Shocking experience from start to finish.

We made the booking on 28th February. My wife and I booked 2 nights and then my parents booked for a day later for one night. We come from different provinces and planned to stay in Upington before a 10 day trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

We booked two cottages (Kwikstertjie - 2 nights and Houtkapper - 1 night) We chose these as my parents had stayed there twice before and they suited our needs perfectly (particularly because they had large fridge/freezers where we could store our food for the trip) We paid the deposits online and received the confirmation vouchers via email.

We contacted the lodge via Whatsapp on the 28th April to confirm the booking and pay the balances outstanding and everything was eventually finalized on the 3rd May.

On the 18th May (2 days before we departed on the trip) Duncan contacted us via Whatsapp saying his boss (Nick) had double booked the cottages we were supposed to stay in and that he was moving us and my parents to the "Pink House" He sent photos and it seemed acceptable and even if it wasn't there was no time left for us to make alternative arrangements. We arrived as planned and to be honest we were not at all impressed with the Pink House but we stayed the night and waited for my parents to arrive the following day. The house was not at all clean enough and the freezer was frozen solid with ice. The kitchen light was not working either. It was badly located next to piles of ******* and a farmyard which smelled terribly and there were flies everywhere. Once my parents arrived they were shocked as to how bad the standard was compared to the original cottages that we booked (which they had stayed in twice before) We asked one of the staff to call the owner as my parents refused to stay. The staff member said the owner was sleeping. We said that this was urgent and that he should be woken. Then after another half an hour of waiting she said he was sick. My father tried to phone him and he eventually called back. He apologised for the double booking and said that friends of his who do contract work were staying in the cottages that we had booked. He offered to move us into the smaller rooms on the premises which we reluctantly accepted as we basically had no choice. He offered to refund us if we chose to leave but where could we go at 16h30 in the afternoon at such short notice? The rooms were clean but very small and only had mini bar fridges which complicated things as we had lots of meat and fresh produce some of which got ruined.

We reluctantly stayed the night and left for the rest of our trip the following morning. We requested to be refunded for part of the stay as the smaller rooms are less expensive than what we paid for. The owner initially agreed to this with Afristay (the company we booked with) Afristay have been incredibly helpful in assisting us to solve the matter but to date no form of refund has been received. WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND AVOIDING THIS ESTABLISHMENT.