Southern Sun Cape Sun — Hotel in City Centre

I would like to have given this hotel 0 stars but unfortunately this was not an option. We booked Southern sun cape sun through our travel agent and it spoiled our holiday so much we returned home to Scotland early. The hotel is not situated in a tourist friendly area and we found that we were unable to walk the street outside without being approached aggressively by the locals who would demand money and try to push us towards where they wanted us to go. we only left the hotel once and it left us feeling intimidated and after that we did not leave the 'safety' of the hotel unless on the shuttle bus provided. It was much better at the waterfront where we had a lovely couple of days surrounded by friendly citizens and other tourists (This is where we would advise you to stay on a visit to Cape Town). We did not take too much money out with us and left our valuables safely locked in our cases as the hotel safe was not working. We did not feel that the staff at Cape sun were untrustworthy so preferred to leave our belongings where we felt they were safe. When we arrived back at our hotel on the Tuesday evening we discovered my boyfriends mobile had been taken from its charger on the night stand. Staff had also taken an envelope full of money from my boyfriends zipped backpack which was in the cupboard and took the keys to the suitcase which were in a zip compartment of the backpack. They then proceeded to empty my purse of all the notes they could find. We were robbed by staff WITHIN the hotel. A considerable amount of money was taken and a phone. The hotel did not get the police even though we requested this in order to carry out a police report for insurance purposes. We had to continually ask for this. They eventually gave in and brought the police to the hotel who advised us they should have been called immediately following the crime, which the hotel clearly wanted covered up!!! The management team did not seem in the least bothered that their staff had taken belongings from us and we were left not knowing who to trust. We had saved for a long time for this trip and it had been taken from us with ZERO concern from hotel staff. We booked flights home 4 days earlier than originally planned as we felt our holiday had been spoiled and no longer felt safe in our hotel room as well as outside of it. On returning home we had an email from the hotel manager who told us he had polygraphed the two members of staff who had been in our room and they had both passed so no further action would be taken as he relinquished ALL responsibility for his business STEALING from its guests. We have been left appalled by this hotel and would strongly advise all tourists to stay clear of this establishment at...

My rating of Southern Sun Cape Sun can only be described as fair / luke warm.

The location of the hotel is convenient on Strand Street which is a stone throw away from places like the Waterfront and bo-kaap. The rooms are comfortable, however the bathrooms do not have showers but rather baths with shower curtains. The views from the rooms are either of table mountain or the harbour which was great. Other than that the ambience of the hotel is dark and a little dated. The breakfast on the 3rd floor (more of a banquet hall setup) was lovely (its the breakfast with the pancake station) and breakfast staff on the 3rd floor were amazing, friendly and accommodating. The breakfast on the first/ground floor looked more like the traditional tsogo sun breakfast areas, but there was no pancake station and the staff were not very friendly (especially the omelette lady). Also, the omelette stations at both the 1st/ground and 3rd floors had did not have the usual big omelette stoves that you'd usually find in a large hotel chain - they made the omlettes and pancakes on these little stoves with little frying pans - and the staff responsible for making them seemed to struggle with the demand because of their dated equipment. This needs to be upgraded. Lastly, parking at this hotel was an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE - the is not enough parking to accommodate all the hotel guests during peak time. And the overflow parking is opposite at the opposite building. My husband parked there one evening and was accompanied by a security guard as they indicated that it's not safe to go there alone - and on their way back, they got lost in the building as it seems that its more complicated to get of out that building then get in and the security at Cape Sun are also not familiar with how to easily get back to the hotel (my husband was not the only guest that got lost this way, we bumped into a few guests in the lift that had the same issue). Also, the hotels own underground parking is meant to work on a first come first serve basis and be for people that are paying for parking, but the security at the entrance would lie to us and tell us that there's no parking and that we must park opposite. I would go down to the parking to check and there was ALWAYS parking available. It seems that the security were keeping the parking for certain guests and as we came to find out later in our stay, these were not even guests that were paying for parking - it seems that the guards were being paid privately to keep parking for...

This has been my favourite hotel in Cape Town because of the big rooms, beautiful views and excellent service. However, I think it is time I find an alternative. It has been coming. In my last stay which was in the last week of January, I had some set backs. The city experienced strong winds and I struggled to sleep on the first night as the window was making noise. I dismissed it as an extra-ordinary event. I suffer from chronic insomnia so it was hell. The following night, I could not take it and requested a technician just to check if I was not going crazy. She came and found the noise was excessive and informed front desk that there was something wrong with the window and there was nothing she could do to fix it. ||I was taking to some rooms to check if I will be comfortable. The first room had high noise levels and the second one was perfect. So we agreed that I go for dinner and when I come back I will move into that room. When I came back and was ushered to the room I had chosen we discovered that I was actually taken to the one I had rejected. the one I had chosen was given to someone else whilst I was at dinner. We then went room hunting again until I found a compromise room. The hotel need to do something about windows. The quality (consistency) of food at dinner has been a problem for sometime. I had complained before and thought with the new Indian Chef things will improve. The meal on first day was acceptable but started deteriorating for the rest of the week. ||On Thursday 30th January, my last night we had a "seafood curry/stew". Many people struggled as this in my opinion was a speciality food, you cannot have it as a main meal. I do not eat any sea food other then normal fish and some of my colleagues chose to order from outside. I had asked for Chef earlier on in the week and seemed like he was only available for the weekend. Food quality need to...