Romantic Weekend Breakaway

I came across an advert for a Romantic Weekend Breakaway for R1450 per couple for a standard room and R1750 per couple for a luxury room with a spa bath at Casa Toscana on Thursday, 2 November 2017. The advert read that it includes a romantic double room with sparkling wine & a romantic turndown, romantic 4 course dinner (valued at R600) breakfast (valued at R240) - excluding drinks and it ended off with saying Friday & Saturday Evenings - Booking essential - limited rooms.

I called the number on the advert ( ********** ) to enquire on whether the breakaway included Friday and Saturday and I received a rather rude response confirming that it was for the whole weekend. I then responded by saying that I just wanted to make sure and asked to book a room for the weekend. I was then put through to Erica who took care of the reservation of the luxury room for me. She told me that I would receive an email to confirm the booking - which I never did. I also told them that I would let them know on when I would be ready for dinner.

The next day I called to follow up on the booking and to confirm my dinner reservation, but I was informed by the receptionist that Erica had not arrived at work yet. Tsholo, the receptionist sent Erica an email, copying myself, requesting her to call me. Erica did not call.

My partner arrived at the lodge to check in at 14:00. Only after the check-in I received an SMS from the lodge confirming the booking, still no invoice was attached.

The next day, Saturday 4 November 2017 at 12:38 after leaving all of our belongings in the room, I received a call from the lodge. They informed me that it may not have been explained to me in detail that the romantic weekend breakaway was only for 1 night. I explained that I was informed that it would be for 2 nights. She told me that it was not the case. I told her that I needed to speak to my partner.

I called the lodge back to explain that the advert and the information that I received over the telephone was misleading and that they cannot expect me to pay for another night. They argued that everything was explained to me in great detail - which is not the case.

I asked them whether their telephone calls were recorded and they told me that they would find out and call me back. After 45 minutes I called the lodge again to confirm whether the telephone calls were recorded and my response was that they had spoken to Erica (who had done the booking) and she told them that I was informed in GREAT DETAIL that it was for one night. I stopped the receptionist and asked again to pull the telephone calls. She said she would call me back.

After another 45 minutes, I called them back to follow up. I was told that Erica would be in contact with me. When I queried why she would be in contact with me, I was told that the manager had spoken to her (Erica) and informed him that she explained this to me in great detail and she would contact me. I insisted on speaking to the manager (Rogan) but i was told that he was in a conference call. I was told to wait for Erica to call.

Erica called me and confirmed that we spoke over the telephone only once. We established that it was the front desk that had misinformed me and that the calls are indeed recorded. Erica promised to contact Rogan, to pull the telephone calls and advised me to speak to him regarding the advert that was misleading.

I then tried to call a number of times to get hold of Rogan but was informed that he was still on a conference call.

A while later, Rogan finally called me. I went on to explain my experience at the lodge. He explained that it clearly states in the advert and in the email with the invoice attached that it is only for one night. I told him that I did not receive an invoice/email from Erica. I also informed him that the advert does not state this. I asked him to pull the telephone records and he said that he would call me back. I also gave him my email address to check whether the email was sent. I still have not gotten a response on this. Rogan promised to call me back as he was to check the records.

Rogan called me back again later stating that he could not work/pull the records from the system and he would get back to me on Monday, 6 November 2017. He further requested that I would need to pay for another night at the lodge, should I wish to stay there and he would get his reservation team to call me with the pricing. I did not receive a call.

I sent an email to Rogan with the advert attached, stating the following: "Hi Rogan

I don't have access to that specific mail box so I'm using my friends.

Please see attached advert as requested. Nowhere does it state the limitation to only Friday OR Saturday. However is what it does state is Friday & Saturday evenings.

A weekend means check-in Friday and Check-out Sunday. I would highly recommend that you change your advert as this is misleading and false advertising.

When pulling the recording please use (** number) as i called from my work number. The time is around 9:30. Recording should also be pulled from the first conversation I had with the Casa Toscana staff.

I never received an email from Erica, the only email I received was from Tsholo on 3 November 2017 requesting that Erica contact me regarding the weekend breakaway and to confirm dinner reservations. Still no invoice was attached.

This is a very disappointing experience that I have experienced with your establishment which has left me stranded for the evening. Then still get told that I got to pay for an extra evening.

Looking forward to your response.

Kind regards Zelia"

Rogan has still not gotten back to me. This is very very disappointing.