UNIT 15 @ THE BRIDGE HOLIDAY RESORT in Saint Lucia, KZN

While I personally think it is not the website itself but the owner of the property that let us down, I did a booking through booking.com and thus will unfortunately have to put my complaint through them. Kindly note that this is just one out of the many bookings I have done through the website which I have had a bad experience with.

During this 2019 festive season I booked a couple of self-catering places along the north coast for myself and family through bookings.com. The areas booked included Sodawana bay, St Lucia and Hluhluwe. All other places were absolutely fine except UNIT 15 @ THE BRIDGE HOLIDAY RESORT in Saint Lucia, KZN run by Emily. We arrived at 13:30 and check in is listed at 14:00 hours. We got the keys to the place and to our horror, the place was in such a terrible state!!! Beds were unmade, the kitchen was in a mess with dirty dishes all over the place, the braai area equally untidy and littered with cigarette buds. The bathroom was so filthy there was still even unflushed toilet paper in the toilet. This was just the beginning...

I called the owner, Emily, who sounded like she didn't even know we were coming. When I tried to express my disappointment about the state I found the place in she actually become rude and unprofessional. She went on to say our booking was a last minute booking (we booked the place online on Friday morning and we were meant to check in on Sunday). She further on mentioned that "they normally don't take one night bookings" ... I mentioned to her that the least she could do is apologize and not come up with "such excuses".

Needless to say, we didn't end up staying at that place, we were moved to another place and the person that inconvenienced us (Emily) did not even bother to call or follow up if the other place was comfortable enough. When I initially mentioned to her that I will give her a call once I get to the other place and let her know how it was, she even had the audacity to tell me I don't have to call her".

While I have made several bookings online, include bookings.com in the past, this was my first experience of such.