Protea Hotel Bloemfontein — Hotel in Free State

There was only one reason why we were very unhappy with our stay and that was the restaurant. We arrived at 19h00 and were told to sit anywhere which was indicated by a hand gesture from the waitress that was on the telephone. 10 minutes later she arrived with the menus and took our drinks order. No problem - drinks were delivered quite quickly. We ordered our starters and main course as soon as the drinks arrived. I ordered chicken livers to start and lamb shank with mashed potatoes as a main. My husband ordered crumbed mushrooms to start and fillet steak with fries as a main. Our orders were placed at 19h20. By 20h00 we had received no starters and upon asking what was happening the waitress told us she was trying to get the kitchen to hurry up. Eventually at 20h30 we received our starters which were ice cold and I mean cold. When informing the waitress of this fact she was quite taken aback saying that the meal should have come straight out of the frying pan. I asked to speak to the restaurant manager but she didn’t turn up either. The plates were removed and we waited until 21h30 before our main course arrived. I eventually went to the kitchen area to see what was happening with our main course only to be told that the meals were standing on the serving counter waiting for the waitress to collect them and serve us. There were only 4 tables occupied in the restaurant at the time. Eventually the manager made an appearance informing us that there was a backlog in the kitchen and that was why were experiencing such slow service. That in my opinion is a very poor excuse. Had there been another restaurant close by we would have left within the first half hour and gone somewhere else. Other patrons in the restaurant were also complaining bitterly about not receiving their food. My lamb shank was cool and so tough that I couldn’t cut it with a steak knife and ended up not eating it. My husbands steak was barely warm but he said tasted ok. Sorry to say - we will not...

Upon checking in it was requested that there be WIFI in our rooms of fairly decent quality. Not the case, there was no WiFi in the rooms, we proceeded to the reception to ask what was going on, the manager on duty said she will cal and let us know, if it’s still not working she will move us. Ended up having to be moved because of the poor WIFI in this hotel..||2nd issue, R205 for a dinner of a sub standard corner pub. Food did not smell not taste great at all, to the point where my colleague and I left dinner and went to eat somewhere else but still had to pay this ridiculous amount, dinner at a place in loch Logan for the 2 of us with much better food was about R320..||3rd issue, the rooms have 1 downlight in them making it always seem dark and dingy in the rooms, granted you have a bedside lamp, feel this was rather disappointing as you try work..not just the lighting issue, yea I know hotels you may sometimes hear your neighbors shower due to pipes etc, but to the the point where I was woken at 5:30 due to my neighbor showering and it sounded like someone was drilling, rather rude awakening if you ask me..||Last point for this review, on average it took 40 minutes to an hour to get 2 bottles of water, if they actually arrived, this was the case on a about 2/3 days where both my colleague and I would ask for water and not receive it and ask again for the water through physically asking the receptionist or calling them..not just that, walking into your room finding house keeping using your personal chargers and playing their music, or walking into your room whilst you working to clean or check on something.||Personally not the best experience at...

Upon checking in it was requested that there be WIFI in our rooms of fairly decent quality. Not the case, there was no WiFi in the rooms, we proceeded to the reception to ask what was going on, the manager on duty said she will cal and let us know, if it’s still not working she will move us. Ended up having to be moved because of the poor WIFI in this hotel..||2nd issue, R205 for a dinner of a sub standard corner pub. Food did not smell not taste great at all, to the point where my colleague and I left dinner and went to eat somewhere else but still had to pay this ridiculous amount, dinner at a place in loch Logan for the 2 of us with much better food was about R320..||3rd issue, the rooms have 1 downlight in them making it always seem dark and dingy in the rooms, granted you have a bedside lamp, feel this was rather disappointing as you try work..not just the lighting issue, yea I know hotels you may sometimes hear your neighbors shower due to pipes etc, but to the the point where I was woken at 5:30 due to my neighbor showering and it sounded like someone was drilling, rather rude awakening if you ask me..||Last point for this review, on average it took 40 minutes to an hour to get 2 bottles of water, if they actually arrived, this was the case on a about 2/3 days where both my colleague and I would ask for water and not receive it and ask again for the water through physically asking the receptionist or calling them..not just that, walking into your room finding house keeping using your personal chargers and playing their music, or walking into your room whilst you working to clean or check on something.||Personally not the best experience at...