Madikwe River Lodge By Dream Resorts — Hotel in Thabazimbi Local Municipality

As mentioned before: The Reservation or accounting department was unable to pay back the money for a cancelled booking. The Lodge cancelled due to the flooding but did not pay back for 5 weeks.||||The Chief Development Manager answered: ||We’re truly sorry for the frustration and inconvenience you’ve experienced. While Madikwe River Lodge is certainly not bankrupt, the recent flooding caused significant disruptions to operations, including delays in processing refunds. This is not the level of service we stand for, and we are working to resolve your refund as a matter of urgency. ||.....||... and again, our sincere apologies.||||So - they may be NOT BANKRUPT. Fine. ||||In an email he said: ||I know we may have lost you as a client .......||Yes, you have!||Sorry ain't enough! They are (more or less) sorry having lost us a clients. ||No compensation, no discount for a future booking in the then BRAND NEW Lodge. ||Nothing. ||Not the cancellation due to the flooding (thats nature) but the lack of offering "something", to show the apologies are REAL is the remaining problem. ||||This review is just to show: Sorry ain't enough!!||You cab read it in thousands of reviews: We are so sorry!!!||Very poor performance anyway!||||Velgevonden refunded within 4 days and was very helpful in finding an alternative accomodation. Motswiri (in Madikwe, just on the other side of the Reserve) was very helpful in welcoming us as LAST SECOND guests. ||||The Chief Development Manager said: ||In the latter part of the year we will have a product and service delivery to be proud of.||||I say: ||If you do not improve your Customer Relationship, the "product" won't make it!!!||||Franz ||btw: have a look at my 100 GOOD reviews. ||Good service - good products - good review! ||That's this tool at...

We had an amazing 4 nights at Madikwe River Lodge (2 Adults and 8yo child. The staff were very accommodating and made sure we were fed properly all the time. They feed you a lot!!! But we also bought the all-inclusive package so drinks were unlimited. Make sure you plan your transfer to Madikwe (if you are not driving) ahead of time. The company that services the reserve was fully booked so we had to find another company that would takes us from OR Tambo to the lodge. Chalet #17 at back end of the resort is right next to a water hole which was frequented by all kinds of animals, we didn’t stay at that chalet but it was vacant during our stay so we were able to walk there and watch from the balcony after breakfast every day. There are 2 game drives per day and we managed to see all the big 5 during our stay, our driver/guide was Gerry and he was so good at tracking animals and knew the reserve very well. This place is well worth the money and is way more affordable than the other lodges in the area, the only downside is that there is nothing much to do after the game drives are finished but we used that time to rest up as the drives took 3-4 hours long each time. If there was one thing we would complain about, it would be the shower pressure at our chalet, not a deal breaker as we are in the middle of nowhere. Below is a quick breakdown of how the schedule goes for your planning purposes. Highly recommend this place!

0615 – Coffee and cookies

0630 – Game drive 1

0900 – Snack/drink break during drive

1000 – Breakfast

1300 – Lunch

1500 – High Tea

1530 – Game drive 2

1800 – Snack/drink break during...

In October 2024 we've stayed at the lodge for 3 nights. This was a once in a lifetime trip, together with the entire family (grandparents, children and grandchildren). We had a good time at Madikwe River Lodge (thanks to the friendly staff), but all the positive memories are gone now. Due to an error at Dream Resorts/Madikwe River Lodge, our balance payment was not getting through. We were told it would bounce back and that we had to settle our balance upon check out at the lodge, by creditdcard. So we did. However, a few days after that our original payment was deducted from our account after all. As well as our payment with creditcard. So we paid twice! We immediately took action and were told the lodge would pay our amount back, but it's been four months now and we still haven't received our money back. It took us a lot of time, effort and energy, plus a lot of money obviously. We have been trying to get in touch via various channels, and while we did get replies in the beginning, it's been silent now for a couple of weeks. It feels almost like a scam. Therefore we would advise not to book this lodge or any other Dream Resort...