My family and I stayed in this hotel from March 10 through March 12. On the day of our arrival, around 7 pm, the HOTEL WAS ATTACKED by a couple of armed men, who ROBBED ALL TOURISTS present in the hotel lobby. The hotel is located in a remote area and didn't have ANY SECURITY, apart from 2 or 3 elderly men with machetas, who escaped when they saw the robbers. In the week before our arrival there had been similar robberies in the area but Cristal Resort's owners neither hired any armed body guards nor warned its guests. After the robbery the staff took almost 45 minutes to call the police, the robbers had then enough time to escape. None of the victims of the robbery was provided with any compensation from Cristal Resort nor its owners, Ms Mehrez and Mr. Kodeh, maybe because of their financial problems. Keep off that place if you do not want to lose all your money.

WE are a couple of a certain age and stayed 5 nights at this charming hotel, we stayed in the deluxe rooms and had a wonderful view, and like it because it was very clean. the food is excellent. They had fresh fish coming in 3 times during our stay! We hope to come back in 1 year, I recommend this hotel for anyone that would like to relax and eat well.

The 'resort' is small scale and situated at a beautiful piece of beach on the south east coast of Zanzibar. It presents itself as a four star holiday resort. However, the warm water in the airconditoned rooms (but no possibility to open a window!!!) is only sufficient for one person to take a shower, let alone sufficient to fill the bath tub every room has and the resort brags about. Water pressure also not guaranteed at all times. Pool has been under construction for some time (concluding after the wealth of plants growing in the current construction) and it looks it will probably be under construction for quite some more time since the focus is now on establishing more room accomodation. During the day construction work is being performed for the new wooden huts, not adding to a quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Quality of kitchen/food is pretty good, prices reasonable but staff has little experience in serving customers (drinks in wrong glasses, tables prepared wrongly, breakfast served in random order). Rooms are clean. All rooms are claimed to have sea view. But the (beautiful) restaurant area was between our room and the sea (same for some other rooms). The set up of the cabins is wrong: other guests (and the owners)have to pass in front of the cabins to get their own cabin. Result: no way to e.g. watch the sea or sun rise from your bed or walk around freely in your room after showering and/or dressing with your curtains open. The owners are French and definitely have a bad attitude. The man does not pay any attention at all to the guests. The women (named Deva) is beautiful but unable to make a proper calculation or have a decent conversation with the guests. Guests are at no time informed about facilities or possibilities in or around the resort. Overall: nice beach location of the resort, beautiful restaurant area, good kitchen, reasonable prices of food, good willing but definitely not 4-star service, lack of privacy in rooms, lack of a quiet atmosphere and uninterested French owners.