The Houghton Hotel — Hotel in Gauteng

The reservation staff including the manager are incompetent!!!!!On arrival we spent 30 minutes at the reception because of the manager by the name of Mo. She ruined the mood of my birthday celebration!! She cancelled our online booking and payment was done online and they denied receiving it. My husband had to show them proof. Mind you, my husband had emailed them earlier to make a booking but it took Mo 4 days to get back to my husband and it was too late because my husband had already booked on line. And my husband requested Mo to cancel the booking which he enquired about over the emails. This manager decided to canceled the online booking and made it herself without notifying my husband. When we arrived at the reception they told my husband he is owing. My husband showed them proof of payment and only to find out that the full package in an executive suite he booked on line was canceled and this manager made a booking of a standard room that includes spa. My husband requested to speak to Mo but she didn’t come, the reception lady said she has sorted the problem and placed us to the executive suite.

I missed my spa treatment which Mo canceled! My husband had asked Mo to cancel the full body massage because I’ve recently done the operation and replace it with facial treatment and head massage. She canceled it all together without notifying us. When we were at the room, My husband phoned the Spa, that’s how we found out it was canceled however the sweet lady that was on duty reallocated me but due to time I only did a facial treatment.

We had a dinner reservation at 7pm and because of the delay of things at the reception, I ended up not being able to do my head massage. On our arrival for dinner, we were told the kitchen will close at 8 due to the new closing time announced by the president. My husband called the manager to double check if they are aware that we are on an all paid expense package, they said no! My husband immediately requested to go to the reception! He was so angry! He went there and made sure they sort out their mistake! When he came back, another assistant from the restaurant came to explain to us about out package! First of all he lowered his mask! Putting ourlives at risk! Again he gave my husband wrong information about the package! My husband wanted us to leave there an there! Another African manager told us they will sort it out.

When it was 15 minutes before closure, the Chinese manager came to ask that we finish up because of the new rule, which was understandable but the biggest problem we had was he lowered his mask when talking to us. Putting ourlives at risk!!!!!

When we arrived at the room from the restaurant, there was a disturbing noise from the extractor which is in the toilet. We could not sleep because of the loud banging sound. I called the receptionist and the on duty friendly man came to check it and confirmed it needed maintenance and he moved us to another executive suite at 23:30.

It was an unpleasant stay, problems after problems!!!! Your reservation staff is incompetent and we have proof of all communication that was between my husband and Mo -...

Stay here if you want a wild story to tell friends: Money stolen, room downgraded, rooms very dirty, managers lied...

I stayed here in Dec 2019 and wasn't going to write a review for this hotel UNTIL I read the manager tell another reviewer that the staff has never rifled through belongings. This is simply not true, because my husband and I also had money ($440) stolen from our bag. The stolen money was not the only problem with this hotel:

Without telling us, the hotel originally gave us a room a category below the room category we reserved. We booked a King Piazza Suite view room. We were given a King City view room which was 229 (without being told that this was a lower category than we had booked). Once we brought this to the front desk's attention AND they agreed that the room type we had booked was higher than the one we were given, we asked for a refund for the difference in cost between the two room types. We were told switching rooms was easier, but no rooms were available in the room type we had booked. Therefore, we were moved to an Executive Suite (room 106). The front desk changed our room due to a mistake the hotel made. We have never been given a downgraded room. This is not what top properties do.

Moving rooms was a huge inconvenience for us because we were only staying an additional night and had to pack our things and wait for the other room to be cleared, which took almost two hours. Because we changed rooms, I had to remove the money from its safe place, incurring liability on my belongings because of a hotel mistake. Our belongings would not have been unsafe if it wasn't for the hotel's negligence.

Even with this supposed upgrade, the room we were given, 106, was very dirty and missing soaps, shampoos, etc when we were switched by management. It did not look clean from the previous stay. Housekeeping had to come in and actually clean the room that night, which was another inconvenience to us and increased the unsafe environment provided by this hotel. This whole process took so much of our time on our last day of vacation in South Africa.

By the next morning, $440 was stolen from my backpack. This led to a hectic, scary morning involving local police the day we were leaving Johannesburg. Management told us that they would refund our room and look into our stolen money. Once we arrived in the US, management changed their tune. They claimed they would be unable to refund our stay because our room was simply non-refundable and they had provided an "upgrade." The manager claimed that he only said he would look into a refund, which is not the truth. The hotel said what they needed to get us out of the hotel without asking too many questions and then went back on their word. Totally dishonesty.

Instead of refunding our stay (as promised multiple times), they said we could stay at the hotel the next time we were in Johannesburg. This is simply hilarious, because, after our categorically horrible stay, we would never stay there again. We have never experienced this type of unprofessional practice before.

AVOID,...

My partner booked this place for my 40th birthday, unfortunately our stay was far from a celebration, IT WAS HORRIBLE. We checked in on February 11th and was supposed to stay until the 15th. When we checked in on the 11th the receptionist was pleasant and helpful. That night at 7pm we went to the indoor pool and sauna before it closed at 8pm. When we returned to our room the housekeeper had completed turn down service. I went to my purse where I left on the table and saw it was opened and the interior zipper where I had $680 was also open. My heart sank and I pulled whatever money that was left, I counted it and there was only $440 left! I was 100% certain the amount of money I had because I counted it numerous times before we arrived to the hotel. We quickly called the reception, 45 minutes later the security "manager" and housekeeping manager showed up but not the hotel "manager." I walked the two of them through the issue and they questioned how we knew someone was in the room, "well, the plates from room service earlier was gone, and we had the slippers and a blanket had been folded." The manager, SMILO finally showed up to our room and we had to go through the explanation again. They said they would conduct an "investigation" and follow up next morning "at the latest." The next morning came and went. No effort to reach out. That afternoon we went to the reception and asked to speak with the manager again. He informed us that someone was in our room, the housekeeper - obviously! But security "manager" needs more time to complete the investigation and would have a response that night. Side note: the security "manager" didn't seem too busy as I saw him strolling around the property. Needless to say we did not get an update - yet again. This unprofessional individual SMILO was arrogant and showed no care or compassion for the frustration of being violated and significant amount of money stolen. He does not need to be a "manager" in what is supposedly the best hotels in Joburg. He is a complete joke. But it doesn't stop there. The next morning at breakfast, another hotel "manager" SOLOMON stops by our table. This is where is gets even worst. Not only was I violated by a hotel staff for STEALING MY MONEY, disregarded by SMILO but this other "manager" SOLOMON further compounded this terrible experience. He came to our table, doesn't look in my direction, acknowledge me, nor speak to me. He sits next to my partner and is engaging with her. She informs him I was the one whose money was stolen but he doesn't even look at me to apologize! The level of DISRESPECT from SOLOMON and unprofessionalism was nothing I have ever experienced. DO NOT STAY HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE VIOLATED, STOLEN FROM AND DISRESPECTED BY SMILO, SOLOMON, AND THE STAFF WHO STOLE MY MONEY. We ended up checking out early because we...