Etosha Village — Hotel in Kunene Region

DO NOT STAY HERE--Employee theft ring. My tour with G Adventures/National Geographic just ended a 2-night stay at Etosha Village. Cash was stolen from locked safes in our group's rooms. 1-Our group arrived on Sept 3, 2024. At check-in, reception advised that should we want our rooms cleaned the next day, we should leave our keys with reception before we left for our day-long Etosha National Park safari the next morning. If keys were not left, the rooms would not be cleaned.

2-We went to our room and locked unneeded things in the safe- camera, wallets, passports.

3- After the group dinner in the common area, we went to back the room to prepare for an early morning the next day. The safe wouldn't open so I went to reception. The duty manager came, I told her I needed help opening the safe, and her response was "We only open the safes when you've gone." (An eery response given what happened). Surprised at the remark, I stared at her for several seconds until she said she was just joking. It was an odd interaction. She came to my room and opened the safe. I got my camera out for the next day's safari and locked the safe.

4- We left for safari early morning the next day Sept. 4. After safari, we arrived back at Etosha Village and went to the room to rest before dinner. My roommate and I were surprised to see that our room had been cleaned despite not leaving our room key with reception that morning.

5- After dinner, I unlocked the safe and retrieved our items in preparation to leave early the next day. We counted our cash to set aside tips and realized that money had been stolen. My roommate was out $200 USD, and I was out at least $100 USD and 600 South African Rand. 2 things: (A) the duty manager who opened the safe the evening before knew we used our safe to store things and (B) someone had been in our room to clean despite not leaving our key with reception.

7- At breakfast on Sept, we advised our tour leader, Johannes. He promptly informed G Adventures and left to speak to the manager at reception. Other people in our group also realized that money was stolen out of their wallets. All had locked their wallets in the room safes and kept their room keys with them, not wanting rooms cleaned while away on safari. Two ladies in a room each lost 40 Euros worth of ZAR so 1600 ZAR total. A couple lost $100 Canadian from an envelope containing a total of $500. Another couple lost $100 USD. All were surprised to return to cleaned rooms after our safari, as nobody left room keys with reception.

8- Johannes and those of us who lost money spoke with reception and the duty manager, the same woman who had unlocked my safe on Tues. All were unapologetic, did not act with urgency, denied wrongdoing, and claimed ignorance.

9- It took awhile for the senior manager, Andrew, to appear. Andrew (who is white) was entirely dismissive of Johannes (who is black)-he first asked one of the Austrian women in our group (who is white) if she was the tour leader. Then 6 of us who had money stolen proceeded to speak. Andrew was completely dismissive rude and unapologetic, said it never would happen, and we'd have to wait for the Namibian police if we wanted an investigation. We told him that we'd write bad reviews online and advise NatGeo/G to cancel all future group stays. He didn't care at all.

10- These reactions suggested to us that this had happened many times before and the thieves had not been caught. Indeed, most people don't count every bill in their wallet. We all did because it was the end of our trip and we made sure we had enough money for tips and the rest of the trip. The thieves were sophisticated in that they knew this and stole selected bills in wallets, as opposed to all of the cash, credit cards, passports, etc. which would be much more conspicuous. We could not wait for the Namibian police because we were on a tight schedule to get to the next location. Based on their behavior, I'm sure Andrew/management will deny this review but it is 100% true.

What a terrible experience and service. Do not recommend...

We spent 5 nights here. The staff is very very kind. We were immediately offered a welcome drink, our house (41) was very well located near the reception(just by the waterhole, across the main road) and it was important for us as we did not have a car.

The parking generates a bit of noise obviously but you can’t have everything!

We really liked the Namibian village layout as we were able to learn something about the culture this way. This is not something we can find elsewhere.

The food was good, the omelette ladies were very friendly with us and this is no easy job in winter because they are really in the cold. It is just too bad that other guests sometimes treat them in a bad way. They seem cold when you start your stay only because they were treated badly before. Stop treating them this way and learn to make an effort in being polite, it is not difficult.

We took 3 game drives with Petrus and he was committed in making everything he could to find the animals, he allowed us plenty of time to take as many pictures as we wanted. They were very reasonably priced.

And then there is the house, which really was exceptional. I was not expecting this ! This was one of the most beautiful and original room I’ve stayed in, simply put. You have to experience it to notice how well thought everything is. With this said, I did not understand the in room safe and I recognize it drove me crazy^^

You can find some kudus and springboks in the village, which is magical.

To summarize, their motto is « affordable luxury » and they deliver it.

I look forward...

We initially struggled to find the place as the sign said "Taleni Etosha Village Campsite," and we had no phone reception to check the map. The signage was a bit misleading. We arrived just before 7 pm, just in time to catch the sunset.||For dinner, there was a buffet, which was okay but extremely overpriced! We received no information about the cost until we got the bill the next day—750 R for two people for a very average buffet. Had we known this beforehand, we would have opted to grill at our campsite instead.||The campsite itself had great facilities, including a communal braai area, shared toilets, and showers. The area was well-lit with lanterns along the paths, making it easy to navigate back to your spot.||There was also a lovely pool by the reception, complete with sun loungers and plenty of seating, but unfortunately, due to our short stay, we didn’t have time to make use of it.||I would recommend the place to other campers, but steer clear of the buffet—it’s definitely not worth the...