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Lanherne Guest House

7 Harrismith Street West Hill, Grahamstown 6139 South Africa
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Traveler (10)
Dining (3)
Room & Suite (2)

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About

#13 of 17 guest houses in Grahamstown
Location
5.0
Cleanliness
4.0
Service
4.5
Value
4.7
4-Star luxury Guest House, close to schools and Rhodes university. Pleasant open plan breakfast area, well-kept gardens in quiet surroundings. Secure parking.
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Property amenities
Free parking
Free High Speed Internet (WiFi)
Wifi
Free breakfast
Children Activities (Kid / Family Friendly)
Non-smoking hotel
Room features
Kitchenette
Room types
Non-smoking rooms
Suites
Good to know
HOTEL CLASS
4.0 of 5 stars
9Reviews0Q+A1Room tip
Traveler rating
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LACPT wrote a review Feb 2024
London, United Kingdom62 contributions44 helpful votes
Lanherne Guest house is full of character, the hostess is the most welcoming person ensuring guests are happy, she provides a wealth of information and assistance. A place that stands out with its personality, its history and character. Delicious breakfasts cooked on the spot, rooms are well appointed and clean.
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Date of stay: February 2024
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Tania W wrote a review Oct 2023
Cape Town Central, South Africa4 contributions4 helpful votes
We enjoyed our stay. Easy to access secure parking. Clean apartment and friendly staff. A drying cloth for the cups and mugs would be nice. Or next time I will remember to bring my own. We would love to return when we visit Grahamstown again.
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Date of stay: September 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled on business
Room Tip: If you travel with your own car, this is a good guesthouse because the parking is good and safe....
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Makwane wrote a review Oct 2017
Johannesburg, South Africa1 contribution
We were in Grahamstown for the first time attending the Last weekend of the Arts Festival. We met withDumisani and he took us to another shabby establishment a little further than the main guesthouse. When we made our booking, we were not told that we will be taken to another place different to what saw on the website. When we got there, the room was still being cleaned and we were told to wait a little. The bed had no bedside tables nor a headboard, the room had no chairs or couches. When we raised issue with the set up, we were give 2 plastic chairs. We immediately told Dumisani that we are not happy thus far and would would prefer to leave and asked for our refund( we had prepaid the full amount in advance). He told us that that we are free to go and will not give be giving us a refund. When questioned the refund policy and asked for the owner, he said he’s one of the owners and there was no one else that can talk to us. He said we must tell him within 10mins whether we are staying or leaving as he has other people waiting and willing to take up the space. After exhausting all possibilities to get alternative accomodation in Grahamstown , we ended up staying. Long story short, we will never stay here again, and this was extremely poor customer service.
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Date of stay: July 2017Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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connecteddale wrote a review Apr 2017
Cape Town Central, South Africa181 contributions51 helpful votes
We were met by Dumisane who was very helpful. Our room met our expectations and the house was very comfortable to use as a base while my daughter played in the local sports competition. We would book here again based on our experience.
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Date of stay: April 2017Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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petergF1666WN wrote a review Jul 2016
Chintsa East, South Africa2 contributions3 helpful votes
With reference to Silliusmillius53 I could not disagree more. I am sure he/she has got confused. I have stayed at Lanherne on numerous occasions and in different rooms each time. Staff? Fantastic, Dumasani is the friendliest most helpful manager I have ever met. You want to know where to eat or visit in Grahamstown ask him. Food, a super breakfast of your choice, most B+B's I have stayed at I did not get a chance to have preferences for breakfast. Lots of hot water and electricity. The electricity notices in the rooms are just a reminder of the Eskom requests which are in the interests of the country. When Grahamstown is without water or electricity, which is frequent this B+B will have both in abundance. Borehole and generator. I never struggled for parking even during Festival when they are full for the full 11 days. If silliusmillius53 has special requests then he/she should do their own bookings themselves and request a full bathroom, bigger room with large tables to accommodate the equipment they travel with which is abnormal. Most people may travel with a laptop not a setup with 2 monitors. As for the coffee, great for me but we all have different tastes, it is like someone who is used to the power of a Ferrari, being given an ordinary car to drive. The same with coffee, an establishment like this cannot serve the strongest or the weakest coffee, they cater for the majority. In conclusion I would like to say that I have travelled extensively too, and have stayed in many different types of accommodation. When reviewing an establishment you need to be very careful being hyper critical about small things. If you had NO water then complain, if you became ill because of the coffee, then complain, if your room was filthy and you had bugs in the bed then complain. You also have the choice of moving elsewhere yet you stayed 6 days. A lot of small towns have B+B's started out of necessity, no hotels or people trying to make a living. Reckless criticism is not nice and it is not nice to splash it out on a medium like this. Direct contact with the owner would be the way to go, remember too that we all have bad days so maybe silliusmillius53 had a bad week.
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Date of stay: July 2016
Rooms
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Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Jennefer G wrote a review Jul 2016
18 contributions3 helpful votes
+1
I absolutely loved staying at Lanherne Guest House. Have stayed there several times and I can highly recommend this Guest House. The staff are amazing and made me feel most welcome with their warmth and friendliness. They saw to all my needs and served the most amazing breakfast. The rooms are very homely and comfortable with heaters and lovely size bathrooms with tv and electric blankets including winter sheets. The Guest House offers secure parking and the garden that surrounds the Guest House is absolutely stunning with so much birdlife for those who want to just sit outside on the lovely benches and watch the birds. Saw the Knysna Loerie, Cape Robin, Thrush just to mention a few. I will definitely be back.
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Date of stay: June 2016
Rooms
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Trip type: Traveled on business
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Catarina wrote a review May 2016
Graaff-Reinet, South Africa68 contributions6 helpful votes
+1
We spent the night at Laherne Guest house to be with our son attending the Kingswood matric dance . We found five star comfort , a great breakfast and service. Secure off street parking .The rooms were comfortable and warm ,it was very cold and an extra bed was made for our son .I would recommend this Guest house to anyone
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Date of stay: May 2016
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Roger Paul M wrote a review Feb 2016
Johannesburg, South Africa119 contributions33 helpful votes
As a consequence of my work I get to travel fairly often, and end up staying in a variety of establishments ranging from very basic “backpacker” Bed & Breakfast establishments, to high end luxury hotels and lodges. I have a fairly reasonable understanding of the hospitality industry and grading and what to expect. And generally most establishments meet their grading expectations. However, the Lanherne Guest House is an exception. I don’t know who awarded this establishment a 4 star grading, because it doesn’t even come close. I have stayed in 2 star establishments which are better. Allow me to expand. I have come to Grahamstown to do some work, and my client arranged this accommodation for me. My requirements are fairly specific. I am a television journalist, and usually have expensive equipment in my vehicle, so off-street parking is more than essential. As I also edit my stories in my accommodation on a laptop, I need a work space which will take 2 monitors and my laptop and the odd accessory. And I am partial to a proper bathroom, particularly if I am staying for a longish period. I am staying at this establishment for 6 nights, so having a full bathroom would have been nice. This establishment has a total of 7 rooms, and is established in one of the older houses in Westhill in Grahamstown. The public areas are spacious and well maintained. The deal is bed and breakfast and the usual smattering of cereals and fruit/yoghurt combinations are in attendance. They also supplement this with a “full English” breakfast, should you require it. The one mortal sin for any establishment, in my opinion, is making weak coffee. There is not much worse than getting up in the morning, going through to breakfast expecting some freshly ground coffee and discovering that it is weak and listless. Either the coffee is very cheap or they are watering it down. It is tasteless and doesn’t conform to the description of coffee in my book, it is brown relatively tasteless water. The rest of the breakfast is acceptable, and the cook obliged my need for poached eggs. The room could be described as functional and compact. It is attached via an interleading door to another room, and the soundproofing is not very good. I can continually hear the conversations going on next door, and they can certainly hear me, of that there is no doubt. Usually the only noise that I make is either when I am on the phone or Skype. In the room is a small fridge with water and milk, a kettle and a variety of pre-packaged beverages, instant coffee, tea, creamer, sweetener and sugar. There are a number of plug points in the room which is a plus. There is a cupboard with hanging space and shelves, with a built in mini-safe for valuables (Which wasn't working) and a pedestal fan. The bathroom is what I would term a half bathroom. It contains a toilet, wash basin and a shower cubicle. There are the usual Shampoo & body was accessories available. The facilities are modern. But the water temperature was luke warm at best. I tend to be up and showering at around 05:00 in the morning, usually long before anyone else has arisen, and I could easily stand under the shower just running full hot without any problem. My preference is for hotter showers. Wi-Fi is offered as a feature, however it seems more often than not unavailable. On numerous occasions on this trip, I have had to ask management to re-boot their modem, they do not seem to monitor this. As I tend to arise early and need to check emails and weather, this is a continual irritation. When it is functioning, it is slow at best. I think the final nail in this establishments coffin is the signs on the wall in the room which firstly indicate that as electricity is expensive, could you please limit your usage and wherever possible restrict your lighting to the bedside lights. The lighting in the ceiling consists of halogen 50w mini-spots, which could easily be replaced with energy efficient LED lights to solve their consumption problem, something they should consider as these LED bulbs roughly 10% of the power required by the halogen lights. The second sign indicates that ladies with hair styles which use products which have the potential to stain the white linen (With an exclamation mark!) will be charged for the cleaning/replacement of such items. And it suggests that the guest should use some kind of protection. I don’t know many people who travel around with such protection and perhaps it should be the establishment which offers a night hair cap should it be required. This smacks of some kind of instruction which would be given to naughty school children. This is not something which affects me, but it indicates at attitude on the part of the management which to my opinion is unwelcoming. There is provision for guests to have a barbeque (Braai in SA terms) on the verandah and on the one night, I was returning from working around 22:00, and discovered the car par overfull. There are 7 rooms and eight parking spaces, yet there were 11 cars in the carpark. One of the guests had “guests” over and had let them into the on property parking space to park. The result was cars double parked and access was nigh on impossible. I feel that this is unacceptable and management should be aware. The parking is for residents who are staying at the establishment, and people who are visiting guests should park outside. As I have security issues with a vehicle which usually has a lot of TV production accessories inside, I just eventually blocked up the final bit of spare space in the parking area. After spending a long day out shooting natural history material, the very last thing I want is to do is to try and negotiate parking space which should be available. I am quite familiar with the international rating system and relevant criteria. All in all, I consider this establishment to be about a 2 star establishment, yet somehow it is rated 4 star. My client, who arranged this accommodation indicated what they are charging them for my stay and based on this information, it is excessive. I have stayed in fairly luxurious establishments for less. To my mind 4 star indicates a level of personal luxury and a management structure which should be on top of issues which can affect their guests stay in their establishment.
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Date of stay: February 2016
Rooms
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Traveled on business
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Response from lanherne2014, Owner at Lanherne Guest House
Responded Jul 15, 2016
Please could, management get hold of me about this review ASAP.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
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604henryb wrote a review Jan 2015
1 contribution1 helpful vote
Beautiful inside and out. Everything is well maintained and very clean. It sets the benchmark in its price range. Dumisani who manages the house is always available to assist. Location is close enough to town and schools. Ample safe parking.
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Date of stay: December 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Not the right property for you?
There are more places to choose from in the Grahamstown area.
PRICE RANGE
$76 - $84 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
South AfricaEastern CapeGrahamstown
NUMBER OF ROOMS
7
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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LANHERNE GUEST HOUSE $73 ($̶7̶9̶) - Updated 2024 Prices & Reviews - Grahamstown, South Africa

Frequently Asked Questions about Lanherne Guest House
Which popular attractions are close to Lanherne Guest House?
Nearby attractions include Cathedral of St Michael and St George (0.7 miles), Amazwi South African Museum of Literature (0.3 miles), and Oldest letterbox in South Africa (0.2 miles).
What are some of the property amenities at Lanherne Guest House?
Some of the more popular amenities offered include free wifi, free breakfast, and free parking.
What food & drink options are available at Lanherne Guest House?
Guests can enjoy free breakfast during their stay.
Is parking available at Lanherne Guest House?
Yes, free parking is available to guests.
What are some restaurants close to Lanherne Guest House?
Conveniently located restaurants include Major Fraser's Craft Bar & Eatery, The Rat & Parrot, and The Barista.