Hlalanathi Drakensberg Resort — Hotel in Okhahlamba Local Municipality

Dirty, smelly and very dissapointing.

Upon arrival our chalet was dirty and smelt badly. The upstairs bathroom smelled particularly bad, the floor was dirty, a blanket of dust covered the toilet, basin and the toilet roll holder (which was in any event loose and grimey). The fridge smelt like rotting meat even though it was empty. The outside patio was dirty and seemingly hadn't been cleaned for quite some time. The chairs to the outside patio were stacked inside the chalet, presumably to keep them clean, but they were all dirty and covered in bird droppings anyway.

After complaining about the chalet the first time, a lady came to clean which made it a bit better, but we still felt uncomfortable - the chalet remained dirty, grimey, full of dust and the same mouldy smell lingered even after being "cleaned". The floors are washed daily with what seemed like dirty water, which adds to the terrible smell. After the cleaning staff wash the dishes, they place the wet dishes back in the cupboard, presumably in an attempt to rush the cleaning job. This "cleaning" of our chalet continued throughout our stay.

On our first day we realised that the fridge wasnt working (the freezer worked fine though) and after complaining about the fridge for the first time, we were told it just needs some more time to get to a cool temperature. On our third day after we had to throw food out and after having to convince two people of the issue, the staff finally took us seriously and checked the fridge, whereafter we were provided with a different fridge which was old and delapidated, but at least it worked. This whilst the broken fridge was left in our kitchen for a day and night because there apparently wasn't enough staff to remove the broken fridge. The broken fridge continued smelling badly and started defrosting during the night, causing water to seep all over the kitchen and living room floor.

Everything smelled like mould, including our towels and linen. After complaining on multiple occasions and on our very last day, we were finally provided with clean linen and clean towels.

The mattresses in all the rooms were hard and uncomfortable. Our entire party struggled sleeping and had back and neck pain every morning. The chalets do not seem like they have been maintained at all - there are large and deep cracks in the walls and the paint is chipping away in many places outside.

The childrens play areas are dirty, barren, disappointing and require serious maintenance. One toy in particular may even cause a serious safety hazard to children (metal horse which is not bolted to the floor). There is no cellphone signal and the wifi in our chalet didn't work for the first three days of our stay. After complaining for the third time, the wifi was finally repaired on the fourth day of our five day stay.

The restaurant has excellent food, but the service is terrible - expect to wait two hours for drinks and food and expect at least one person's order to be incorrect.

The view is truly spectacular, but for much cheaper than the price we paid per day we could have gotten much better maintained, cleaner, and all round better accommodation for five people - also with a great view.

I have never written a bad review before but considering the truly unpleasant experience we had, there is no other option - we are still shocked and immensely dissapointed. We will...

The rooms are kept clean on the surface. The cleaning ladies are doing a good job. However, inside the thatch roof there were quite a lot of spider webs and it was dusty. There was no hot water on the last night and in the morning (I believe this was done on purpose), which was such an inconvinience provided that the telephone number provided did not even go through. There are also network issues in some parts of the resort. I feel that management does not care about the needs of visitors. There was an issue about iron arrangements. No iron is allowed in the rooms, visitors must give in clothes to be a ironed at a price and it must be before 12h00/13h00. This was never communicated to us, and when we raised the issue, we were told that the responsibility lies with the agency we booked through to pass on the information.This is disappointing because their rooms are filled with notes listing what must not be switched on and various instructions, most of which seem to benefit them. However, they fail to provide helpful information for visitors, such as how to access facilities like the iron. They failed to inform visitors that certain windows cannot be closed, which poses a safety risk, especially given the facility's apparent lack of tight security in some sections. The staff is helpful, in some cases you can just pick up that they are just following...

So much is wrong with this place, giving them 1 star because my daughter enjoyed the rock pool. Where do I start. The pace wasn't clean to begin with. We had to sweep the floors ourselves after check in. The front door couldn't open with the key provided from the outside, you had to enter via the back to open from the inside. Eventually the key broke, that's how much of a struggle it was to open the door. They charged us R20 to replace it upon check out which is unfair as I had read a review about the door problem before we went. Which means they are fully aware of the issue. That was not even the biggest issue, my main concern was when the cleaning ladies did not replace the towels when they did their rounds, instead, they hung the dirty towels on the doors and left no fresh ones. The following day I asked the lady for fresh towels and she told me the hotel don't change towels the day before you check out. We were there for 3 nights (thank goodness). Another issue was their no dogs allowed policy which clearly only applies to a certain race as we saw two different guests with dogs enjoying their stay. Seems to me that you will get good service if you are white. If not, they will simply hang the dirty towels for you to reuse for the duration of your stay....