chance you'll get sick. Again loads of insects and rats in the room that night. The 3rd day I spent most of my time looking after my bed ridden partner which included a trip to the hospital. We were unable to sleep well that night because of smelly bedding and being bitten by all the insects in the room. On the fourth night after another poor meal at Evergreen (Meze platter) we decided to lie in bed and watch a movie. At about 11pm a moth flew into some exposed wiring on one of the lights in the room which caused the lamp shade of the light to catch fire. The room we were in was essentially a tinder box and if I wasn't able to put the fire out in time the whole lodge would've burnt to the ground and any guests sleeping at the time could've been seriously injured as there is no emergency protocol, fire extinguishers etc. at Evergreen. We reported the fire to the staff and went to bed but unfortunately for us Evergreen was still out to ensure we had a life threatening stay! At about 2am in the morning I was woken up by a rat bitting my arm in bed (seriously unhygienic - and these rats were present before we had to bring food into our room for my ill partner). I am aware the host will blame this on us as the guest instead of taking responsibility but you should be able to bring sealed food items or meals into a hotel room without fear of rodents, no matter the location. As the owner of a lodge within a national park, this is something I would never expect a hotel owner to use as an excuse for our experience. On the 21st we decided to leave Evergreen as it was now just getting silly how poor of an establishment this is. At 8am there was no management or ownership to talk to. So we had to message Claudia (owner) on Airbnb to inform her that we were leaving and that we felt that we should get a full refund, not have to pay our restaurant / bar bill and that transport to our newly booked accommodation should be covered as this woul