Cape Town Lodge Hotel

Fast check in and check out. Fantastic porter service, front desk service and room amenities top notch. Hotel décor is eclectic and true to the neighboring suburb of Bo-Kaap

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly The Good There is potential here. The staff, for the most part, seem like they’re genuinely trying, and I don’t think the problem is a lack of heart. Quite the opposite. The issue is that they need considerably more guidance, training and support to deliver the experience the hotel is promising. This feels like a management problem more than a staff problem. Someone needs to make sure the people on the ground are properly trained, properly equipped and, most importantly, actually communicating the same information to guests. The Bad First things first: there is A LOT buried in the Ts & Cs that should be front and centre before you book. For starters: parking is R150 PER DAY. And the parking situation is an engineering horror story. The bays are arranged so that you either agree to have someone park you in, or park someone else in and hand your keys over to security so they can move your car if the person you've blocked in decides they’d quite like to leave. If neither of those deeply inconvenient options appeals to you, your third choice is street parking. I wish I were joking. Then there’s the concierge service, which left quite a bit to be desired. No name tag, barely a hello, and even less of a “How are you?” The poor guy looked like he’d been thrown into the deep end and told to figure it out. Training would go a long way. But then you reach the front desk and realise this may be a hotel-wide issue. The check-in experience is not streamlined, communication is inconsistent, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear understanding of what guests actually need to know. For example: despite having already paid for your entire stay, you are also required to pay a ***-per-night deposit. If you don't pay this in cash, you have to wait 7 days to get your money back. Again: I wish I were joking. You’ll also need to bring all your important documents with you to the front desk to reverify them, because apparently doing all of that online WHERE YOU BOOK AND PAY beforehand is just for shits & giggles. The Ugly This is where things become particularly frustrating. The pool was closed without any warning or notice. No heads-up when booking and no apparent notification before arrival. You simply get there and discover that the pool you may have been looking forward to using is unavailable. Then, at 8am on Monday morning, the drilling started. Nothing says relaxing hotel stay quite like being woken up by construction work at 8am. Of course, no warning that this was going to happen either. And then there’s the smoking-room situation, which is genuinely baffling. The website gives you the option to book a smoking room, only for you to arrive at the hotel and be informed that they have a strict no-smoking policy with a R1 500 fine should you violate it. This begs the question… why am I being given the option to book a smoking room? These are exactly the kinds of things that should be made abundantly clear BEFORE someone hands over their money. Not upon checking in. If you’re accustomed to five-star service, I’d strongly recommend adjusting your expectations accordingly before booking here. There’s potential. But right now, the guest experience feels unnecessarily complicated, poorly communicated and, far too often, full of surprises that really shouldn’t be surprises at all. For reference: we stayed for three nights.

Very neat and comfortable place to stay, nearby facilities. Will definitely stay here again.

The parking situation is very bad even though you pay R150 per night and the double charged me for the last night by subtracting R150 from my deposit so I paid R300 for the last night just for parking. No phone call to confirm or anything.