Forword's River Lodge

Friendly staff, and favourable accomodation and facilities and proximity to the Hemmingways Mall

Room a selected did not receive as a result of a mismatch between booking.com and the property pictures use. No stove to cook for oneself

Lady V was very welcoming. She made our stay very comfortable, she was very warm and friendly.

The location is beautiful. Being right by the river was amazing and we were given a key to a small gate that leads down to it, which made it easy to enjoy the sunsets and watch locals fishing in the evenings. We stayed in the Kingfisher room. The room itself is modern, neat and well arranged. It was cleaned every day and the cleaner did a fantastic job keeping everything tidy. Sheets were changed every two days during our stay. The pool area is also very nice. The pool is large and appears to be cleaned regularly. Because there are many plants around, leaves do fall into the pool, but I did see someone removing them. The upstairs breakfast area has a beautiful view over the river and it’s a lovely place to sit with coffee in the morning. I would also like to highlight the caretaker, Valencia. She was incredibly kind, welcoming and helpful throughout our stay. She even collected packages that were delivered for me and stored them safely. When we reported that the toilet was not refilling after flushing, she informed the owner immediately and someone came the next morning to fix it. Valencia truly made us feel welcome and at home.

Although the bedroom was clean, the bathroom unfortunately did not feel the same. The bathroom itself is old-style, which is fine, but certain areas appeared neglected. There was a decorative cloth and ceramic pot with a fake plant on top of the toilet that had a thick layer of dust, and the shower curtain had visible mold. The bathroom just felt incredibly filthy for some reason The shower itself was also difficult to use. You essentially have to “negotiate” with the taps. You either get very hot water or cold water. Getting a comfortable warm temperature requires standing there for several minutes trying to balance the taps very carefully, and even then it is not guaranteed. The basin tap was also extremely hard to open. There were also quite a lot of geckos around the property. We had up to four inside our room and bathroom at times. This is likely due to the surrounding trees and plants and may not be within the owner’s control, but guests with a strong fear of geckos should be aware. Another issue occurred at breakfast when we were served bread that had visible mold. After informing the staff member serving breakfast, she apologized and removed it. A replacement packet of bread appeared frozen and very cold. While I cannot say how food is stored, this made us uncomfortable and we chose not to eat breakfast there again for the remainder of our stay. Finally, something potential guests may notice when reading reviews is that when guests leave negative feedback, the owner often responds by saying the issue is not true, that most guests appreciate the lodge, or that the guest should have reported the issue so it could be fixed. In our case, we did report some things and some of them were fixed quickly, which we appreciate. However, reviews exist so that guests can describe their full experience, including things that were inconvenient or concerning, even if they were eventually resolved.

Breakfast was ok except the oily hash brown

The room was very small and the staff that checked us in had a attitude like shes doing us a favour.