Kestell Hotel — Hotel in Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality

With all due respect to the owners. We booked in at Kestell Hotel over this past weekend. This was our worst experience of all time. The manager Andy was quite a friendly guy and we had a few drinks in the pub where we met a local couple Colonel Koos and Hester who we had an awesome evening with. But... the food was terrible and the wing of the hotel where the rooms were located had no electricity the whole evening until we left at 5.30 in the morning. By then we saw 3 couples leaving, fuming because of this. We booked to stay from Friday night until Sunday morning but just could not get ourselves that far. We left on Saturday morning at 6am driving all the way back to the North West. This is sad to say but to the owners, you need a LADIES hand there to take care of the cooking and cleaning of the rooms. Coffee facilities but no coffee, sugar etc. No soap in the showers and loads of dust over the tables and headboard of the bed. So much more to say but it is not my intention to badmouth the hotel. I hope is taken as constructive criticism. I believe Kestell was still a nice place a few years ago and reading the reviews of people that`s been there before. But this weekend it just was not. It was a huge let down and we do hope the owners get it sorted. They are more than welcome to contact me for more information of...

We decided to break our journey from Bloemfontein back to KZN, by spending the night in Kestell. And what a good idea that proved to be! ||||We ended up being the only guests at the hotel that night but that didn't stop hotel manager Andy from making us feel very welcome : there wasn't a hint of being bothered by being on duty for just us 2. He was the consummate host and allocated us a room that exactly met our needs (very quiet, wonderfully comfortable warm beds and with a full bathroom en suite), and also proceeded to prepare us THE most delish evening meals of Kassler chops and Rib-eye steaks respectively, wth home-style veggies. What more could weary travellers desire on a cold Winter's night? OK - possibly a few glasses of good red - well Andy produced those too, from the hotel's well stocked bar.||||I imagine the hotel owners must be very pleased indeed to have someone like Andy taking care of their interests in Kestell.....especially while the hotel is undergoing some refurbishment. Most of the bedrooms have already been redone. Andy actually hosts special themed weekends e.g. Agatha Christie themes along the lines of Cluedo and also "Xmas in July". ||||We will certainly be looking forward to our next visit to this historically interesting town...and to this hotel that offers travellers really good...

The old man at reception swore at us saying: "I can't deal with this shxt. Fxck you. I am tired of this country. Fxkof." The insults went on and on till we left. All this after we went to report that the water bottle he left in one of our rooms had been cut open under the wool cover. The lady I was traveling with burnt her thigh as the boiling water she tried to fill it with passed through. He was so rude and racist. And the patrons he was talking with kept laughing and one of the male ones hurled: "Fxkof!". As he kicked us out, he had called his dog too. Very humiliating. Very unpleasant and scary experience. All this happened last night. Four women attacked and disrespected after asking for help after the water bottle accident. I wouldn't recommend this place, especially not when you black.

Sheets and blankets were dirty. There was water when we arrived and then the water stopped flowing out of nowhere. No TV. No electric blanket. No heaters. No functional aircon. Dirty plates with bones in the dining room. Really dusty.

We left and seeked accommodation elsewhere.

Attached is a picture of him showing us his...