The King Edward Hotel — Hotel in Eastern Cape

Stayed for the 2018 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in September, 2018, and this place is an absolute dump.

Arrived early and was informed that my room with an ocean view wasn't available yet, which was understandable. Was asked if I would like to drop my belongings off in another room, which I agreed to.

Entered the room which at first glance was decent enough, set my belongings in the wardrobe, and left to go into town.

Upon returning late in the evening, I discovered that the bedding was removed from the queen mattress, and my waste receptacle was missing. I immediately checked to see if my bags were still in the wardrobe, and fortunately they were. Upon complaining to the staff, there was nothing to be done about the bedding, and even though they promised that they would move me to the room that I paid for, that was no longer possible as they gave the room to somebody else.

This was frustrating, but not surprising as they have no computerized system. I actually had to check in twice as they lost the original hand written form that I initially populated. I am glad I kept the key for the temp room (skeleton key) with me instead of checking it back in with them as was requested, as they probably would have given away the temp room too!

Apparently they do not have enough inventory of sheets and covers to cover the entire establishment, and somebody else arrived in the meantime. Desperate to make the room up for the other guest, the staff robbed my room to make up the other. Given this was my first day in town after flying for the better part of 50 hours, I was extremely jet lagged and cranky. By midnight I had to settle for a twin mattress, with no sheets, only a comforter. This would remain my bedding for the remainder of the stay.

Upon closer inspection of the room, I discovered that there were no bulbs in the fixtures, the phone didn't work, and there was evidence of pigeons roosting in the room (feathers and feces).

The next morning I went down to breakfast and took a seat. There were no menus, only a sheet of paper with the words 'egg, tomato, sausage' written in pencil. Um, I'll have an egg I guess? After waiting for a half an hour I noticed that the other guests were not eating as well, and were becoming frustrated. One individual asked the host where his food was, and was informed only then that they didn't have any food. Queue mass grumbling as everybody picked up their jackets and left the dining room.

During my stay, it happened to rain, and rain started to come in the building from the outside, fortunately my room remained dry. I noted that the staff was using bed comforters similar to the one I was sleeping on to attempt to keep the floors dry.

Other notes: Very few of the light fixtures had bulbs in them, and the ones that did would only have one or two. This resulted in the place overall being very dark at night. With the red carpets, it looked like a scene from the shining.

The night before the women's race, karaoke music was playing somewhere in the facility until 3AM. The night of my race, there was a wedding also in the facility blasting DJ music until 1 or 2AM. Both nights I slept with my noise canceling headphones on, which is not ideal the eve of an Ironman race.

Went to buy water and was told by the hotel receptionist that the closest grocery store was 5km away. Ended up discovering a convenience store literally across the street where I was able to buy a few bottles. Was whistled at and followed by an individual near the store who asked me "yo, you want some of this weed?", as he shows me his lit spliff. I politely declined the gentleman's proposal. I guess the town lives up to its slogan as the friendliest city.

In summary, this place is the biggest mismanaged dump I have ever had the misfortune of visiting. I departed from Port Elizabeth and South Africa with a bad taste in my mouth, which is very unfortunate as I am sure the town and country have so much to offer. This hotel takes the lion's share of the blame of my personal poor experience.

Urge all to avoid...

Can you rate a hotel No Stars. Our stay was beyond terrible. If it wasn't such a serious case of ruining an entire groups 3 months ahead planned outing then it could have made a great comedy show! To arrive to no rooms, rooms that were occupied by other guests, I kid you not our allocated keys opened 3 separate rooms already occupied by other guests! Rooms with no locks!!!! televisions that had nothing on, except snow blizzards! Rooms with no bedding, no towels, no amenities, no toilet paper, no kettle but coffee station, coffee station no kettle. Having paid over 2 months ago we were still questioned about payment. Clueless reception staff left alone with no manager. An empty room for a bar! An empty room for a room! To be told thee manager resigned is the reason the rooms were not ready. While we were trying to sort our stay out other guests were being told there were no rooms for them. Keys were lying on the ground behind reception and the receptionists scrabbled frantically to find the relevant keys. Dirty beyond belief! Breakfast was still being set up at 8:00 am when we let to find our own food. The promised breakfast would contain no bacon, the staff don't know why? The breakfast room was beyond dirty! Wouldn't eat there if you paid me. I have no idea how they are even allowed to sell food, I believe the health authorities and compliance officer would close them down based on their hygiene practice alone. Even though there were a Que of guests who had asked to see the manager, or at least a member of the management the next morning, only Mr Clueless the receptionist was there. no member of management was available again. Terrible service, terrible PR and I hope that they realise how much damage this can do to tourism in the metro and...

Do not fall for the trap. I repeat do not fall for the trap. What you see on the internet doesn't necessarily reflect what you get when you arrive there. The staff try their best to be friendly but the fact that they don't have uniform makes it hard for a guest to distinguish between hotel guests and employees. I booked a standard room with a very uninteresting view of a wall with windows but the only good thing about this hotel is the comfortable bed , spacious room and shower. The television was only playing SABC1 with no sound, there's no phone in the room so that you can contact the reception , the carpets are stained, no nightfrill in the bed(not that it matters anyway ), the room is cold with a hard-to-operate A/C, and if you wanna make yourself some tea/coffee then I suggest you bring your own coz you'll get 2 sachets of Ricoffy waiting for you...oh by the way the kettle doesn't boil water, the cups are not clean. No artwork in the room despite the rich history the hotel has, the lift doesn't work so that means you have to take the stairs and entertain yourself by counting the number of broken windows. Breakfast?...