The Pinnacle in Kigali – I Love Being Wrong

When I first heard that a new hotel in Kigali planned to open with rates of $5,000 per night, I wondered what crack they were smoking.  When the rates were later revised down to $3,000, I figured someone had finally taken the pipe away.  And now they were on a potent cocktail of cocaine, courage, tequila, and extremely poor judgement.

Because this is Kigali.

In all my years of being a travel agent, not a single person has ever emailed asking whether they should spend the weekend in Kigali or head to Lake Como instead.  The competition here is the Radisson Blu and the Marriott. It’s not exactly Paris. There’s a reason that famous property show is called “Location, Location, Location”, and not “How Many Bowling Alleys Does Your Hotel Have?”

Historically, the only place that has tried to position itself as “luxury” is The Retreat, where I had the misfortune of staying in 2024 and decided against writing a review afterwards, mainly because I felt I had already suffered enough.

So I could not wait to see this property and laugh at them.

And yet, I was wrong.  Oh, so very wrong. I’m happy to hold my hands up.  The Pinnacle is absolutely world-class.

But before anyone gets carried away, I’m still not saying it’s worth $3,000 per night to come here.  And I say that as someone in a very unique position.  First of all, I am the target clientele. I’ve just returned from Rwanda where I managed to spend over $50k on a solo trip, happily throwing money away on private treks, helicopters and the best luxury lodges.  I can comfortably afford to come here.  Secondly, the average safari booking through Dorsia Travel is comfortably north of $100k, with plenty well beyond $500k.  Our clients are not afraid to spend.  Yet none of them are queuing up for the chance to spend $3,000 a night in Kigali.  Rightly or wrongly, that’s simply the reality.

So yes, I’m happy I was wrong.  Not so wrong that I’m suddenly eager to spend $3,000 a night staying here myself (I came for dinner and a site inspection), but wrong nonetheless.  Not because the hotel isn’t impressive — it very much is — but because it’s still in Kigali and even I have limits on how much my lovely wife allows me to disappear on expensive adventures.  Given the choice in Rwanda, I would spend the money on a helicopter rather than a hotel room.  Get me where I need to be quicker, rather than losing a night.  Unfortunately, that isn’t always an option when some flights land so late that even helicopters have called it a night.

But I rather enjoyed being completely wrong about The Pinnacle and having it thrown back in my face. It’s character building.  Mildly irritating, but the world is all the better for it.

What they’ve built here goes far beyond anything I could have imagined someone deciding was necessary for a nine-room hotel.  The only place that kept coming to mind was the glorious Ellerman House.  Though Ellerman enjoys the minor logistical advantage of being in Cape Town, which is somewhere people actively want to visit.  And Ellerman is easily combinable with the Winelands.  Perhaps one day Kigali will reach that point.  But at the moment, our clients are generally cash-rich and time-poor, and unless they absolutely have to spend a night in Kigali, they simply won’t.  And even when they do, it’s usually just a quick overnight before or after gorilla trekking, which means that pricing comes back to the forefront of the conversation.

But let me focus on the positives.  Because what they’ve created here completely surprised me.  It is astonishing.  And the more of the tour I had, the more absurd the property became.  The more I found myself fully grasping how they could even consider these rates.  This is not Kigali good, it’s not Africa good, it’s world-class good.

The property is gloriously over-the-top, in all the good and righteous ways a boutique hotel should be.  I lost count of all the different areas.  But there’s a games room with a bowling alley.  A  cinema room.  A TV room.  A library.  Four restaurants.  A massive gym, big enough for a 100-room city hotel.  A spa with a sauna, steam and two hot tubs in front of TVs.  They have sweeping views of the city.  A rooftop bar.  Tasting menus, a huge pool, a kids pool, a basketball court, a padel court, and undoubtedly things I’ve forgotten.  And did I mention only 9 rooms?

And every inch of the place feels premium.  Every material, every part of the design, you can tell that an enormous amount of money has been spent..  I didn’t love the rooms, they’re very nicely designed, but nothing wow and around 55 sqm (except the penthouse, but that was booked), but everything else is really something.

I also met a co-owner, had such a wonderful chat with her which could have gone on many an hour, if I didn’t suddenly realise I was in danger of missing my flight.  And then having to spend the night in Kigali.  Oh, how sneaky – what a clever way of drumming up business.

Overall, I was extremely impressed.  Impressed with the entire property, with my meal, the management, the owners and their vision.  I will absolutely recommend it if you want to stay in Kigali.  My concern is, I’m not sure you actually want to.