Swayne's wasn't our first choice, unfortunately the Paradise Lodge was all booked so we ended up at Swayne's for 3 nights while visiting the Arba Minch area. Swayne's has to be one of the worst places we've ever stayed in all our travels and that assessment does factor in the typical lodging quality of Ethiopia versus other places in the world. But even given that this place was a hole, cement block motel rooms grouped together in an unattractive landscape unless you had one of the few rooms with a valley view. The room was ok, no air conditioning but that was not an issue once things cooled off for the evening. The beds had good mosquito netting, I'll give it that. The bathroom was ok, and was fairly spacious. We were there during a drought and the hotel needed to conserve water and turned the water off during certain times of the day or night, that we completely understood and have no complaint about, you do what you have to do and did our best to conserve when water was turned on. Our first trip to the bar/restaurant we were served extremely warm beer, apparently the fridg they were keeping it in wasn't up to par but they served it anyway. We did suggest they put some in the freezer for about 30 minutes which they did. The food in the restaurant was aweful, worst on all our journey through Ethiopia, many of our best meals were at the local restaurants, local food. Very good in Arba Minch is Soma Restaurant, great local fish, go there! Its not far from Swayne's. The staff were helpful and accommodating for the most part, no complaints there. This place was probably ok for anyone passing thru Arba Minch for 1 night but for 3 try to stay elsewhere.

The Swaynes is of the typical mediocre tourist quality found so often in Ethiopia. Rooms are ok, but lack air conditioning. Service in the restaurant is lousy. Furniture needs upgrading. Often sold out in high-season. Then they'll give you a tent.

Had a really nice time staying at this hotel, the bar restaurant overlooking the rift valley, a perfect place to sit and chill with a cold beer and admire the view. Had a nice bungalow with a garden and a garden wooden chair overlooking the rift valley, with plenty of wildlife that flies walks and creeps and crawls past if you are quiet enough. The room was clean and comfortable and apart from a branch scraping on my roof at night (which the gardener sorted) i had a nice relaxing peacefull stay, and i would recomend the local fish dishes from lake chomo served in the hotel restaurant....

Pros
- decent dinner, restaurant has atmo at night, and once they do take take your order, food gets served fast (both nights I had to walk up to the chalkboard and tell the waiters /waitresses what I wanted coz they just sat/ stood around, but staff are friendly)
- awesome view of the two lakes, good place for birdwatching with plenty of kites and other birds flying by at close proximity and at eye level, in fact giving this place a 3/5 mainly because of the view/ location
- interesting decor that incorporates local architecture-the beehive looking entrances of the Dorze people
- room has mossie net, hot water, electricity (that went on and off a few times)
- adorable olive baboons live in the same cliff area, too bad the hotel guards threw rocks at them to scare them away, I was enjoying the morning sun when a family incl baby walked by but they got chased away

Cons
-  could be more clean, made me itch just being in the room although I was just scratching the same old bites from Axum days ago, while room had very good view of Lake Chamo on the right and Lake Abaya on the left (once you walk out of your room), when at the cliff edge could see plastic bottles and excrements, in the outdoor area around the restaurant the grass was also littered with cigarette butts, glass, bottle caps, the walkway to the restaurant was littered by bamboo and other debris (as some of the rooms look like they were still under construction) 
- thin walls: Heard everything next door