Disappointing La Montagne in Ballito

I am posting a copy of the correspondence I sent to First Resorts Management just to let other people, who are thinking of staying at La Montagne in Ballito, what the current state of affairs is like. I gave First Resorts an opportunity to respond to my email, but to date I have heard nothing from them.

Let me begin this by firstly saying that I believe that you have a beautiful location and, potentially, a really awesome spot to enjoy a holiday. I can add that we also had a really enjoyable week and were blessed with great weather during our stay. However, I feel that it would be remis of me not to point out some issues about La Montagne that could have put the “cherry on top” and made our holiday just that much better. I’m going to compare this to a very recent week that we spent at another of your resorts, Cabana Beach, as I am of the opinion that most of the items I’m going to mention can easily be remedied for the benefit of future guests staying at the resort.

Lets begin with checking in. At Cabanas, almost before you can park your vehicle there’s someone to great you with a trolley to cart all your luggage up to your room. At La Montagne we were told to please wait outside on the deck and that someone would call us when a trolley was available. This never happened and a number of other guests checked in after us and had their luggage taken to their rooms. Eventually we had to go and find someone ourselves to assist. Then when we got to the room it wasn’t ready and they were still busy cleaning it, and before you say anything, no, we did not check in early. In addition to this we were also not supp**** with a room key and had to go back and request this.

We were asked if we wanted an undercover parking bay and were given a ticket with our bay number on it. When we first came to park we couldn’t open the boom as we weren’t given the card to allow us access so we had to go back and organise this. We were also not issued with an access card to the gate which leads down to the beach so were locked out while we waiting for another guest to come back from the beach. The security guard who normally sits close to the gate was nowhere to be found.

We were told that the rooms would only be serviced on request. At Cabanas they are serviced daily without having to make any special requests. If this is to do with Covid protocol then why the difference between the two resorts. On two occasions we requested that the room be serviced and upon checking they had no record of us requesting room service. We stayed for eight days and our linen was not changed. At Cabanas it was changed halfway through our stay. We were also informed at check in that the hot plate braai facility on the veranda would be cleaned on a daily basis and that this needn’t be a special request. Every time we used it we had to request that it be cleaned.

On requesting clean swimming towels, which was only on two occasions during the week, we were informed that none were available. Again, comparing this to Cabanas where there is a huge pile of clean towels available every day at the entrance to both pools.

The umbrellas around the pool area are in a shocking state of disrepair. We couldn’t find one that wasn’t broken in some way and a plan had to be made using the pull-up rope to keep it up. At Cabanas one can hardly sit down before there’s someone there to assist you with putting up an umbrella. I’m not saying here that I need a helper to get an umbrella up, but it would be nice if they just worked.

Staying on maintenance, the air con leaked so much on our first night that it flooded the bathroom and the passage. When we told reception about it the next day they actually asked me if I would like it attended to. Not sure why I wouldn’t prefer to have a flooded room? A burst geyser also flooded the passage one day and the air con unit outside our room was also leaking badly. The passages into the car park were filthy dirty and looked as if they hadn’t been cleaned for months. So much for Covid protocol. The kitchen counter, where the dishes are stacked to dry, has a crack in it so the water literally dripped onto the kitchen floor. In the unit below us some previous guests had obviously enjoyed some oysters on their veranda and the shells were scattered on the concrete bollards. They stayed like this for the entire week that we were there. The gate off the veranda is held on by cable ties. The veranda was not cleaned once during our stay and was really grimy.

The bar / food service around the pool was non-existent. If one wanted any refreshments or food we had to go to the bar counter and order it. At Cabanas there was always someone available and willing to take your order.

Overall, as I mentioned earlier, we still managed to have an enjoyable holiday, but really La Montagne these are really basic items that could be so easily attended to.