Hacklewood Hill Country House — Hotel in Eastern Cape

My husband and I booked this hotel as it was recommended by a travel agent. We had two nights booked either side of a safari. We were especially looking forward to experiencing the 5 star fine dining award winning restaurant and tasting fine wines from their treasure trove of a wine cellar.|Our first experience was walking through an overgrown garden past a rather dirty looking pool to the front door of what was obviously a beautiful Manor House in its day. The owners have obviously tried to keeps its original charm, however we found it seemed just cluttered., a little musty smelling and very dusty.|We were greeted by a lovely hospitality student who showed us to our room on the ground floor. A very large room with a patio, although we were told not to leave the doors open as the monkeys would come in! In any case there was only one chair so we would not have been able to sit out there together.|The room was large, but had lots of over sized furniture, too much even for the room. Post covid I was very surprised to see a jar of biscuits, a jar of sweets and a decanter of sherry, a lovely thought but in this day and age, I would not have recommended to have unwrapped food for anyone to touch in the bedroom.|The student was lovely, however he was new to the hotel and could not answer any of our questions, however he did book us a table for dinner, which we were looking forward to.|We arrived in the dinning room later that evening only to find it empty despite a recommendation to book in advance so not to be disappointed and even though the hotel was fully booked. We were given the menu and when we asked for the wine list, the student said we have a huge wine list and suggested he called his colleague who could help. His colleague did not bring the wine list, however commenced in telling us about the four choices of wine from the dinner menu. Iona wine, which he didn’t really know anything about. So much for the extensive wine list.|For my dinner I ordered Lamb medium - rare as I like my Lamb pink. When it arrived it was pink, however none of the fat had been rendered down and was totally inedible, when I pointed this out to the waiter he said I should have asked for it well cooked when I ordered it! How on earth this restaurant has won awards I will never know!|At this point I had lost my appetite and decided to return to our room. The guests upstairs were obviously back also as the noise from doors, drawers and creaking floorboards was awful, we could even hear them stirring spoons in cups. This is obviously an old hotel so just a warning, don’t take a room on the ground floor.|We usually book more modern hotels as we prefer that, however from the pictures on the website and the description of the award winning restaurant we were really looking forward to this experience.|Unfortunately that evening following our disastrous experience we decided to cancel our return visit and chose another hotel in...

The decor is old fashioned - it reminded me of hotels I stayed in as a child with dated dark furniture. I suspect this is the look they are trying to achieve but it didn't strike me as a 5* country house hotel and some rooms smelt rather fusty.|Our room was large with a huge bathroom complete with free standing bath. The air conditioning was efficient and quiet. However, the decor felt dated and done on the cheap with poor a finish.|I emailed in advance to ask for anti-allergy bedding with no feathers (as had my travel agent), but both the pillow and duvet contained these. Fortunately I found one pillow which was foam and it was warm enough not to need the duvet. The hotel said the requests had not been passed to them from reservations but they did receive our request for a quiet room, which is strange. |I emailed to say we would be late due to flight problems and asked if they could leave a salad for us. However, I got no response until the next day, which was too late. By the time we arrived the chef had gone home and no food was available. The lady on reception kindly got us drinks and tart, for which we were grateful. |We had breakfast outside on the terrace. The choice as breakfast was good as was the food quality. However, the terrace and the table would have benefited from a power wash as they were very dusty and cobwebbed. Also apply mozzie repellent if eating outside as I came away with multiple bites on my ankles!|Overall a...

This hotel is a large late Victorian country house converted to a hotel. Set in lovely grounds in the outskirts of the city the hotel is handy for both the airport and the city. Whilst the country house style has its charm it also has its drawbacks due to the age of the building and original purpose - it was never designed to be a hotel. ||Staff are welcoming, professional and enthusiastic, they really do try to make your stay enjoyable. The food is good - breakfast outside on the terrace is a joy - but we found the dining room experience overbearing and pretentious. We're not travellers looking for a gourmet dining experience.||The building retains original features and is furnished in a throwback style. For example, I haven't seen such a large wooden wardrobe in the bedroom since we cleared my grandmother's house many years ago.||This review comes with a warning. Avoid the ground floor bedrooms if you want to sleep. The floorboards creak loudly and you hear every movement upstairs. We were awake from 5am with people upstairs moving around. They weren't making excessive noise, it was the building. We fed this back to the management on leaving, and am sure they will try and find a solution but I suspect that this noise issue can't be overcome.||I've knocked off two points due to the lack of sleep both...