Misleading adverti*****t

Andova tented lodge advertised on bookings.com is a bogus ****. There's beutiful pictures advertised on bookings.com and I booked the lodge. Below is my entire experience; I then went ahead and did the booking for the long weekend of the 24th September. Few days before my travelling, I wanted to confirm a few things with the establishment. I perused for a contact number and social media pages. To my disappointment, they were not available. There was no social media page or a direct contact number that I can reach.

Regardless, I went ahead and travelled with my family early Friday the 24th Sep. We drove six hours from JHB to Hoedspruit where the site is allocated. On our arrival at the security gate, there were two bakkies parked outside. One was driven by a female and another one across the street by a male.

We asked the people on the vehicles as to what’s the purpose of their visit. The reason we were asking is because we suspected that they are also guests just like us.

They were upset and told us that they are from Pretoria for a vacation weekend. They have also booked Andova tented lodge. We asked why they are outside the gate, they indicated that they were chased away by Andova Management. They indicated that the reason they were chased away is because they wanted to take pictures of how filthy the place looks, how different it is from the pictured advertised on bookings.com. They indicated that they were threatened and were intimidated that they will be shot if they take pictures.

At that time we were disappointed, but we thought because we drove so far and we were hoping for a lovely brake, let’s get inside and see for ourselves.

We drove and went in. A security guard escorted us. As we were getting closer we saw the tents which we thought it’s the camping site. Closer just before we got to the tents, a middle aged lady came out and we asked if this is Andova. She said yes and asked what we are doing there. We said we are from JHB and we had come for a holiday. She said please guys, I beg you. Please report the owner of this place. We asked why? She said, several people have come there to sleep and had seen nice pictures on the various travelling websites and when they got there it was completely different. She said he has been ******** people and them as a community are going to get in trouble.

Eish, we went ahead to the tents anyway. When we got there, the was a guy who claimed that he is not one of the workers but just helping. We asked him if he knows we booked in there for the weekend. He didn’t have records of us booking but went ahead and showed us the site.

OMG, it was filthy, building tools lying around. No sight of any of the stuff advertised on bookings.com. I have shared a few pictures below; We asked the guy who said he is helping if we can speak to management. He dialed someone from his phone who was on loud speaker. We told him that there’s no way we can sleep in that place. Why is the place different from the one they advertised on Bookings.com. He said, they had a strike in the week and couldn’t prepare the place for the weekend. He said the strike was applicable to all the lodges in that area. He said he had informed Bookings.com to communicate that and doesn’t understand why they didn’t. He said any ways you must let me know if you don’t like the place so that I can accommodate other guests from Germany. I said, all the best with your Germany guests. We left.

We drove around to every guest and lodge in that town and we were getting turned away that it is long weekend. The places are fully booked. It was getting late, the kids were exhausted. It had been a long day. We were losing hope of finding a suitable place to sleep. On our vehicles we had packed all camping gear including food and meat for braing. The stuff was getting off.

Eventually we got to a lodge where the owner said I can work things around. He said we are fully booked but I will try to move guests around. He was the sweetest. We stayed there for the weekend and decided that we will attend to this disappointment upon our return from the trip. As we were telling our story to that owner, he said OMG I have a lot of people that are sharing this story. You are the third group this weekend only. That’s why I am fully booked. I had to accommodate people who had a misfortune in that lodge.

Anyways we carried on with our holiday. During dinner time we went for dinner. We indeed met a couple that shared the same experience as us.

The following week, I contacted bookings.com. They said they would try to get hold of the owner. They asked what would I like the outcome to be? I said I would like to have my money back. That’s the list they can do. Bookings.com said they can only refund if the owner gives them the money. Few day later they came back and said they got nothing. My question here why would booking.com allow misleading adverti*****ts on their site? Why are they not performing proper due diligence to the places they advertise? Well that’s another point.

Now it gets worse, after all the pain that we have been through. Someone who has said he is the owner contacted me and said he will send me refund forms to complete. Indeed the forms were sent. Please see email below:

I responded and attached the refund forms on the 6th of October. Interestingly there was this clause on the refund form he sent me. Please see below;

The owner said for me to get my refund I must remove the review which I had on bookings.com. My freedom to express myself was forcefully taken away at this moment. He surely only wants clean reviews. That’s part of the terms of getting the refund. I removed the review and up to date he hasn’t given me any refund. When I contact one of the numbers he blue ticks no just says he is in a noisy place and cannot here me. I have included below a few screenshots evidencing the follow ups I have made.

Interestingly booking.com is now blocking me for writing a review to that Andova site. He knew that he would block me adding any additional reviews.