We arrived on 1 Feb 2022 and our initial reaction was a “wow”, what a lovely place. The interior of our unit (no. 12) was clean and well kept. However, during the following days until our departure on 4 February, we discovered that the resort as a whole was in a state of serious disrepair. External maintenance of our unit was nonexistent and treatment of the woodwork was sadly absent. In my opinion the neglect, especially to the maintenance of the buildings and general resort area was seriously lacking. On the night before we left, a wooden plank from the top story came crashing down onto the deck below, with potentially disastrous effects to visitors. This is a no- no. Avoid.
On the 24th of December 2021 we arrived at our timeshare booked at Kowie River Chalets. We were booked there from 24 to 30 December. It was a 6 sleeper unit. As we go up to our unit there was a broken window lying there next to our unit not cleared just lying there. Where is health and safety in this instance? Parking at Kowie is really SO NARROW really not the best at all and when you get visitors NO PARKING for them. Myself and my husband took the room with the so called ' double bed'. Only to find the first morning that the double bed bedding was too big for the bed and its a 3/4 actually, because we were clinging for our lives when we turn in the bed because you tend to fall off!! This already was really not a good start to our stay. We went to the swimming pool one day. Nice and hot day no staff around. No public area attendants making sure umbrellas are set up, outside furniture not placed nice and neat. No staff to be found! The steps on the wooden pathways are wrotten!!! The nails are sticking out all over. I could not believe the state of the outside of this place. Its like the maintainance guy is fired because the place is in a bad state!!! The tv in the top room not even having a remote and the windows in room won't open...They are stuck! I decided to take the time and do a snag list of our unit since we picked up quite a few issues by day 3. Herewith the list... Top Main bedroom 3/4 bed with double bed linen no remote for tv hinge for tv in wall quite loose Mould on the ceiling yellow spot on mattress protector Cupboard inside badly damaged Door Lock not working Only one window is able to open other one stuck Bathroom upstairs Towel hinge coming out of the wall Basin water running out very slowly like its blocked Blind damaged Top single room Outside door not having any key Walls dirty hand prints Sitting Room All windows nailed from outside can't open Ceiling fan is here as well as remote but not working Wall damaged in sitting room Dinkng rooms table are loose from legs. Kitchen: Plug socket behind fridge loose One drawer for freezer missing No washing pegs No oven gloves Stove plates are terrible they stay on even uf they are off. Bathroom down stairs: Door Lock broken Toilet seat to small for toilet Shower frame loose Towel rail loose Basin water running out very slow High dusting general problem in this unit. No pegs for washing line The above is all in Chalet 10 not even talking about high dusting and the filthy skirtings in the bathroom. We got a letter that says we have wifi also with the code. On day 4 our wifi stopped working. People had to come out to fix it. I got hold of the General Manager Kerry Havenga regarding our issues. All she did was apologize really not going out of her way to make our stay better. She did not even offer us anything to make our experience better. We did not experience proper guest relations from her side at all. She did phone to ask if maintainance can come in and fix some of the lists things. I mean why is this not done upfront....now maintainance is in the chalet while guests stay for the holiday. Where did you see the GM tells you the unit that we are in will be placed on the next preventitive maintainance list. So sorry for the inconvienience. This place doesnt deserve to be a First Resort place. 1 star at the most! How this is a three star place I do not now because staff are not up to making the guests stay unforgettable. There was no suggestion even moving us to a better unit....no because apparantly they were full. Even though we didn't really see lots of people. So our towel rail came out the wall because its just barely hanging on a screw. Maintainance came to fix it.......with SILICON...next morning it fell of again. So there is no effort from their side to really assist! In the letter they speak about a playroom and R100 per child for goodies etc. When I pass there I see the activities on the board has a date of 2020. I mean really did the staff elope!!! In our welcome letter they say we must join their whatsapp group so that during our stay we can be updated regarding activities. What a useless group nothing not even a welcome absolutaly no COMMUNICATION. There is a gate that you can use to go to the beach. Each unit only gets 1 remote to go out there....seriously. In our case my dad was with us so he went to beach and later on we wanted to join. You can't get out...you must now walk all the way around the block. Very inconvenient! Put a intercom there at the gate so that guest don't have trouble coming in and out with a code. Please think before you stay at this place its got so much potential but wrong people managing it and not a value for money! Staff don't have passion for their work or for this place!…
Mould mould mould... Mould on the curtains, mould on the sofas, mould on the kitchen cabinets, basin, and shower head. Ohh and the stained bedding :(. Otherwise, it's a beautiful place. You wake up to the ocean breeze. Services include bicycles, sand boards, jacuzzi, Xbox etc.
We are here for 7 days, booked 2 units 10 people in total. Only to find that due to COVID-19 regulations there won’t be any cleaning services. If we’d known that we’d be expected to clean our own units during our stay, we wouldn’t have chosen this resort. You could at-least clean the units on alternate days! Being on holiday means a break from our everyday duties back at home.
This place has been wonderful, beautiful location, nicely built chalets with ll required amenities, good helpful staff, loads of things to at the chalets as well as surrounding areas. A must visit place.
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