Name: Hotel Malaika
Address: Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, Bissau, Bissau, Bissau, 1000, Guinea-Bissau
Rating: 7

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Garden

Terrace

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

Reception desk

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Cable TV

Shower

Safe (in room)

Toiletries

Rooms

Hairdryer (on request)

Wake-up service

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Conference Hall

Business

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Osvaldo Vieira Airport

Hotel Malaika

Bissau

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

OK the simple fact is that there is not much hotels to choose from in Bissau and which ever you pick it is probably overpriced. The location of Malaika hotel is good and the room is ok (expect mosquitos) but that’s it. They offer airport pick up but I have never been able to get them answer any emails. Don’t even try to email in English, the whole hotel has one staff Abu, who speaks English and he is at house-keeping. At check in nobody speaks English and even hotel manager is unable to communicate in English.

If you book your room through hotels.com or Expedia good luck as hotel has no contact with them. I did book and was pretty much thrown on the street. If you arrive at night be prepared to kick the door as its locked and staff sleeps at reception. If you make enough noise you able to wake up the staff or even better save the phone number and call them to wake up.

Breakfast is moderate at best and if you go too late you might not find much to eat. Hotels in ground floor have no windows so they quite dark and sometimes you walk faster than the internet works. Some days it is just useless and signal is bad in some rooms.

Take your mosquito repellent as you going to find mosquitos in the room. Also take your own shampoo etc as they only provide a soap. Aircon works ok and tv has CNN, however that’s pretty much only English channel. Shower gives you super-hot water.

You might get better rate by booking at hotel rather than online travel agent. Remember that they only accept cash, no credit cards. Would recommend to change money outside of the hotel and pay in local currency as the rates they give to EUR/USD are worse than you get next street with money changers.

There is no safe, no coffee making facilities in the room and not too many power sockets. As said, there is no much options in Bissau, some other hotels are even worse.

No many options in this town

The location could not be better. Hotel Malaika is right in the centre of Bissau and easy walk to Bissau Velho, shops and restaurants. 
But while the rooms are nice, clean and comfortable and the aircon is working great, the wifi is a complete rubbish. I needed wifi in order to get some work done but although the signal was there, it was so slow that you were not able to download even a simple e-mail! I had way better internet connections in some remote areas of Guinea Bissau than at this place right in the centre of its capital. 
Price for a double room was 45,000cfa. Not bad if you don’t need working wifi. Otherwise look elsewhere.

Right in the centre of Bissau but...

I stayed for 5 nights whilst on business in Bissau and it was clean, comfy and enjoyable.

I was in the smaller of the two room types you can choose from, but it was a good size with a massive bed and loads of pillows. The room had a tv, working plug sockets and good aircon. I had one of the rooms near the front of the building which meant it was close to the rooter (one on each floor), so I even had wifi in the room! 

The bathroom was clean and well-fitted and they provided toiletries.  

The food in the restaurant was tasty and they were very flexible with servicing outside of the official restaurant hours (for instance we arrived between lunch and dinner and were served). 

We also used the meeting room for a couple of days which was fine, butt a bit noisy as right next to the kitchen.

I would definitely return if back in Bissau.

Enjoyable business stay

I have stayed in the Malaika hotel for the past 6 years on business trips and having stayed at the other traditional major hotels on Bissau I have to say that this is one of the best of a very poor selection.
To assess anything in Guinea-Bissau it is important to suspend western norms. This country has been left behind in recent years of African development and it is in this context that one has to compare how the populace live compared to where a "wealthy Westerner" can afford stay. 

I hear that there are some new build hotels that opened or opening in that past / next 12 months but I do not have any experience of those so far. 

The "advantage" of this hotel is that it is centrally located. That would be advantageous in a pleasant city with places to go. The city of Bissau has nothing much to offer but there are shops to buy food in, to supply the lousy hotel food.
After upteen wars, massive corruption, 5 governments in 2 years (at the time of writing) basicically means that you are in the middle of a sad rundown former colonial,  post apocalyptic dusty, humid mess where people do their best to survive by washing cars, hussle non African tourists as a potential source of income and generally subsist. All this whilst their corrupt leaders and the narcotrafficers drive their new 4x4's around and live in obvious luxury!!
 
There are no security guards outside and therefore the place is a magnet for every street hustler and con-artist  when you set foot into  the street. That said - this is not unusual in non Western countries and any travellers who venture into Guinea-Bissau will be unlikely to be first time travellers in Africa or outside their home country. 

The hotel is used for Guinea-Bissau round table meetings and is known as a business hotel. There is wifi. Not very reliable and really only effective in the reception area.

The dining room is large and the food is sufficient. It is a popular venue for business meetings and breakfast, lunch and dinner are sufficient.  The air-conditioning is good. The rooms are better the higher up the floors you go - like most hotels. When I first stayed here around 6 years ago it was better and like all things in this benighted country it has suffered over the years from little or no ongoing investment.  By default I would recommend this as a business hotel to stay. Prices are high but as a place to stay for a week or so - it is sufficient. 



Functional hotel in a dysfunctional country 

Nice place for business purposes...very clean helpful people! Not much to do around or in the city but it's very secure...food: good quality of fish nice local beer! Lovely population very quiet behavior in spite of political issues...concerning the city there absolutely nothing to do in Bissau but they have amazing islands 

Hotel Malaika

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