Krystal Beach Hotel — Hotel in Western Cape

Check in: Reception was friendly, effiecient and cordial. We did not have our bags with us as parked in the general beach area, but had an expectation that staff would at least inquire or suggest assistance to the room including guest parking. We were informed that our room was on the 4th floor, lifts only reach the 3rd and stairs would be the way further. After asking about parking I was directed to the underground entrance and that we do not need to show any evidence that we are guests. My understanding from the security/parking attendant is that you need to verbally confirm that you are a hotel guest to get access. Lifts reached the 3rd floor, however there where no baggage carriers, so expect to make more than 1 trip if you have more than 4 bags and 2 people able to carry. We only received instructions to our room and parking after arrival. No other guidance was offered.

Room: To be fair to reception, the hotel was booked through "Daddydeals" on discount, with the general type of room being suggested, but not the exact room i.e. we booked a standard double room (one queen bed, garden view etc.), but received the double bed, on-suite bathroom (spacious shower, his-hers basin, toiet, big shower), mini fridge and TV (expect static on every single channel). No garden view, balcony (our expectation from the deal advertised), stairs to the fourth floor had the banister missing on the first flight and anchor lying on the floor on the landing. The room was clean, received warm welcoming water, with the expected coffee, tea, milk and kettle. The room felt immediately clausterphobic due to the slanting roof, however the full length mirror made it feel spacious. My expectation was to receive some sort of warning, caution or indication to expect a certain moderation in this type of room. After connecting more than two devices to the WIFI, it became a matharon rather than the expected sprint Cyril's internet.

Facilities etc.: Apart from reception not being able and later corrected by a more experienced staff member of indicating where the nearest smoking area is, I want to praise the dedication of the staff we dealt with in person, always helpful, accommodating and cordial. Late dinners, speciality drink requests (shout out to the vodka strawberry milkshake). All looked cleaned and cared for. We were away from our room for 3 or more hours with the "Please make up the room" sign just to find that the room was not made up (see conclusion).

Check out: We had a 2 night stay but checked out after day 1. Very much for the reasons above and just the general restriction and uninformed way we felt. On check out there was a general thank you for your stay. I expected a conversation on the "why early check-out" at minimum, but was not affored the courtesy, even though were new guests checking in. A follow up "howdydo" would have been appreciated. But check-out was seemless and efficient. Again, the staff at this place can't be complety faulted for the rating.

Conclusion: Make sure you know what you sign up for before booking or paying. The 4th floor definitely felt like the preverbial red headed step child, an afterthought. I would never suggest that the 4 star rating is underserving, but check the 4th floor....You definitely get what you pay for if it is not directly through the hotel. I would suggest that this is more a review on the deal-sites rather than the hotel it self. We left a day early,...

My partner and I checked in on Saturday 2nd March and checkout on monday 4th march and we stayed in Room 112, we had such a great experience with I think Monique at the reception, she explained everything as it should be.

We were so swept off our feet as we entered the room which was vast. Upon going around the room, I started picking some hair ( in the drawers, bathtub, pillow cases, in the lounge on the couch). I felt so discussed as this was not what we expected. I took some tissues and started removing the hair from the freshley made room. I went down to reception to express my concerns and showed the hair which I have picked up.

Later in the evening, we went down to the restaurant to have supper at 19:45. We stood at the desk by the restaurant entrance waiting for someone to seat us down, 5 mins later, nobody came to us, so we decided to just walk in the restaurant. We saw some reserve signs on the table and we just told ourselves we could not just seat, so we stopped one waitress to ask where can we seat, to our surprise, it seems she had no clue of what was happening after about a minutes of mumbling she bluntly told us " Just grab a seat wherever you want." WOW...In a 4** restaurant. So we grabbed a seat by the booth on the far right of the restaurant. Our waitress brought us menus and took our drink and food order around 20:05. We order the leg quater chickenx2 to make the order quick.

Our food order just go to the table at 21:00. the couple next to us was also compalaining as their food took long as well. So we both lost our appetite, so we requested a take out.

The following morning, we left in the morning for some activities, upon coming back, the room was serviced. As i walked on the carpet in the bedroom close to the window, I felt sand, so I open the curtain and we saw a bank of sand all along the window. Same again, I took pictures. i went down to reception to express our dissatisfaction. Then I made a turn at the bar at around 15:00 to request some ice. There again, the bar was left unatended , I waited 10 mins and nobody was there, so i left and bought ice at the nearest petrol station.

At 19:00 i came down again to the bar to request ice, still the same thing, nobody was at the bar, and again, I waited 10 mins with no one being available for service. So one of the staff came around from the other bar on the deck, he was looking for someoone to pour one of those beer on tap, since there was no one to assist, he decided to our it himself from the outer side of the bar. he saw me looking around and asked me if I needed help? I told him, I just needed some ice. So he asked me to follow him to the deck, so i did, and there I got some ice.

Later on in the evening, housekeeping came to ask if they could clean the room , i told them, there was no chance because we were getting ready to spend the evening with no disturbance, and the lady insisted to have a look at the bank of sand...so she came in the room and i showed her. She asked me if she could vaccum, I declined again because there was no point.

Overall, our Engagement gateaway was kinda unpleasant due to these small details,and i hope service will be bettered and staff could pay a little bit...

The rooms were clean and beautifully lit, nice lighting in the bathroom although very bright, they did have a dimmer option for night light under the vanity. Bedding was nice, most probably Egyptian cotton, a nice added touch. The hallways LED striplighting could do with an upgrade as a lot not working and looks bad. I felt that a stocked mini-bar could have made the space feel like a 4 star, instead empty, with basic coffee and tea selection, no capsule espresso machine, only 4 little tiny milks, the overall feeling was that of a 3 star.

The reason for only a 2 star rating is that the service was terrible. Shocking quite often, with staff unprofessional and treating guests as if it is an obligation to take breakfast orders or drink orders. We seated ourselves in the Restuarant twice as no one so much as looked at us when we arrived and we were very unsure about how the buffet VS menu ordering as it was part of our package but no clarity as to what was allowed for included breakfast we paid for upfront. We ordered eggs before dishing up buffet which was not worthy of a 2star rating meal, the salmon was off and I nearly vomited when taking a bite, after 25 minutes we called the waiter who had not been around our table since we sat down, and she merely blankly stared at us, we asked her to please check on out eggs, she left without saying anything and returned with our cold eggs. When we sat down initially we moved tables twice as the tables were sticky and eventually decided to ask waitress to wipe down the sticky table even though they had a Covid19 sign on them stating they have been sanitized and wiped clean. Which was not the case. The waitress then pulled out a dirty cloth and wiped around the laminated menu, I lifted the menu before she started walking away and asked her to wipe underneath the menu too, she only wiped my side of the table and not my husband's, because I guess he didn't ask her to?

Then we sat down the evening at the bar. We had a couple drinks after deciding not to eat at the restaurant due to the terrible food and service we received earlier. We had to find the bar tender a couple times as he would leave and then decided to get an Uber to another place at The Thirty Oyster to have some drinks which was much better service. The hotel called me twice, and I tried calling them back while we were out but no answer.

We got back to the hotel quite late and wanted to sleep in until check-out. At 8am the cleaning staff was singing in the hallways and talking very loudly in the rooms they were preparing for guests /bringing breakfast up to guests who had ordered. I couldn't believe I was waking up in a 4star hotel and this was happening!!

The utmost disregard for guests in the hotel is shocking. Many unhappy guests walking around complaining about the service. No manager in sight. We will not be coming back and we will be sharing our experience with others. It's a beautiful hotel, run by very unhappy staff. Management needs to address this and find out what the problem is as most of your staff members don't seem to want...