Protea Hotel O.R. Tambo Airport — Hotel in Gauteng

We have stayed at Protea Hotel by Marriot OR Tambo Airport two times in September. We chose this hotel for several reasons: its distance to the Johannesburg airport (less than 3 km away), the free shuttle service to and from the airport and the fact that the hotel belongs to a well-renowned international chain of hotels.

The hotel itself has an airplane/hangar style decoration. It’s quite dark, especially during the night. For instance, I had trouble reading the menu at the dining area, since the light was so weak.

The rooms are comfortable and simple. However, they fail to be practical for one reason: the shower section is divided from the rest of the room by a curtain. You cannot turn on the lights for the shower, without waking everybody up (since the bedroom and half of the bathroom share the same lights).

The food at the restaurant was cheap. Some dishes better than others. Not fabulous, but enough. I dinned there two times. The first one, tried the rump, which was good. The second time, tried a pasta, which was very very dry and flavourless.

The generality of the staff is welcoming.

However, I do have a major critic regarding this hotel. I had two bookings for this hotel. Before leaving my home country, I received an email, letting me know that, unfortunately, they had overbooked me for the 19th September. After talking to the hotel, they told me they had booked me a night at Premier hotel instead.

On the 19th, I returned to Johannesburg and left straight to Premier Hotel, just to find out that I had been lied to by the Protea Hotel staff. In fact, there was no reservation for me in Premier Hotel. Since Premier Hotel was also full, the manager (which was five stars) called Protea Hotel, urging them to fix the problem they had created. After waiting for a long while, a drive picked us at Premier hotel and left us in Protea, where a room was fixed for us. I just don’t understand: they were overbooked but suddenly had a room for me? They told me they booked me a room in another hotel, when they did not do it? Why?

I did not receive any compensation regarding price of the room, breakfast payment, nothing at all. Neither an apology.

I do not understand how a famous international hotels chain, like Marriott, can allow this type of behavior and attitudes. I certainly won’t be returning to Protea Hotel and, most likely, will avoid Marriott hotels...

We stayed at OR Tambo last year at a hotel we could walk to. This year it was recommended to us to stay at the Protea. I was able to get a good price through the Marriott app so we went ahead and booked.

Getting to the hotel involves getting the hotel’s free shuttle. It’s outside and you have to run the gauntlet of porters and shuttle spotters to get to the shuttle stop. Everyone will expect a tip, even if you didn’t talk to them!

It’s not much more than five minutes to the hotel. It sits across from the perimeter of the airport. We actually watched our Qantas plane leave for the return flight to Sydney from our room and looked back at the hotel from where we boarded our plane to Kenya the next day.

The hotel is airport themed with a taxiway painted on the floor. Our room, a standard King Bed room, and the hotel in general, was perfect for an overnight stay. Quiet room, even with large planes taxiing a few hundred metres away. The room definitely wasn’t large but it was functional. The bed was comfy. There was just enough room for our two bags. The bathroom is unusual in that the shower and toilet are separated from the room by a curtain. The toilet though is in a room with a solid door.

We had a few drinks and some snacks down at the ground floor bar. It’s a nice area with lovely staff. Breakfast was included with our booking and it was an excellent buffet with a mix of western and African fare. Again, lovely staff in the restaurant. If you feel like swimming there’s a large outdoor pool in the nice gardens outside the restaurant/bar.

If you’re ok with relying on a shuttle to get you to and from the hotel, it’s a great choice for a hotel...

I honestly wouldn’t advice people to go to this hotel. I’ve spend my 5 days there, and the kitchen staff is very friendly, but regarding other things, we mostly felt like there was some missing things and information. First, there’s no balcony that accommodate people who smoke, so if your room is at the top, you will frequently have to travel downstairs , one elevator has problem, so for you to be safe, rather take the stairs. Secondly, you in a room looking for a reception helpdesk, there is no phone book that you can call to request a service. Speaking about service, they claim to have a 24hour service, 24hour service means anytime you in need of something, you can easily call or go to the reception, even after you got the line number for the reception, when you call, the phone will ring probably until you fall asleep, even if you go downstairs to the reception, you find no staff present, those that you find, they won’t be able to assist you. And when you finally find someone to help, they will tell you that they operate until 2:00, then what’s the 24hour service for?. Conference hall toilets stink, sometimes they don’t have tissues. There’s even more bad service. So if you were thinking of going to a hotel next to OR Tambo international airport, I would advice you to rather choose other hotels that a located next to the airport, yes there are other hotels that offer better service even way better that Protea Hotel. So my advice, avoid Protea Hotel to avoid disappointment, especially...