Natwange backpackers — Hotel in Lusaka Province

We were staying in a triple room for 2 nights. First of all: It has great potential and could be a really nice place but it is so overpriced that it can only be a disappointment. The triple room was 65 Dollars - it was the second most expensive room we had on our 6 weeks trip. Only in Livingstone we paid 80 Dollars but there we got a huge bungalow, with excellent service, very exclusive landscape and a marvellous room with room service - comparable rooms to natwange are normally around 20-30 dollars. The room was very tiny, the light in the bathroom was defect, also the door handle was broken, the room door didn't close without a key, due to the electricity shutdowns every evening there is no hot water in the hostel, most of the time we didn't have any water in the room. Also their reservation management is bad - when we arrived they told us that they don't know about our reservation though we asked the day before and they confirmed. If you arrive late this is very uncomfortable. The next day they wanted to give us a better room but instead of good service the manager of the hotel was shouting for more than 1 hour at the staff in the garden - because of that it was impossible to relax there, also after 2.5 hours waiting for our new room we left to the city - returning 4 hours later they told us that they have given the room to someone else. So instead of excellent service the manager likes to talk very unfriendly to her staff in a manner, I really don't want to support. Constructive feedback, yes - but this was so disgusting - additionally in the middle of all the guests. The rooms are clean but don't expect room service for the 65 dollars, the pool is as clean as everywhere in sambia. Breakfast is quite good, staff at reception is very friendly. There is a playground which is nice, but some parts of it have to be repaired. Food is good but not cheap. The area is not the best. You cannot do anything there except going to the mall, everybidy is speaking about. But what should I do there? To the market it is a 20 min drive and around 50 kwacha with yango - not the fastest and cheapest - in walkable distance there is only on art gallery and the district Ngombe, where you can find also a community center and some street food. Because around the hostel you will not find any cheap food. It is also not possible to walk to the train station or bus station for intercity buses.... If you book online it is cheaper (the first place where we found that - book better on booking then there!!) - normally booking is more expensive because of the fee booking.com is charging but there it isn't - very unsympathic, because that means, it is not possible to book with children (the booking homepage cannot handly two small children sharing a bed) and it is not possible to visit the rooms before deciding which one you take. They charge the same price for the "nice" and the not nice rooms. Some don't have lights in the evening. Some are very tiny, some are new. Very unsympathic. The area of the hostel is nice and green but not as clean as on the pictures and for example the bed next to the pool is broken, the pool table light wasn't existing and so on. Don't expect it to be as nice as on the pictures.

So concluding: the Management is horrible, the price management is catastrophic, the area is boring and expensive, the rooms are clean but very small and they are half broken, reception staff is friendly but because of the Management they cannot do a good job because they have to listen to her instead of giving rooms to their guests, reservation management does not work.

Don't understand me wrong. We had rooms we were happy with, without running water or hot water, with shared bathroom and so on. But they were cheap. If you charge an amount like that you have to deliver a certain quality. For half of the price and without a shouting manager it would be possible to enjoy the huge garden, the pool...

It pains me to write this review, as I loved the actual staff and the facilities at this place. Unfortunately, the actions of the owner, Anita, leave me no choice.

My stay was booked through my department (I am a researcher), and when I checked out, I said goodbye to Anita (who was at the reception), looked for staff members that had been helpful to me in order to tip them, and headed to the airport.

I then got a frantic phone call from Anita who claimed that I hadn't paid for my stay, and proceeded to call me a "thief". She said that she had called airport security to detain me, and that I cannot get away with what I had done. Realizing this was clearly an issue of a payment lag between my institution and Natwange,.I reassured her that I wasn't aware the payment had not gone through, but that I or my colleague would be happy to settle the bill and get reimbursed by my institution later. Anita was not happy with this, and instead drove to the airport to confront me (I was cooperative the whole time), proceeded to make a scene and announce to everyone within earshot that I was a thief and that "it is always Africans who never pay". She was hysterical, wouldn't listen to reason, and threatened to not let me board my flight.

Long story short, my colleague (with the purchase card from our institution) drove over, settled the bill, and proceeded to show email correspondence of Natwange's failure to invoice my institution despite several attempts from the school administrators to settle the bill.

I am shocked and utterly repulsed by the treatment I received from Anita- an owner of an African business who is clearly prejudiced against African patrons, and frankly, just deplorably emotionally disregulated.

I did not receive an apology from her or her husband (co-owner), in person or otherwise. They assured my colleague that they were sorry and owed me an apology, and yet, nothing still.

It is a pity that something like this can happen to African travelers, and there be no justice for it. Such a huge blemish on this...

Essentially every major aspect of my 1 night stay here was bad. Spotty electricity. Could barely charge phone. No hot water. Had to take a cold shower. Also related to the electricity. Asked for a taxi for the following day, they basically said "yeah sure" and then when the morning arrives only then they called the taxi who said it'd take them 35 minutes to arrive - exactly why I asked for it the night before. I'm probably going to miss my bus. If a guest asks if you can get them a taxi for tomorrow morning because they'll be on a tight schedule since they have an early bus, and you say "sure we'll take care of it," the expectation is pre-arrangement, not scrambling last minute in morning traffic. I had to hail a taxi from the street who obviously smelled the urgency and overcharged me like crazy. Wifi was awful.

Up to you to decide how many of these they are directly to blame for and how many of these are force majeure. If the electricity problem happens often, a hotel that'd earn more than 1 star would make an investment into some batteries or a generator. They'd have some other water heater that doesn't depend on electricity.

The point stands that I can't give them more than the minimum 1 star. Even at that price point this was bad. The staff's friendliness doesn't make up for...