Misleading money grabbers!!!!!

I'm extremely disappointed and regret ever doing business with a company that has shown they are after money and not customer satisfaction/needs. I made a booking through booking.com for accomodation (2people sharing) in Cape Town - Happy Rhino Hotel for a period of 5 nights arriving 30 December 2018 departing 04 January 2019. Everything that was required from my side was done including payment days before our arrival, We were satisfied with the pictures we saw of Happy Rhino uploaded on bookings.com and we were confident that the hotel will be comfortable for us. We even recommended another couple to join us an make a booking at the same hotel through bookings.com.

To our disaapointent when we arrived at Happy Rhino at 21:30, we have never seen such a dirty 3 Star Hotel. At firs we thought the reception area could be dirty because it's a busy season and in the morning it will be clean. But then, the receptionist (Petrus) was not friendly at all and there was no porter on duty to help with luggage when we checked in. We were allocated a room at the 6th floor but the lift/elevator in the building could only get to 5th floor so we had to take stairs to get to the 6th Floor. That whole trip from 5th to 6th with luggage and walking on corridors without barrier walls was scary. When we got to room 625, there was a bed with almost no space for two people to move around. It was so dirty that there was a stinking wet towel in the bathroom by the shower door, the window to that room was not closing properly, the place was dusty everywhere. No aircon/fan in the room, no telephone to call reception, we immediately went back to reception to request for another room as 625 was not suitable given the condition. The hotel staff said they cannot change the room and according to their standards the place is clean.

We explained to Petrus the receptionist that I have chronic ashma and that environment is unfortunately not suitable given it's condition therefore request a refund so we can find another place to sleep around with a standard that will be most suitable for my health. Petrus the receptionist said we will have to wait until tomorrow morning at 8:00am for a person called Kuda to assist with refund. He asked me to write down my details, he took a copy of my ID and pulled a proof of payment from his files sttached them together and said Kuda will call me in the morning. We had to leave the premises which unfortunately cost us R1600 to find another hotel for the night whilst we wait for Kuda to give us a refund.

Next day, there was no call from Kuda/Happy Rhino. I phoned him and he said unfortunately he can't give us a refund but can put us at another hotel 25-30km from the city. I explained to him that Petrus made it clear the condition of the premises is their standard and therefore we will not be comfortable anywhere thay choose to put us. Besides, we chose happy Rhino because we wanted to be in the city. He said he will have to escalate and speak to manager, till today we haven't anything from happy Rhino.

We then contacted Bookings.com to assist as we never slept at the premisses but paid them R 6630 for an accomodation we never stayed at. Their response was, sorry no refund because you didn't take the pictures of the condition of the premises. I'm not sure if thay expected me to put my health at the risk of inhaling dust just so they can have pictures? If they cared about their clients they'd do investigation themselves not send me to do detective work whilst im supposed to be on holiday.

I'm extremely disappointed and frustrated that we can not get our money back and this whole experience cost us far more than what we had budget all because of misrepresentation and misleading using pictures of facilities which don't even exist.