I think we were a bit unfortunate in terms of timing with our trip. There is an electricity shortage in South Africa, and Yolinda is very responsibly equipping YOLO space with a generator. This is great, but we managed to time our trip to coincide with the installation. This meant it was sort of a construction site for our stay.
Some pros and cons:
- Actually a really great location. The walk down to Clifton 1st/2nd isn't bad at all. It's about 8 stories of climbing all in all, according to my watch! About 4 stories from Victoria Road.
- We befriended the folks staying in the adjacent accommodation - and they were happy for us to use that pool when they were out. The view from there is fantastic.
- The staff was very helpful, and very responsive.
- Yolinda's communication / responsiveness was A* - any time I needed something she got back to me immediately. Second to none!
- I felt very safe.
- Very nicely appointed - super comfortable bed & nice towels etc. etc.
- There was backup power for wifi & plugs etc. in case of loadshedding. Internet was about 3Mbps.
The cons:
- If you're a taller person (6'3), you might not fit under the shower...
- As I mentioned, all the construction going on had some ramifications: The top gate wasn't working, so our entrance was via a dirt hill on the side of the property. I slipped on this once and slammed my finger in the gate. It really ought to be a staircase.
- Access to the communal pool & jacuzzi was also via said dirt hill. I kicked up a fuss and the staff let us use the adjacent property's staircase. The mind boggles why they didn't suggest that in the first place?
- The laundry is next door - very occasionally it was noisy.
- Parking was a bit tricky - if you want off road parking. It was only available on the lower road, and required a lot of dexterity to park in. If you have a big car - I'd double check this.
- The check-in / check-out experience was quite bad. No one came to help carry our bags up. For me that was fine, but expecting my partner to carry her 23kg suitcase up a few flights of stairs wasn't ideal. Eventually someone noticed and came to help.