Was at hotel sky in Sandton for Breakfast on Sunday. I was a walking in guest not sleeping in house. I was greeted with a warm welcome but as soon as I sat down I received a Bill before I stared eating for my partner and I. As far as I know coming from the hospitality industry you get the Bill at the end of your experience.
A good option if you're on a budget and need a comfortable room to stay in, provided you don't mind brushing your teeth in front of your travel companion and having to step out into the corridor to make tea/coffee. Breakfast is great, but otherwise don't eat here as the restaurants are either quiet or have no ambience. Go out for meals instead. Also not recommended for longer stays as the hotel amenities leave much to be desired. The heated pool is cold, most of the bars are closed or quiet and service is slow. Drinks are also on the pricy side, even for a hotel. A comfortable bed and warm shower with good water pressure were the highlights of our stay.
The only plus is that the hotel is centrally located & a good walking distance to Sandton mall The rooms are extremely tiny & the length of the bed is exactly where the tv stands. The morning that I checked out I left my baggage in my room & went to the 1st floor for breakfast, on my return the beddings had been removed which to me is NOT standard practice if a guest is still utilizing the room. Only once we left the hotel did we notice that 1 of my perfumes was missing. When I contacted the hotel I was told that they didn’t find anything in the room. I was very disappointed as I’m sure they have cctv cameras so they could have done a thorough check but they totally brushed me off. I will never stay there again.
I will never stay at this hotel and would never recommend it. Horrible experience provided by Nisha at the reception. I had just arrived from the airport and upon check in I tried to pay by dollars and was told that as an international client I could not use the most international currency and that I needed to go to the bureau, already an inconvenience as I was aware of the security risks in Johannesburg I asked the hotel to book me a cab to take me to the bureau and back and then Nisha informs me that I had to have pre-booked a cab and that they can not help me with that. With no sort of knowledge of the surroundings she pointed out a path for me to walk and reach the closes bureau. Upon exiting the hotel to head to the bureau I tried to cross the road and almost got run over by a distracted driver when I had the right of way to cross. This hotel paid no attention to my numerous requests for my safety. I ended up reaching The Davinci hotel and was the most pleasurable experience ever had. I would never recommend anyone to stay at this hotel and to make things worse the rooms are extremely small and the design and decor of the Sky Hotel in Sandton look like a scene out of a Sci-fi brothel. Extremely poor customer service and clearly not customer oriented…
We had a very good one night stay as our wedding night treat on the day we got married! We found the hotel to be extremely modern. There's robots, QR codes and everything in the room is controlled by your smart phone-there isn't even a standard phone in the room. So I wouldn't recommend it for guests who aren't great with technology such as myself, but the super modern vibe is also great for others. We had booked the suite which came with a beautiful comfy big bed and a bath- thoroughly enjoyed! Coffee stations on all the floors- including cappuccinos! The only restaurant that was open had good service and nice food- fantastic dessert. Wonderful breakfast in the morning, lots of options. So close to Sandton City, we walked there in less then 2 minutes. The only negatives were that the upper restaurant with the beautiful view was closed on that day, which was disappointing, and the pool was under construction. We meant to lay out in the morning, but because of the loud drilling and work being done we left right away. Even though it was a Friday night, there was no atmosphere. I know they usually have live entertainment in the upstairs restaurant, so maybe if they brought that back. All in all though, a beautiful modern hotel for a night in Sandton.…
A remarkable hotel. Amazing glitzy ambiance. Tiny yet eloquent rooms. Corridors have little coffee stations. Literally everything you would need. Central and safe location in sandton. Well priced. Staff are the best I've ever seen. Really friendly . Great personalities
It is not often that I feel compelled to write a review. The idea was perhaps good. The décor inside is opulent and over the top. It is all designed to fool you into believing that you have arrived. The reality is that this is a cheap fit motel/hotel. It feels like a Chinese or Asian replica of what may have been. The technology is good, though the reality is that a number of features do not exist yet or perhaps never will. The rooms are tiny by ay standard in the world, except that it is half the size of an average room in Sandton and should be half the price. The walls are paper thin and when your neighbor bangs his door then your room walls vibrate as it is made of what sounds like chipboard with sound proofing. I do not mind now that I know what the offering is, however it would be better with a few improvements and a lower price per room. Good service at reception and the cleaning team are good. The soundproof windows are also great. Just please be realistic in the pricing and marketing. Advertising a closed restaurant is not cool. Also a closed or non existent spa is a lie. I would recommend this place for a single traveler who needs to save money as the location is great.…
We recently had two experiences at the Hotel Sky in Sandton. Many people do not like the hotel because the red writing scares them. We thought it well to try it out and see what it is all about. I give an account of two shocking experiences below and I am still flabbergasted that we had such an "eventful" experience in such a short time. I hope to never ever return to this hotel again. The review below is a breakdown of the various parts of the experience. Robot The Sky Hotel is probably the best-known for its robot at reception. We explored reception and found the robot, but she wasn't working. Making a booking Making a booking, even through Booking.com is not as simple as what they claim it to be. They claim to have all the technology in place to make things easier, but my booking turned out to be an administrative nightmare. I was sent a link through Booking.com that I had to complete, prior to arrival. In order to complete the booking, I had to fill in my credit card details and pay R800! I already paid for the accommodation in full, so I could not understand what the R800 was for. I sent them a message through Booking.com and I haven't received any response up to now. I also asked the question through Facebook Messenger and the majority of my messages were simply ignored. I then emailed reception, and I was advised to email reservations. When I emailed reservations, it said that the reservations office is closed and they will attend to my email on the 14th (Monday). The booking is for Friday night! Upon arrival When we arrived at the boom gate, the security guard was on his cellphone, so we took our ticket and drove through. We were chased by shouting guards because they were supposed to do a temperature check but they obviously didn't because the guard was occupied by his phone conversation. Only one person was screened and both received a red sticker. Reception Due to the multiple administrative issues we've experienced, we were forced to report to reception (something they claim to be unique for, not using the conventional exception, but not quite). We were referred to their self-help system. It went well, until I had to scan my driver's license. The scanner didn't work and the guy was struggling for 5 minutes to scan the license. When he finally managed to scan the disc, I was taken to a page where I had to pay with my card. I informed him that I already paid, so he had to look it up on another system. He came back, cancelled everything on the system in front of us, and gave us our keys. Why did I just fill in all my information? The room It is good to mention right from the start that, what they call a "Queen room", is what most other hotels will probably call a "Budget room". When you open the door, you walk into the bathroom with an open basin on the left and the toilet and shower to your right. At the back of the room is the bed with a television right above it. If you thought that each person will get onto or into the bed from their own side, you made a huge mistake. There is only one side to get onto the bed since the room stretches from the foot end to the head end of the bed. Thus, if the one person wants to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, the other person needs to get out of bed and the person at the back needs to roll over. That is something that I think they should declare beforehand, especially for older people who are not able to conduct such manoeuvres! There is no telephone inside to phone reception. A few basic things that I saw at other places, like a sealed toilet or a little sign to indicate that the room has been sanitised, was absent here. There is no fridge in the room, but it did have a safe and hairdryer. The room was very neat and the bed was comfortable, I was thankful for that. The blind does not close properly and there are no curtains, so a lot of light enters the room at night which can be disturbing for some people. Amenities I was excited to see a coffee station in the passage, so we wanted to make a cup of coffee upon arrival. It was one massive steam explosion (see photo) and no milk came out for a cuppachino or a latté. I phoned reception, they said they are sending someone to attend to it. By the time we checked out, it was still broken. Equinox Restaurant Our very first visit to Sky Hotel was at the Equinox Restaurant. It has a beautiful look and everything is shiny. We were slightly confused by the menu because it was not divided into starters, mains and desserts. Instead, it was cold and hot, but some colds are mains and some hots are starters. It was so confusing, so we called the waitress and asked her how the menu works. Her response: "I must be honest, I also do not understand the menu". My wife ordered a "plankie steak" and she asked if she can have a braaibroodjie (on their menu) with it as a side. Now the braaibroodjie is actually part of a different dish but it is obviously something that can be very easily made as a side upon request. We had everyone baffled by that request. We had all the kitchen staff and the manager there, and it took a lot of explanation that we simply want a braaibroodjie with the steak. Fortunately, she got that in the end. My steak was supposed to come with a mushroom sauce, but they did not have that so they just simply left it out. The rest of the kitchen was a spectacle to watch: the one guy who made the carpaccio turned it into an entire demonstration and all the kitchen staff were standing in a circle around him, making videos on their phones. I still have my doubts if they quite know the difference between carpaccio and parma-ham. At least we've received beautiful gins and tonics, garnished with flowers and berries. Eclipse If you think of taking good company to Eclipse, cancel your booking right away. There is no way that you can talk to any normal person because the music is just way too loud, you have to shout if you want to get a message to someone. They put up a very interesting Burlesque-style show, and you have to understand that you go there to eat and watch a show, not to have a meaningful conversation. The view of the restaurant is lovely and the atmosphere quite promising, but soon after the show ends, do not expect lovely background music to fit the atmosphere. Instead, you will get some hectic club music that causes everything on your table to vibrate. Another joke is that the waiter could not pronounce the names of the dishes on the menu, and each person had to spell it letter-for-letter to him so that he can be sure to convey the correct dish to the kitchen. Why call the dishes something that no-one, including the waiters, cannot pronounce? Parking Shortly after checking in and finding out the coffee machine is broken, I wanted to go out and buy some coffee. I had a bit of an issue at the boom gate because the machine showed a message that I didn't pay for my parking. After going back and forth with the security guards, I managed to go out. The parking is relatively safe in the basement of the hotel. Price The price of the accommodation is fairly cheap. It is slightly cheaper to book through Booking.com but that caused me many administrative issues, so it is probably better to just book through the hotel directly. That is if someone answers the phone, because that is how we ended up on Booking.com: no one answered the phone, the two times we tried to phone reception to make a phone booking. The restaurant prices are very expensive, especially for what you get. You are looking at about R130 a starter, R220 a main meal, and R130 a dessert but, keeping in mind that they consider it "fine dining", the portions are quite small. The biggest joke on the menu is that you can order a burger, but you have to buy the fries separately. We ordered two sided with our food, the one was broccoli and the other was a Greek salad. I include photos. The broccoli, for example, is four stems of broccoli that looks a little lost in a very small plate. You pay R35 for that. Another indicator of price is the Protea Rosé wine on their wine list. We all know that restaurants do a steep mark-up on alcohol, however, they take it one step further. They sell the Protea Rosé for R50 a glass and it retails for R64 a bottle. Service Parts of the service was unacceptable. At the Eclipse restaurant, we waited for a long time before any waiter came to us. The entire table ended up waving to get the attention of someone to attend to us. When we had our waiter, we had to spell the names of the dishes, letter-for-letter to him. And the gentlemen had to constantly remind him to be kind and please start by taking the ladies' orders first. At the end of the evening, we had to wait a long time to get a bill and a pure mess arrived. He never added two bottles of wine, one drinks order he had as a double gin which was a single, and some food was also not on there. When you go to the Eclipse restaurant, do not make the same mistake by sitting close to a door. The guests who smoke, and the waiters included, do not close the door and I ended up closing the door behind them, every time someone went through the door because an ice cold wind was coming in. Later that evening, the entire restaurant was under smoke and they had to open up all the doors to let the smoke out – it was freezing inside. But the best is yet to come! The next morning, at breakfast, the waiter approached us at the breakfast table and told us all the inside information about his fight with the manager of someone else's payment that did not go through and how he had to pay in for that out of his own pocket. Since it was not our bill, not our guests, and he was in charge of payments, we found it very odd that he felt it necessary to discuss it with us! Wine list Although a few options, their wine list is very basic with not many exciting wines on the list. It is the basic wines that most people drink at home. At a much higher price, of course. What got to me the most was that the waiters had no wine etiquette! At the Eclipse restaurant, the bottle of wine was poured, without anyone seeing the bottle or tasting the wine. When we ordered a second bottle, they said they do not have more of that wine. For many people this is probably acceptable but I really expect a good restaurant to take notice of that beforehand and tell people that it is your last bottle in the cellar. For any serious wine drinker, you do not simply jump from one producer or variety to another! Some other people were ordering Gordons gin and they did not have, so they asked to also have a pink Beefeater. One gin was pink and one was white. Absolutely no garnish! We had to ask for some lemon slices to make it slightly interesting. The tonic water turned out to be more expensive than the shot of gin, going at an astounding R29 a can of tonic water! Menu The menu testifies to a creator that wanted to be creative and different, without considering the practical implications of the menu. If you want to order a steak and chips, you have a problem. If you are a vegan, good luck! If you are allergic to fish, there are a few dishes that you can have that does not contain sea food or fish. Everything has something weird or unusual in it but that limits your options immensely. We felt very limited by the menu. Instead of taking basic things and making it wow, they tried the opposite approach and I am not so sure how successful it was. Some of the dishes are also misleading. The Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken) for example, is one piece of chicken with a red sauce over. The Antichuchos, which is popularly known as "inexpensive" is just over R200 at the Eclipse restaurant and it is not on a skewer like one would expect. It is a rather tough piece of meat, marinated in vinegar, cut into pieces. My order was medium and it arrived very well done. I mean, if a chef cuts the meat and cannot see that it is well done throughout, instead of medium, I give up. There was also no sign of Crème Fraîche, like promised on the menu, anywhere. What upset me the most, was that they added a hell lot of chillies to the food (not stated on the menu) and my wife could not eat it. It was burning so much, that she had to call the manager and ask for some mayonnaise to soothe the burning sensation she had from the food. Breakfast The breakfast buffet was amazing! There is a large variety of cold meats, fruits, lovely croissants and some warm selections. If you go to early, some of the things are not out yet. We were there at 07:30. There was no one in the kitchen, so one of the other guests approached the waitress and said to her that he would like an omelette. Her response had him dumbstruck: "Everything is self-help, sir". He gave the heap of pans and the gas stove one look, and probably decided that he is not going to make his own omelette. When the chef arrived, she made me an omelette and we went to the poor soul and said he can ask her for an omelette. What amazed me the most was how they burn paper towel, put it on the gas stove and lit it that way – I've never seen such a thing! The breakfast was good, but I would recommend that they consider to label what is what, because many people are unsure as to what is inside the containers, especially the people who do not eat pork. Covid I have some photos that shows the manager at Eclipse wearing his mask, only covering his mouth. Our waiter was not thinking twice to remove his mask when he spoke to us. None of the kitchen staff members were wearing masks. To my knowledge, this is a criminal offense! The president specifically urged places like restaurants to ensure that their staff members and patrons wear their masks. Well... Around 10PM at the Eclipse, they sprayed some disinfectant or fumigation, and the entire restaurant was coughing their lungs out. Not covid-friendly and not a nice experience! Communication Many of my emails and Facebook messages were largely ignored or selectively answered. Conference Facilities Their conference facilities are quite nice, with great technology available in the rooms and tables were set up professionally. Apart from an alarm going off every hour or so, instructing us to evacuate the building and then they tell us to ignore it, the facilities can't be faulted much. What isn't great about the conference facilities is that the bathrooms are outside the conference facilities. On the day we made use of the facilities, there was no toilet paper in the men's bathroom, no towel paper in the men's bathroom (photos and videos of that taken) and no water to flush or wash hands in the ladies' bathroom.…
A superb , modern hotel . The staff are friendly and eager to assist anywhere needed. The suite room has a lovely bath and I like the bean to mug coffee machine in the corridor as opposed to small sachets in the room. Beautiful , rooftop pool which is heated . I highly recommend a Friday evening for the entertainment at Eclipse Restaurant, the food is mouthwatering ( I know that’s cliche but it really is a mouthful of flavours) the Sandton views are beautiful from the outdoor terraces. The robot in the foyer is a new concept but she is great to have a conversation with. Check in is easy with the online option ( a separate desk with Gautrain time tables displayed boldly above ) the auditorium is well equipped for zoom meetings etc and the boardroom uses the new flip chart ( paperless ) all in all I loved it. Great value for money , refreshing , vibrant and eye catching decor…
Celebrating a 50th birthday in style. Modern hotel with great amenities. Standard rooms are small, however it has all that you need. Affordable with great bars and restaurants and pool, right in the heart of Jozi's economic hub.
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