Bad Service

I made a booking for accommodation with Hlawula's guest house in Richardsbay on the 15 December 2023. Payment of R2 880.00 was done immediately because it was required to secure the booking. Five minute or less after that the booking was cancelled and because that was a mistake, i sent an email to the venue and to Booking.com indicating that i still want the accommodation the cancellation was a mistake. I got the number of the guest house manager Mr Wiseman, I immediately called him and informed him that i was on my way to his place with my family. He indicated that he had not received the payment because Booking.com has to still process it, however we can come through he will be waiting for us. On my way there, I was getting lost and I requested Mr Wiseman to send me a location of where the guest house was, as we were talking, I also sent him proof of payment. He sent me a location which took me to a different guest house in Esikhawini which was less than what i paid when i checked on Bookig.com.

Got to the place, Wiseman the manager was not there, I found a lady who refused to accommodate me and my family because she hasn't received any payment. I called Boking.com and they told me the guest house has received the money, i was sent from pillar to post between booking.com and the guest house manager. Several emails were sent by myself and booking.com to the guest house and not once did Wiseman respond. I also sent several WhatsApp messages to Wiseman until he just blocked my number. So between Hlawula's guest house and Bookings.com, someone was dishonest with me.

It bothers me that a reputable service provider like Bookings.com will continue to advertise and manage the services of Hlawula's guest house or any other person that they cannot hold accountable if they give bad service. It is worrying because you start to wonder what their SLAs' with these service providers are. I advice consumers to be very careful when using these services because after they receive your money, they forget about you and you sleep in the car with your family like I did.