Lagoon Beach Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Metro

Season's Greetings,

Choosing to dine out during Christmas is our way of ensuring everyone has the time off from cooking, cleaning, and looking after one another. I fully understand that this means someone else is working over Christmas, but they do so for a salary and by choice. I also recognize that dining out during the holiday season is more expensive, and I have no issue with this. In fact, I tend to book at more expensive places because I appreciate the luxury and extra service that typically come with the price tag.

However, I was deeply disappointed with my experience at your 4-star hotel this Christmas. I had hoped for a relaxing day with my family, but sadly, it fell far short of expectations.

We arrived just before 12:00 for our pre-drinks, only to be taken to a large space with only 10 couches—certainly not enough for our group of 11. Were your guests expected to stand for an hour with just half a glass of pre-drinks? We had to find seating for my guests on our own, only to discover that one lounge area was being seated, but not the other. There was no communication from your staff, and each time we asked, we were given different answers about when we could be moved to our table. All we wanted was to start enjoying Christmas together.

When we were finally seated at the dining table, I must thank you for allowing the extra guest at my table. However, I need to point out that my table was the least cramped area in your dining hall. Five of my guests could not leave their seats without someone else moving. An extra chair certainly didn’t cause this problem.

Then, the starters arrived—only for four of us, not the whole table. There was no waiter at our table. When the waiter finally arrived, about 10 minutes later, she took half the table’s orders and disappeared for 20 minutes. We informed her that some starters had not been received, but nothing was done. My sister-in-law had to get up and ask for our food, as if we were begging for it. Seven of us received our starters more than 30 minutes into the lunch, meaning half of us ate our mains while others were still eating starters. Throughout the entire meal, we never ate as a group. By the time I was on dessert, my family was already ready to leave. How enjoyable was that?

Getting drinks was the most difficult part of the meal. Every time we ordered something, we didn’t see the waiter again. When the drinks did arrive, the order was incomplete. I ordered a bottle of sparkling water, but you didn’t have any cold sparkling water. I was offered ice instead. Who drinks sparkling water with ice? It flattens the water. I assumed the ice was meant to cool the bottle, but instead, we were given just one ice bucket for the entire table. Other guests also asked for ice, as it didn’t come with their drinks.

At one point, I found one of your managers while trying to order a milkshake for the sixth time (which I still had not received). I expressed my disappointment, and she came to our table, apologized, and told us we would not be charged for the drinks. This was a kind gesture, but by the time we had a waiter, I was already eating dessert alone, while everyone else was ready to leave.

When I got up from my chair, I noticed the bottom of the ice bucket my family and I had been using—it was RUSTED. My brother-in-law had just undergone chemotherapy on the 24th. Do you understand how dangerous this is for him? I spent the rest of my Christmas feeling unwell, and while it may have been psychological, I cannot help but wonder what the rest of your kitchen looks like if this is the equipment you allow to be used for...

For & on Behalf of Sharon & John

Overall, we had a great stay at this hotel. We had an oceanfront room, which was fantastic, the views amazing. The cleaning staff were on point and very thorough.

There’s not much around Milnerton in the way of entertainment which we knew when choosing where to stay. However, I was surprised to note that the hotel didn’t seem to have any evening entertainment for its regular guests. Also there was nowhere in the hotel to buy snacks or pastries. Missing huge opportunities there.

On the whole the staff were helpful and friendly, a huge shout out to Sonia who made our breakfast visits super special. We felt very much taken care of, fussed over and missed her on her days off! Service with a lovely smile and then some. Another shout out to Queenie, who went over and beyond in the handling of an issue with our dinner order, very professional and personable. Ensured that our issue was resolved and that we were happy at all times. Especially loved her no nonsense attitude to sunbed hoarding – those people who throw towels on loungers and disappear for hours, I’m talking about you!

When booking with Booking.com, airport shuttle appeared to be a complimentary service, [Additional Charge] is clearly marked next to other facilities where applicable. After a 12 hour flight we were jumped on in the check-in queue by one of the two tour agents with an abrupt demand for money – twice as much as an Uber.

We tried to pay by card for a tour to Robben Island before travel as advised by abrupt tour agent as we wished to do this tour soon after arrival. The bank asked for a huge amount of supplementary information due to third country reasons, complicated and who knew? So we decided to pay on arrival. This subject came up in the queue, we were then told that it had to be cash. I questioned why the change to cash and not card, especially given the hotel was cashless. This tour agent couldn’t answer and instead got very antagonistic. We booked various other excursions with the other agent, very professional, helpful and personable. Sadly she wasn’t around for the later part of our stay so we asked the abrupt agent for the cost of a guided Table Mountain hike. We were initially told that this wasn’t a standard, which was fine, but could be arranged for an eye watering number seemingly plucked from thin air. Hard pass, we made alternative arrangements. With two days remaining we asked to book the Sunset Cruise an idea fielded previously by the helpful agent. We were told to wait for a link. The weather wasn’t particularly reasonable in the morning of the penultimate day but cleared up by the end, no update, nothing. We booked the tour with Get Your Guide for the next evening, one of the trip highlights and cheaper. The tour agent experience marred what would have been a...

There was a dead rat and other trash in the shared garden outside our room. On the first night a huge cockroach was in our room. The vents in the bathroom let in a toilet smell and flies. One of the bedroom plugs was totally loose on the wall which I'm sure is a fire hazard. the blinds on our room were broken so anyone walking past could see right onto our bed, plus they let all the light in from outside.

The hotel gym had 2 running machines (both broken) a spin machine (broken seat) and a exercise bike (missing a peddle), so the only useable things in there were the dumbells.

There are 2 pools, the roof pool ladder was loose and not properly connected to the pool, which should really be fixed, someone is going to have an accident with that. The downstairs pool was fine but small.

The "Kids Club" was nothing more than a repurposed internal meeting room with no windows and a load of toys strewn around with some assistants who could look after the kids. It seemed very minimal effort and we felt too sorry for them to leave the kids in there (so no breaks for us, unfortunatley). The kids play area on the roof also was dissapointing and with direct and unrestricted access to the pool - so you would need to fully supervise the kids the entire time.

The hotel had a weird vibe to it, it was huge but felt empty. It seems geared up towards conferences and trying to tick as many boxes as possible for the least possible effort. Nothing felt "quality". But the staff were friendly. I will give them that.

I also was struck by their insistence that on arrival I sign a total waiver saying that the hotel is not liable for any theft from our rooms (presumably by their own staff?). It made my feel very paranoid about leaving anything of any value out on display when leaving the room each day - which was a hassle to put away securely every day and just detracted from the whole experience.

The location is also terrible and felt nestled in the middle of an industrial area, you would need a car or taxi to get to anything good, so we ended up spending as little time in the hotel as possible - we wish we had stayed inland somewhere, as there was no real benefit to us being physically located at this place.

We were very dissapointed overall. Based on the pictures we saw and the 4* rating of the hotel, and the price we (pre)paid we were expecting a lot more.

I'd say this should be a 3* hotel at best, and their prices should have been half what we paid - then that would have felt about right...

However I feel totally dissapointed and ripped off for what should have been a speical...