Royal Livingstone Hotel by Anantara

My wife and I stayed at the hotel and loved every second of our stay. The hotel is ideally situated for the Victoria Falls and is situated within the national park so you see giraffes, impala’s, monkeys and zebra’s around the grounds. The staff are very attentive, our butler Kennedy was always on hand to assist us. Other members of staff such as Chola, Dorothy and Lupendo made our stay memorable and pleasant and we can’t wait to return for our next visit.

Our family ( 7 people - 4 rooms) recently stayed at the Royal Livingston. My wife and I were looking forward to our stay as we had been here before. Our room was not up to expectations - minimal view of the river - which was quickly remedied for an additional charge. The front desk service was very good and very accommodating to us. The person who helped us switch rooms found out that we had a birthday celebration and delivered us champagne and birthday cake - a great touch. Then things went downhill from there. At dinner the servers were clueless - long wait times, courses delivered out of order and wrong food brought to one of our family members. No apologies were offered and nothing was given to us to make up for the poor experience. That night my son had to switch rooms twice - once for a toliet malfunction which he had advised the hotel of seven hours previous and once because of an ant infestation. The next afternoon during tea it took 30 minutes to get served even though the tea service was premade. In addition the server was again clueless- not knowing what she was serving. During tea and again subsequently after tea I believe that two different employees tried to set up a scam whereby they asked me to exchange their $50 US currency for smaller bills because of the date on the bills. Would not have thought much about this bit for the fact that the people trying to make the exchange would have limited ability for a guest to have given them a $50 gratuity. Both employees were pushy and persistent. This establishment needs a staff training program and closer monitoring of their employees. I would not recommend this hotel.

Our family just returned from a 4 night stay at the Royal Livingstone and we loved every moment of our stay. The room was comfortable and clean. The staff was great and amazing. We wanted to thank Sylvia and Phyllis at the Old Drift restaurant for taking care of us and going the extra mile to make sure we had everything we needed. We also wanted to give a special thanks to Arun from F&B. We met him one night at the restaurant and he kept his promise of offering free ice cream to my son and even gave him an early birthday dessert. My son still talks about him to this day. As for the rest of the hotel, the grounds were well kept, we felt safe at all times and its amazing waking up to zebras, giraffes, and impalas roaming around the grounds. Access to the falls are free for guest and they provide buggys for those not willing to make the 10 min walk. We would definitely go back in the future and the only thing we would change is bring more bug spray next time.