Robbed In Nairobi Hotel
 

We landed in Nairobi, waiting for the bike to ship in for a run south to SA.
We stayed at the Precious Hotel near the centre, which billed itself as having '24hr security'.
On about our third day we came back to find the room had been burgled, all the good stuff that we hadn't carried was gone.
We got the police involved, though the hotel didn't want us to.
The cops found that the Crimson had gone in using a master key card, exactly two minutes after we'd left.
CCTV showed that these crimes had booked in one day after us and been put in the room directly opposite us. The front desk had put the Crimson in the only room that looked over the only room with white, and therefore rich, guests.
The police 'strongly suspect collusion between Reception, the cleaner and the thieves'.
The Crimson broke off the bathroom window handle to make it look like the means of entry but the police said it was done to hide the fact that the door was used.
Beware! Don't use the Precious Hotel.

Am afraid it's more common then u think, that's exactly the same mo as happened with my parents when they landed in Jo Burg. They literally arrived put their stuff in the room and even put their cash into the safe using a new code and then left to sort out the hire car. On their return everything of value including the cash was gone. Master key to get in the room and Master over ride code to enter the safe.....

Wow - crappy. :( I've learned to travel with nothing of substantial value that I can't carry on my person at all times. It's a shame, but what can you do?

sadly that's why I prefer small out of town family run shabby (or clean!) guesthouses, where there are not so many fingers in pies.

A big warning for us all ?
 

Sorry to hear about your loss.
And a big wake up call to us all.

Leave nothing in your room, even in a safe?

Good job I am poor, the only things I leave in my room are 10-day old underpants, and that's on a good day :thumbup1:

Robbed in Tanzania a few years back
 

My son and I were riding from South Africa to Kenya, and after we checked in we headed downstairs to the bar for a drink. When we went back to the room Mike noticed his cash was gone and I noticed my laptop was gone. We figured it was an inside job, person in the lobby tipped off the cleaner or someone else with keys. We insisted on getting the police involved. Manager pointed out a sign that said "Management not responsible for loss, blahblahblah..." . We said no way, this was an inside job and such a policy just gives crooked staff license. So we went to police to complain, with some Kenyan bikers we met on our side. Police called in hotel manager and owner. Owner wouldn't come so police locked up the manager till owner came. Then into the meeting room for negotiations...Owners said they are not responsible...we insisted. Finally we said that we would write to travel books like Lonely Planet to tell them to avoid this hotel, and also advised we would print out a stack of handouts describing the rip-off and hand them out at the entrance to the hotel, and also that we would carry placards Rip-off Hotel, etc. We got our money back and a pay-out for the laptop. Owner said they would take the money out of the staff's paychecks...good solution I think.

Thank you for sharing this. It's great to let others know of what we can do to be aware and avoid similar incidents. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to have this happen.

Experienced expats refer to this town as Nai-robbery, rather than Nairobi.

Having lived and worked there for several years, I can attest to the accuracy of that nickname.

Michael

Sad to hear that. Some people ruin it for everyone else. (not you, the a**hole robbers)

Robbed in Nairobi too...at gunpoint by cops
 

I was staying in a little hotel with my Ugandan gf and we were just returning from a restaurant after dinner and a few gins and tonic. Small lada approached us with lights off and an Indian guy driving up front and two uniformed cops in the back. They pulled over to us in a very dark area and asked to see our passports. We said they are just a short distance ahead in our hotel room, follow us. They said "get in". We said "no". I should mention there were half a dozen Nairobians leaning against a fence watching this little performance, which we figured worked in our favour. So, the cops got out and waved the guns a bit and said "get in" . We declined again, thinking they wanted to drive us to the nearest ATM so we could enrich them by maxing on cash withdrawals. My gf asked them what they wanted, to which they replied "what do you have for us". I had $20 in local currency. Give it to me they said...then after the handover, "Go!"
I made my judgment that these guys were mostly bluffing and wouldn't shoot us, especially with witnesses. I wanted to put my little light on the guys number on his uniform...to dark to see. But I figured it wasn't worth a rifle butt in the face.
Next morning we called the local newspaper and asked if they wanted to do a story on this. They declined, fearing reprisals I suspect.
This was kind of scary, but not near as scary as the time I was jumped by two guys with a big knife in Cali, Colombia. Live and learn, and try to make good judgements of risk.

Larry

Crazy!
 

Youre not alone, Same happend to a friend of mine about a year ago, They tried to contact the police, hotel administration but got nothing.. from my knowledge my friend still has his case unsolved.. -