Mount Grace Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Mogale City Local Municipality

This was supposed to be a really special trip as it was booked to celebrate my 30th birthday which ended up being very disappointing. I am starting to think that when you see a hotel rated as a 4 star hotel you should automatically remove a star in order to manage your expectations. The service and general experience here is 3 star at best. Here are the reasons we did not have a good experience:

Before I start I should mention we are black members of the Tsogo Sun group which is the highest member ranking possible and this is the treatment that was received. Disgusting!

We made the booking online and weeks before arriving amended the booking to include an additional night which we explained in the comments. Upon checking in we confirmed the additional night and we were advised that we will stay in the same room. The morning of the additional night, housekeeping asks us if we are staying another night as her schedule indicates we are checking out... we then later that morning could not get back into the room as the key card had expired so we had to walk to reception to get the card updated where we were told this was due to the original check out date. What ever happened to initiative?

The booking indicated that we are celebrating a birthday and to make it special. This was obviously noted by the hotel as they didn't fail to send us a mail beforehand with the 'special occasion' menu giving us the options to spend more money. Nothing was done by any of the staff to make an effort to make our stay memorable... not even a simple 'happy birthday' upon checking in. Nothing!

The breakfast buffet is seriously basic and options are minimal. If you don't eat eggs or pork you have the options of a fruit plate, cereals, bread and 3 pastries (muffins, mini croissants and danishes). There is nothing wow or special which is surprising given the 4 star hotel rating which in other hotels (within the Tsogo Sun group) with the same star rating usually have a much bigger selection including pancakes, etc.

The room service extension provided is never answered so you have to call reception who then puts you through to a different extension.

We waited 15 minutes at the Terrace restaurant for 2 glasses of water after which the waitress then only wanted to confirm how the steak should be done. When queried why the ordered hadn't been placed yet we were told they are busy. We literally checked - there were 3 other tables in the ENTIRE restuarant that were occupied.

We ordered a golf cart to take us up to the spa where we were met with hooting to notify us he had arrived. The hooting continued as we didn't rush out the room to meet him. Is that the polite service one should expect at a 4 star hotel? Is a simple knock on the door to high an expectation?

We had to fetch our own pillows for the pool loungers as this was not setup at the heated pool.

We waited for 30mins for a waiter to come enquire if we need anything else at the pool (such as the bill) but no one ever arrived. We got a surly call from reception later that night regarding payment for the 2 drinks we managed to get. It was literally faster to drive to Blackhorse Brewery and order lunch there... how do I know this? Because that is what we did!

There was a brown colour smudge on the bathroom wall which remained there for the duration of our stay.

Reasons why we loved it: The room is stunning with a spectacular view (we booked a deluxe room - can't speak for the other rooms)

It is a quick drive from JHB.

The surrounding gardens are well kept and beautiful.

The food from room service is delicious.

The spa is magnificent!

Don't waste your money if you are looking for an elegant and memorable experience. If service doesn't mean that much to you then...

After looking forward to this weekend for a few weeks, our stay at Mount Grace was a complete disappointment. The only redeeming aspect of the stay was the spa and the brilliant therapists.

The hotel and restaurants were abysmal! We arrived on Friday and decided we wanted some lunch at around 2pm. We went to the restaurant seated ourselves since was no wait staff were around. Waited a further 15 min with still no one. Finally got up and went to the bar to ask the bartender for some service. He said he would call someone. After a further 10 min FINALLY someone showed up. We ordered 2 salads and waited and waited and waited. During this time another guest was calling from the terrace to pay her bill. She was calling for service for a good 2/3 minutes to no response from the non-existent wait staff. Eventually she too, got up and went to the bar to pay her bill. After 30 minutes of waiting the barman came to ask if we wanted to top up our drinks, and we asked him to inquire about the meal. He said he would contact management. 10 min later - still no waiter and no food to be seen. Finally after 45 min our food arrived.

Then to settle the bill, since we couldn’t see our waiter, I got up and asked some other wait staff for the bill. She gave me a look since she was busy talking to her waitstaff colleague and continued to chat with her colleagues and not get the bill. 10 mins of waiting for the bill, and the woman still chatting to her mate with no action to actually do her job, we got up and left. The wait staff then jumped and came running to say we hadn’t paid. We did complain about complete lack of service and arrogance of staff not willing to do their jobs and signed the bill. The service was shocking to say the least and we made a conscious effort to avoid the restaurant during the rest of our stay.

The rooms were awful for 5 star hotel. Dark, and in desperate need of maintenance (broken toilet seat, toilet paper holder and door) and a refurb. At least they were clean.

On check-out the front desk clerk asked about our stay and while we were explaining the poor service he proceeded to ignore us and pick up the phone to have a conversation without excusing himself. I highly recommend that ALL staff at Mount Grace go on a hospitality and service training course in the near future to ensure no other guests endure the awful experience we endured.

Needless to say this is my last visit to Mount Grace and I gladly share my disappointing experience with friends...

The hotel is nice. Not really what I expected from the hype but it's okay. I had booked a room with king size bed and a separate bedroom and was told at check-in that they "upgraded" me... my room now has a "private heated swimming pool". Wow it was more like a downgrade, becoz we all slept in the same room with very little space. It was cold inside the room... the bathroom is unnecessarily huge. The shower had a better potential of turning into a swimming pool than the "heated swimming pool" outside. It was even smaller than a hot-tub. My child had 2 sleep on the floor (sofa-bed). It is damp and mossy around the room, no natural light or sunlight. Not a nice stay. There are other rooms though that looked quite nice from the outside. Wrong Marketing!!! On check-in I was invited to a seafood buffet at R380 per person... was very excited. However, the nicest thing u could eat at the "seafood buffet" was the free dinner bread rolls they offer as a starter. There was very little "seafood" and it was basically a seafood stir-fry they served. Other dishes included beef curry (not halaal) and roast chicken and most dishes were vegetables. So I would call that a "veg buffet". A la carte menu also not nice, very little I could eat on the menu and no restaurants/franchise close by where halaal food is served. The location is really good. We enjoyed sitting in the gardens listening to the birds chirping, monkeys playing around in the trees and the peacefulness of nature. If this is your thing definately a go to, but bring along your own halaal food I would suggest!!! Wish they had braai spots, I was going to bring my own meat. Had a good rest. Activities on site is a spa, gym and tennis courts. Didn't have any interest in that, just lazed next to the main outdoor heated and cold swimming pools. I'd say it's a bit expensive for the experience. In my mind, not really 4-star. Quality of the food is not too good. Had the same old pastry of yesterday at this mornings breakfast, texture and taste gave it away. It was definately refrigerated and warmed up. Won't go out of my way to visit this area again, as the roads are in extremely poor shape, might return only once for the horse-riding at saddle creek which we found out too late about (my child loves horses) and a visit to the upside-down house. Maybe to see the Spa, as that must be the picture you view online when making a booking, which attracts you...