Horrible Experience

Complete incompetence, lack of professionalism, and disregard for clients by senior management On the 4th Jan, my wife booked a room for herself, and spoke to a laldy called Boitumelo. She then later requested for the booking to be moved to the 22nd both telephonically and by email, and received notification that it had been done. On the morning of the 22nd she missed a few calls from Boitumelo, and received an email asking if she still coming. My wife confirmed that she was. Boitumelo called two more times during the day to confirm that she is indeed coming. Again, my wife confirmed that she was. Then Boitumelo mentioned that the venue was hosting 4 weddings on the day and she was worried that it might be too busy and too loud, so she offered to book my wife into their overflow at Blueberry Hills Hotel, also in the area. My wife accepted.

However, when she arrived at Blueberry Hills Hotel to check in, the booking had not been finalised. After a back and forth for an hour trying to get hold of the Garden Venue Hotel to confirm, she was eventually told that Boitumelo had knocked off for the day and there was nothing they could do. She decided to go directly to the Garden Venue to reclaim the room she had initially booked. She was told that there was never a room available as they were fully booked for the day. When she asked to speak to the manager, she was kept waiting for over an hour while the manager, a lady named Charmaine refused to come out because apparently she "didn't know what she was going to say" to the client. Apparently Boitumelo had **** about the available room, and that's why she tried to move my wife to the overflow. I eventually had to step in to intervene. Again we waited for another half ano hour before Charmaine came out and when she did, she was rude, made no apology and demanded to hear the whole story. After hearing the story, she said offered to book us back into the Blueberry Hills. At this stage we were furious and did not want to do any further business with either Hotel and demanded our money back, to which she responded that it would only be processed the next day as there was no cash on site.

Had my wife come in from out of town, she would have been stranded with people who couldn't give the slightest damn about how exhausted she might have been or where she would have spent the night. I am dismayed, disappointed and infuriated. In a country rife with GBV and human trafficking, this was completely disgusting. I found Charmaine very cold, rude and unprofessional. Even after she requested the accountant to effect the refund immediately, she promplty left without acknowledging us or offering a genuine apology. The only almost hero in the story was Doddy, who was pretty much neutered and had no real power to do anything solid. But he at least cared enough to listen, empathise and apologise.

I am dismayed, disappointed, disgusted and infuriated.