If you want to early for your business meeting, do not sleep at City Lodge Hatfield.

I visit City Lodge Hatfield where my Employer had booked me to stay for a full week starting from 02 Dec 2018 (Sunday). The staff service at the reception was beyond pathetic, to say the least. I called the reception at 05h45am to ask for an iron as i had business meetings planned for the whole day & wanted to leave the hotel early to be on time.

I called again at 06h45 asking when i was to receive the iron.....they said i must wait becos theres a waiting list for the iron.

I called at 07h30, still waiting. “ No Mam theres a waiting list & u have to wait”. i explained to lady that i have a 08h00 business meeting & im starting to be late as i still had eat breakfast. “Theres nothing i can do” (with the “i dont care attitude”)

i called at 07h45........”No Mam theres still no iron avaliable yet . Mind you its been more than 2 hours of waiting and i had a 08h00 meeting & i still have not had any breakfast (which the Company had already paid for). I asked the lady is there is no place where i can iron in the hotel, even at their laundry room. She said no cos theres only an industrial iron there and it might damage my clothes”. Now i was on a serious panic mode.

08h00am- “Mam the irons are still busy & theres nothing i can do, wait for your turn”. (Still with the dont care attitude)

08h15am- “No Mam its still not avaliable” i asked her if there any Laundrymat in the area where i can get my clothes ironed, she said she doesnt know.

I then packed my clothes so i can drive around the Hatfield area to look for laundrymat. At this time i was not even thinking of breakfast cos i had a business meeting which i was already late for.

08h20am- i stopped at the reception (with all clothes in hand) to get my parking ticket scanned so i drive and find a laundrymat. I explained to the Gentleman everthing to him that i was rushing to find a laundrymat in the area & asked him if he knew any, he said “no” i said ok im gonna try & drive around or use google to locate one in the area, he said “ok”. (no willingness to help me)

08h35am- with my clothes still in my hand, at the parking lot i met a lady who works for City Lodge & i asked her if she knew any laundrymat in the area, she said “no but the hotel offers laundry services”. I explained to her that i had been waiting for an iron since 05h45 & now its 08h30. She immediately rushed in to save the day & she finally got the staff to iron my clothes. I finally left the hotel at 08h58am without even having breakfast.

I am truly, truly appalled by the blanant disrespect for peoples time which is serviced by the hotel. My employer has booked at this hotel numerous times bt it was the first time iv experienced such appalling behoviour from the staff. Their dont care attitude had me lost for words. As a business person who always come to Pretoria for meetings, i will make sure that i never set foot in this hotel again cos this has thought me a lesson that for any future business travels (or even personally) and i will make sure that spread the word to my colleagues in the office as well. Being late for business meetings is inconsiderate, discourteous, insulting and it says a lot about a persons character.

“IF YOU WANT TO BE EARLY FOR YOUR BUSINESS MEETING, DO NOT SLEEP AT CITY LODGE HATFIED”