The Old House — Hotel in Chobe District

One of a string of 3-star hotels/lodges on the Chobe river on north side of Kasane. Hence direct river access, ideal for boat safaris. Garden between restaurant and river looks very neglected. Rooms by and large look okay; all AC and private bathroom (and good locks as other tourists told us). Restaurant fine for breakfast but very slow, eggs made to order delivered with bread. Stamp-size pool due to space restrictions. Shops and restaurants at 10-15 minutes walking distance; but restaurant dinner at hotel was fine for the price too but one has to close one’s nose at times (see further). No fridge and no properly placed mirror in room.||Staff attitude a bit underwhelming and apparently badly trained. They showed us our room (Loft, the sole upstairs one) but did not offer help carrying the large suitcases. When first we complained about the huge heat, logical as the AC can only cover one side of this suite/family room (1 double and 3 single beds), they quickly moved a large fan from the restaurant and that solved it.||The second issue, unique to this room but showing a deeper lack of tourist-friendly behaviour, is the riverside balcony. The (completely neglected) streetside balcony is broken and made inaccessible with a slide-bolt lock. The riverside balcony, more or less useful despite never cleaned, is accessible via a door ‘and no one knows the key, it is disappeared since years’. Which means the tourist can use the balcony, but anyone climbing on the roof to the 1st floor can enter the hotel room by day and night! All due to something the hotel can prevent by installing a maybe USD 10 slide-bolt lock to the inside of the door, so that the tourist can sleep safely. We could not, it really cost one of us half of the nights waiting sleeplessly for thieves that never came.|(And third issue: sewage smells at the restaurant are not helpful for the appetite,)||Hotel said also ‘maybe we fix later, no real need as we have no thefts’ but they have security guards at the streetside entrance all night – contradicting statements?||Until this attitude issue, maybe pennywise – poundfoolish, is resolved we cannot recommend the hotel (and especially the Loft room) to...

I visited this establishment on the 29th of June 2019. My family and I sadly had a really terrible experience here, from the beginning. We really struggled at first to be served and eventually had to go and collect our own menus for supper. Despite only 2 other tables being present at the time. After this we ordered drinks and were told that it would be best to place our food order asap as two large groups would soon arrive, we placed our orders quickly then.

The other groups arrived and soon all the other tables were also full. We waited for an hour and watched every other table get their food (despite having ordered quickly). After this we waited another 30 minutes before asking where our food was. Three times we asked and three times we were told the food was very almost ready. Eventually we went into the kitchen to see if it had actually even been started yet, it turned out only then was our food beginning to be prepared. The ox tail was being done in the microwave.

After these two hours of waiting we were so hungry that we left, and were very dissapointed by this as we were had heard such great things about this place.

The thing that annoyed us the most was the complete absence of communication from the staff. Not once did anyone come to apologise for the delay, not once did anyone explain whether there was a problem, nothing. The only communication we had with the staff was when we asked and they always seemed to avoid us.

Clearly something was wrong (which happens) but there was just no communication.

I shall not...

Despite the beautiful location, the bar and kitchen staff had a negative impact on our experience.

It already started the first day with a discussion about what was served: the menu stated fries and salad, according to the waitress it was "or", resulting in an additional charge for the salad on the bill.

Next day we ordered a salad with a.o mozarella and basil. As European,I had a different expectation from the mozarella (they served mozarella barra, completely different type of cheese). That can happen, but the chef also forgot the basil. We sent back the plates as it didn't meet our expectations, but they charged us for it. The grilled fish we ordered pointed out to be a fish in tin-foil which was put on the grill, so bottom line a steamed fish, not a grilled one.

At breakfast, the plate with pancakes and croissants was suddenly gone because of the ants on the counter. I understand the why, but as we were still having our breakfast at that time, it didn't feel very hospitable at that moment.

The last day we ordered medium rare steak with a.o. onion rings. One of the steaks was well done, and the chef forgot to add the onion rings....

So we had quite some discussion when paying the bill because of the above, but also as there was a cheeseburger on the bill which we never had.

So all in all, the sloppiness of the staff made us leaving with very...