On the Beach Guesthouse Jeffreys Bay — Hotel in Kouga Local Municipality

We (a German couple) spent 3 weeks in South Africa (March 2022), traveling 2800 km across the Garden Route and had an overall wonderful time. We stayed in marvellous hotels/guest houses and met lovely people. The only disappointment in our vacation was the On the Beach Guesthouse in Jeffreys Bay.

We arrived at the Guesthouse on March 26, 2022, 8pm, and had already booked 2 nights at the largest online Booking site. An employee showed us the room and we instantly complained, since it was dirty and it intrusively smelled like cinnamon (perhaps to cover the smell of smoke from other guests). However, there was no other room available and we were not offered to change the room. We booked the room for 116 Euro/night. Please see the attached pictures of the room: dirty sofa, dirty carpet, dirty walls and no barrier between the toiled and the sleeping room.

Since it was already late and we were tired from a long safari day, we decided to stay one night in the room and to leave the Guesthouse on the next day. We informed the employee that we are planning to leave on the next day and he said that he would inform the manager about our complain. On the next morning, we spoke with another employee about the run-down room and our intention to leave. She called the manager and informed us that we would have to pay the first night plus extra 50 % for the second booked night. We offered to pay one night (even if the dirty room was misleadingly advertised on the website), but the hotel manager was not willing to wave the costs of the extra night, which we spend a nice and clean Guesthouse nearby .

We informed the larges online Booking site and they got in touch with the On the Beach Guesthouse. However, they informed us that there is nothing that they can do, unless we provide a written document that we actually did not stay the second night in the Guesthouse. Therefore, we send an email to Guesthouse asking to confirm that we did not spend the second night (March 27, 2022) at their place. However, never got a reply. We are still in touch with the only Booking site and informed our credit card company trying to get a refund for the second night. So far, we did not get any reimbursement from the hotel for the second night - not to speak of the first night in the run-down dirty room (see pictures).

We have seen many nice places in South Africa. Our experience with the On the Beach Guesthouse, however, was disappointing and we hope that this review can help to prevent other travellers from a similar disappointing experience. Do not be fooled by the four stars - never ever.

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We arrived late afternoon, reception area was more like a cluttered office.|The breakfast area was a mish mash of furniture and styles. |Location ‘on the beach’ but not in the nicest part of town. ||After going up and down a few flights of stairs with heavy suitcases we arrived in the apartment. The covering of the all dining chairs in the apartment were tattered and very worn. The bedrooms were tidy but duvets were old. All very dated and mix of styles.|The apartment does not live up to its 4 + star, ‘luxury accommodation’, and is NOT Boutique. |We mentioned our dissatisfaction with Jonas, who checked us in. He offered an alternative room but we were already disillusioned. We checked out.|Received an average phonecall from the owner later on, saying she would go into the office in the morning to see what she could do: Which was ‘nothing’, and we paid full price for not staying...

Where do I start? Booking from an online services only to find out that the room we booked wasn’t child friendly and was going to move us to a room which is child friendly but was told breakfast might not be included due to us having to move rooms. The next morning we returned our key only to find out that they will be charging us an additional R1000 because of the room upgrade and just so we know that’s this wasn’t a child friendly guesthouse as our child could disturb other guests.

Wow so I throughly seeing as this employee has made such a bold statement that I would go and see for myself. It clearly stated children of all ages are welcome and infants from 0-3 years stay for free.

But none the less our experience was not great. No apology for the miss communication. No apologies for any unprofessional behaviour. As a tour operator I wouldn’t even suggest this...