Planters by Eagles — Hotel in Western Region

On Saturday 28th December we took some friends to dine at planter's as we'd always had such memorable times there whenever we visited Takoradi. We were 4 adults and two children. We arrived for an early dinner at 6:30pm. We chose to sit outside. The waiter came and recommended a cocktail which my friend accepted. Five minutes later he was back. They didn't have all the ingredients to make aforementioned cocktail. So why did he recommend it in the first place? If we'd known how things were going to proceed after that we would have left there and then.... But alas..||||We ordered some starters and main courses. We were shown a bell to ring if we needed anything. Yes the bell worked but no-one ever came. The starters arrived.. fish soup if I remember. It was good.||||Meantime a group of young people had arrived. We were the only customers in the place which also should have given us an indication that something wasn't right given it was the Saturday between Christmas and New year. This group were known to the only other staff member. They'd brought their own drinks and he was happy to bring them glasses and to sit and socialise with them.||||Back to us. Our food never came.... We rang and rang and eventually I headed inside. No one around. I knocked on the kitchen door and was told food was coming. This was now two hours after our arrival. Three hours came by.. we'd rang for more drinks but no one came. Another trip to the kitchen where we were tearfully told there was only one cook and she was struggling. Oh yes she struggled so much that we got fish that was raw in the middle, our sons' chicken was hot on the outside but stone cold in the centre... As for my steak it didn't come. After 3 and a half wasted hours we had had enough.. patience is a virtue but they were pushing it. We went again to the kitchen and the guy took another ten minutes preparing the bill... Yes, really. We said we would only pay for what we could eat. At this point both he and the young cook were literally begging us and even... Wait for this... Offered to re-cook all the food PROPERLY and pack it for us. ||||We obviously declined and retreated back to our hotel and ordered room service.||||Lord only knows how they would have dealt with more than one table. How will they cope when the extra rooms are available? ||||What was once a jewel in Takoradi's crown is sadly no more.||||We felt STUPID having told our friends it was fabulous... Luckily they saw the funny side of it.||||Only as we are in Ghana did we pay 60% of the bill. Believe me if we'd been back in the UK they wouldn't have...

Reception:

Booking and follow up is good. After 15 days of booking, they called and informed me my booking for a particular room is cancelled...i was like...what non sense is this.... After so much of hue and cry, they again confirmed the same room.

When i reached the hotel, I was made to wait for 1 hour 15 minutes....my check in time was 2pm...but checked in at 2:45 as they were cleaning.

Room:

Booked luxury bungalow, is as expected. Rooms is good for a family of 3....

LB1 A is a nice one with small garden in the front. The room stay is scary in the night as some unknown sound from air conditioner, refrigerator, doors...automatically. (Some one should stay to experience and rectify)

Hope reception line is 1 or 2. Most of the time its engaged.

Restaurant:

I went to order a soup for which they took 40 minutes after 2 reminders.. I'm forced to cancel the order and return to room. Room service is not satisfactory.

House keeping : Its good overall.

Spa: My wife had a massage and felt good.

Gym: Myself and my son went to Gym No one was there...we tried on our own and returned back.

But we had real fun and memorable trip.

The Management has to have serious look into the overall operation, if they take all in...

The grounds are pleasant, even if the pool is located in a hollow, so it heats up to about 35 deg. The room was small and a little austere, but ok. Unfortunately the air conditioning leaked and stopped working and the only cable TV channel worked intermittently. It’s advertised as a SPA, but it’s only open Tuesday- Saturday. You can order services on the off days, which I did only to have them cancel 10 minutes before they were due to arrive. The gym is not bad and better than you’d expect at this standard of hotel in Ghana. The big disappointment with Planters Lodge was the service during almost all encounters with staff. Terrible service is sadly the norm in Ghana (it’s a lot better in francophone Africa) and PL staff do nothing to break the rule. At least try to look interested in the customer. The restaurant is okay, but Captain Hook’s is 400 m down the road, with excellent seafood and pizzas. ...