Otter's Bend Lodge — Hotel in Stellenbosch Local Municipality

I was looking for a good yet affordable getaway in the beautiful Franschoek for our 4th Year Anniversary, and decided that Otters Bend was the best choice @ R450 per night out of season for a Double Room (With a double bed), as the images on their webiste looked like great value for money. We prebooked 3 months in advance & paid the total amount upfront. We were looking forward to an amazing weekend away, and as we had booked so early we were expecting to get one of the better rooms, assuming they had slightly poorer quality rooms.

Instead to our horror, the stay was nothing like the advert promised. Firstly you struggle to find the lodge as there are no clear markings apart from a faded chalk board directly outside the entrance indicating for you to turn in. As you enter the always open gate you reach a small 2 car parking right infront of you. We had the pleasure of staying in the "Double Room" immediately on your right, on the ground floor, next to the main house.

Dirty - The carpets were filthy and warn and had not been vacuumed and in the corners of the walls we found numerous spiders. In the kitchen there was a lot of sugar spilled behind the sugar container that obviously had been standing for a while as it had already started to clot, and the coffee was hard and old in its container.

Unpleasant to sleep in - There were two towels folded by the foot of the bed that I could not tell whether it had been cleaned or was just rinsed as it had no pleasant or bad smell to it. The bedding was faded and the bed was indented slightly, as well as extremely uncomfortable to sleep on, as the springs could be felt whether you lay on your side or your back. There was also no running water the following morning, so you couldn't flush the toilet, and the electricity was out so we could not prepare any breakfast.

Unsafe - Not one of the windows could actually close properly as the handles were mostly broken, or unable to close due to the useless piece of steel that I assume they call a burglar bar right along the center of the bathroom and kitchen windows. The bedroom window was the worst as it could lock but the moment you shift the bottom window to the left the top window comes sliding down for anyone to happily hop on in, and rob you in your sleep. The main entrance, as I said, always stays open so anyone can come in the night and break in your car or into your room while you sleep. The beds wall socket was hanging out of the wall socket, which posed a serious safety risk for anyone who brings a young child with.

Privacy - The bathroom and kitchen windows as well as the main doors window, which looks over the bed did not have any curtains and could be seen through by any passer by, so we had to try and hang towels over some of the windows to get some privacy. The main bedroom window (the one that slides down) has got a curtain but in my opinion it adds to safety risk as if someone climbs in, in the dark it will be harder to see.

I left after the first night as it was definitely not worth the R900 I had paid for the 2 nights we would have stayed, and requested a credit for the 2nd night which Mark said he would EFT that evening for me.

Now onto Mark - Mark, the host is very friendly, but when it comes to honesty you can't find worse, he will lie with a smile to your face and make it sound very believable, but every time I called regarding the credit I got every excuse in the book, from "I forgot but will do it this evening", to "I must have credited the wrong person", and even as far as saying the credit has been done, but a week later nothing had reflected. I gave my banking details via phone 3 times to Mark, his wife and his son, emailed it once, and even left it in black & white on a paper when I left the morning. The credit has taken a whole month and I am still waiting.

May you not go through the same disappointment we...

Just finished a 2 night stay.

The good:. Perfect location to visit Franschhoke, Mullineux, Mont Rochelle or the wine tram. Community kitchen is actually pretty nice, refrigerator, pots, pans, cups, wine glasses..etc. It has a feel of a fantastic lodge of yester-year.

The bad - this place is not taken care of. Our ceiling dropped lots of water from rain fall. Rooms smells of mold. Smeared bug blood over walls, curtains, doors. Pool is totally unusable, as are most of the bbq outside. Chairs are dilapidated, couches are covered with sheets to cover who know what. Most of this stuff could be fixed in a season, if the owners cared. But it is obvious they do not care, because the simplest and most needed thing in this place is a simple $5 big net in every room. Mosquitoes are bad and in all of the places I have stayed that encounter this.. Thialand, Indonesia, Philippines, China...all provide a very easy fix. Bug net. Hint to owners...GET SOME. Hard to complain given the rediculous prices in Franschhoke and the comparatively cheap prices here, but we would NOT return until major improvement is made. Do yourself a big favor and go for an extra 30-40 per night and get a decent...

It looked cool when we arrived, we were placed in a corner on the edge of the property. we left some overnight bags (clothing, toiletries) when we went out for the day. When we got back, everything looked normal until we realised one of the bags was missing. we realised that someone had broken in through the window and stole some stuff in a bag, but repacked some other items into another bag so that it wasn't obvious that someone had been in the room. they obviously had a lot of time in the room to make everything neat again.

We called someone who worked there and he said "we've had petty theft before this." He walked the property line, but there are no cameras covering that area. Overall, the security of the place could be better. The stolen items were things one could get rid of or just wear, so it would probably have be gone a while before we got back. We asked if we could move to a different room but there weren't any open - so the owner nailed the broken window shut but we didn't sleep easy. He kinda gave us a slight apology after talking to us and getting a list of lost items. He did put it on the local Whatsapp group but nothing came of that.

It was disappointing end to...