There are many serious problems with this accommodation and I would not advise that anybody stay there until they are sure that these problems have been successfully resolved.
The problems include the following:
There is a long stairway down from the ground floor to the entrance to the apartment, which is in the basement. The stairway is completely unprotected – it has no railing or anything to stop a person from falling off. This is certainly not suitable for children (and it is marketed for people with children) or anybody with any form of disability. In our view it was dangerous for anybody. It was certainly very difficult to navigate with our bags.
Worse than that, the apartment was not on one level, as we had expected. The kitchen was on a different level from the rest of the apartment. Again, there was a completely unprotected staircase between the two.
The first evening, the front door lock fell off the door. Despite the fact that we reported this, nothing was done until the next day. So we were left all night in an apartment in the middle of town in South Africa with an apartment whose front door could not be secured in any way. This is completely unacceptable and obviously dangerous. The owner says that he will respond to problems within an hour. He should have got a locksmith to us without delay. He failed to do this.
As a result of the problem with the front door, we were moved to another apartment. Apart from the inconvenience of moving apartments in what was only a two night stay, we were required to pack up our belongings at a moment’s notice and we were watched while we did so. This was an extremely insensitive way to deal with us – and we had had little sleep because of being unable to secure the door.
The apartment that we were moved to was damp and mouldy. There was water coming through the walls and there was mould everywhere. I am uploading pictures to illustrate this. It was not fit for habitation. As an asthmatic person, for example, I was unable to take a bath because the bath was next to a blind that was covered with mould.
The owner offered to compensate us by refunding the two nights of our original booking as compensation for our experience. He ended up only refunding one night. It was clear that he didn’t take the situation seriously or treat us honestly.
The security gate on this first apartment was broken and didn’t function. The owner said it was unnecessary and he would remove it. Presumably there was a reason for having a security gate in the first place. The situation of crime in South Africa has only got worse, not better. So it was clear that by suggesting he would remove it he was just trying to cover up the problem rather than to fix it.
Nerissa was the only person who was actually on call, despite the fact that Scott claims to respond within an hour.
We are very resilient people. As a result we managed, despite these problems. But this was supposed to be a pleasure couple of days away. It turned into something of a nightmare.