Rock View Lodge - self catering unit - Nightmare in Nelspruit

Item: Rock View Lodge
Rating: 1
Author: joannegraham J

During 2016, we went onto the booking site Sleeping Out.Co.za and located this establishment. We then received a Facebook message to liase with Alana of Rock View Lodge directly for our booking for the period 10 March 2017 (one person only) and then the group for 11 March 2017 to 19 March 2017. We booked to stay in a self catering unit - 3 bedroom. Our husbands are golfers with Nomads participating in the 2017 Jock Nationals at the Nelspruit Golf Course. We paid in full for our reservation directly to Rock View Lodge an amount of R 7 080 on 25 August 2016 and R 5 900 on 21 February 2017. Mr O Connor was to stay on the Friday night and did arrive and check in. The Sampson and Gooden party were arriving on Saturday and due to delays at OR Tambo we only arrived in Nelspruit late on Saturday afternoon. We arrived late on Saturday night at approximately 21h00 at the unit. On Saturday afternoon I called the guesthouse to apologise for being delayed and I spoke to Louis, and I informed him that I was experiencing difficulties with collection of our rental car and our own transport to Nelspruit. On arrival at Rock View Guesthouse on Saturday evening we were not satisfied with the cleanliness of the unit. We had been booked into the self catering 3 bedroom unit. The website states that Rock View is a 4 star guesthouse – it now transpires that the self catering units are not 4 star as advised by Maryna (the manageress). On Saturday evening the bathrooms were not clean, the toilet was dirty and the blue middle bedroom bed was full of dust and the windows were dirty. Whilst sitting in the kitchen we had 4 large ****roaches running around on the floor. I wanted to make coffee for our group and opened the kitchen cupboard to find more ****roaches inside the cupboard and inside the coffee cups. The light fittings are full of insects. We immediately called Louis. WE spoke to Louis at 21h37 from her cell phone to indicate our unhappiness firstly that the guesthouse was a much further distance than anticipated and secondly due to the unclean state of the unit. Louis informed her to attend at reception the next morning. On Sunday morning, Elke and I attended at reception as requested at approximately 09h00. Solly was at reception and he could not locate Louis. We informed Solly of our concerns and that we were asked to attend at reception. We told Solly that we intended to go to Nelspruit to secure alternate accommodation. We asked that Louis call us immediately. This did not happen in fact we are still waiting for Louis to return our call from Sunday 12 March 2017. We left and went into Nelspruit. We returned to the guesthouse at approximately 11h20 and entered our unit to find 3 men cleaning furiously. There were buckets, cleaning materials and mops and brooms in the kitchen and bathroom. Once we entered to pack our belongings they left. We returned to the guesthouse and were unable to find anyone at reception. I looked for Louis and / or Solly but could not locate either of them. We found a young lady sitting at the pool who then identified herself as the manageress, Maryna Lourens. She immediately attended to us and tried to contact Alana or Louis. Maryna indicated to me that she was prepared to go back to the unit so that I could show her the cleanliness and I immediately pointed out to her that the unit had been cleaned that morning. At no time at this point ( Sunday) were we offered rooms in the main guesthouse. Maryna confirmed that you would process the refund and I provided her with my personal bank details. She informed me that the guesthouse banks with Capitec Bank and that it would be processed later that day or Monday morning. I provided my cell phone number and again asked that Alana ***ner's daughter) urgently contact me. I am still waiting for her call. I specifically discussed with Maryna on the Sunday morning at check out that I had to have her confirmation that refund would be forthcoming as we were going to have to pay the new accommodation. Maryna reassured me that the refund would be processed. We have not received our refund from Rock View Guest House. Alana has since emailed to advise that Maryna could not authorise a refund as is a new employee and did not know that process. This is not acceptable to me. She is a representative of Rock View and was the manageress. I accepted her confirmation in good faith and I expected Rock View to honour their undertaking. I later called the guesthouse as I had not taken Mr O’Connor’s laptop and had to return to Rockview later that afternoon at around 14h30 and Maryna provided me with the key to the unit. I enquired had she reached Alan and she confirmed that she had not been able to reach Alan but that she would keep trying and that she would let me know. She did not give me any further feedback on the Sunday. On Sunday no refund was paid. On Monday morning both Elke and myself tried to call Alana and Louis and the guesthouse with no response on more than 3 occasions. On Monday afternoon Elke received an email from Maryna in which she advised that she had told us that she has only worked there for 2 months and that she did not know the refund process. In fact Maryna had never told us this at all. In fact as the manageress she had confirmed that the refund would be processed. Alana then sent an email to Elke about their cancellation policy. Please note that we did not cancel. We checked in and we checked out after one night due to the cleanliness of the unit. We immediately tried to call Alana and she did not take our call. We also contacted Sleeping Out and we were advised that due to our booking having been directly with you we would have to deal with you directly. Sleeping Out advised that they would have refunded our payment had we used their site to make the booking. We then decided to attend at the guesthouse on Monday afternoon in person to try and resolve this issue. We arrived at the guesthouse on Monday afternoon after 16h00 and met Maryna. Maryna immediatley tried to call Alana. Alana was not at the guesthouse. I then asked to speak to Alana directly. Alana spoke to me telephonically. Alana indicated that she was unable to come down to the guesthouse as she was alone at home with her baby. I need to make it clear that at no time did Alana, or any other representative, on Sunday offer to upgrade our group for free to the 4 star rooms at the guesthouse. This was never mentioned to us. In fairness to Rock View Guest House – I would like to state that the main guesthouse is truly lovely and the deck and the pool is beautiful. We would have had no problem to remain at the guesthouse. On Sunday morning despite being asked to come to reception by Louis – Solly knew nothing about our coming to reception. We checked out on Sunday. We booked into another establishment in Nelspruit. We paid on Sunday to the new establishment an amount of R 15 000 for the remainder of the week on the strength of Maryna’s confirmation that the refund would be due either later on Sunday or on Monday morning. Please note that the manner in which we were handled has been shocking. After Monday’s visit I once again asked Maryna to try and talk to Alan about trying to be reasonable and I infomed her that I would give Alana until Tuesday evening to provide proof of the refund. This was not a threat. It was a request for payment to which we are entitled. We are quite prepared to pay for Friday night and our group night of Saturday 12 March 2017. This is R 1 770. We are liable for an amount of R 590 plus R 1770 = R 2 360. We have demanded the refund of the R 10 620. Alana continues to refuse to reimburse our group. We have taken legal action. I have never met Alana and have only been able to speak to her once on the telephone. I am very surprised at her aggressive approach to this incident as despite our best intentions to resolve the matter we were met with a multitude of excuses. We also received a threat from Alana that should we post any BAD reviews that she would proceed with legal action against us.

Helpful (0)

Replies (0)