Le Franschhoek Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

Disappointing Okay, it's a hotel and I spend a lot of times in hotels, but I get the feeling I should be honoured to be hear. As they say the devil is in the details, and detail is not what these guys do. Let's start with reception, who I would expect to be knowledgeable about things that guests would ask, like can u book a taxi to the airport and how long should it take? Well, no, and I don't know we're the responses, and come back tomorrow and try for a taxi then as it is too early today. Bizarre. Then there was the two hour power cut which apparently was planned but no one thought to tell the guests, just in case you were planning to stay in the villa for the night. When it got dark we asked for candles but they are not allowed, but redemption! There is a battrty powered light in the kitchen. It doesn't work and by then it was too dark to see to fix. Food, room service was a cold burger and skinny fries that had obviously died in the cold. Where are the beers I ordered? You didn't order any. Yes I did, I know what I ordered, take a deep breath to avoid a row, can you get me two beers please. The villa? The toilet is so small you rest your chin on the sink when you sit down, and then discover the paper is behind you,but the space so tight, well I let your imagination do the rest. The wardrobe us damp because it is adjacent to the shower, and looking out at other cottages you can see peeling paint. The location is beautiful and out if town so peaceful. There is a shuttle into town, for a small fee and a collection service also for a fee. Not unreasonable but the first time I have been charged for a hotel shuttle. Compared to Cape Town with friendly people, excellent service and great food this should be so much better but at the time of writing I can't wait to get out.

Just to add. We are now home after two weeks in South Africa. This hotel represented the poorest value, lowest level of service and the worst food of our trip. No where, apart from here, did I feel ripped off, in fact everywhere else seemed to go out of their way to ensure we had a great experience and a great impression of South Africa. Time and perspective often soften an impression, but time here has just brought a sharper focus on how far behind the competition this...

A contrasting review of this hotel split into the positives and regretfully mainly negatives.

This hotel grounds are beautiful as is the pool area. It's a tranquil location however is very far out of town and not accessible at all without a vehicle.

The public facing staff such as the front of house reception, waiters & house keeping are also incredibly nice and friendly. One of the night managers we encountered was also lovely however as it appeared quite an outlier compared to the rest of the management team. Having chatted to a few of the staff about some of the wider issues they're clearly very aware of the problems of the hotel and often have to face irate guests, through no fault of their own.

The rooms are a real problem. Numerous Villas are situated adjacent to the sites generator which comes on at least twice over night for 2 hours each time as a minimum. We were put into villa 73 whilst traveling with a 4 month old baby only to have what is effectively a large lorry start up and run immediately outside the room repeatedly over night. Needless to say a hell of a situation with a baby to be put in and a good example of the farce of the booking team and senior management of the hotel. Regardless of a baby these rooms shouldn't be used what so ever. The fact they are is remarkable.

There are numerous separate issues with the rooms aside from being adjacent to the generators. The rooms are very dated with many aspects broken or worn. The rooms very much have the feel of being part of a hotel which has been neglected for many years with a lack of funding and upkeep. During our complaint to the hotel at least 3 other guests were concurrently complaining about various issues they also had with their rooms.

Overall this hotel was a very large disappointment. The staff are fighting a really difficult battle to mitigate terrible management / running...

Avoid this hotel. We were part of a large group on a car rally. We were assigned room 6. This room is one floor directly above the outside restaurant seating. We could clearly hear guests talking on the patio, even with the windows closed. Additionally, there was continuous noise from water pipes above us and around us. The air conditioner was also extremely noisy. The shower door handle fell off and we couldn’t reattach it. The bathroom was tiny and just fitted a small shower, toilet and single basin. Hardly any space for our toiletries around the basin. The television remote wasn’t working and we had to call maintenance to get a replacement remote. Then we find that there are literally no TV channels other than a couple of sport and news channels.

The second day we get back to our room and there is only one towel. We called reception and they kept complaining that they couldn’t hear us because the telephone line is bad. It’s their phone and the line was terrible. I went down and asked for a replacement towel. Nothing arrived. I then asked again when we went out for dinner. On returning there was still no towels. I then went down and asked the receptionist, at around 8pm on March 19, about the towels. Her attitude was shocking and dismissive, as though I was annoying her. And still no towel arrived. Finally our personal concierge who was accompanying our group messaged me to ask if we had received our towels and when we said we hadn’t, she ended up bringing them to us and she does not work for the hotel.

I won’t go into the chaos in the restaurant during breakfast where the staff were overwhelmed and disorganized. On the last morning we gave up on coffee after waiting 15 minutes and nothing arrived.

I travel a lot and have stayed in hundreds of hotels and this one, although a beautiful property in a stunning location, ranks as one of my worst...