This hotel was advertised as a 4 star hotel. The hotel car park proudly puts up 4 stars to signify this as well. Be prepared that this is definitely not a 4 star hotel. I stayed at a 3 star hotel in Jo'burg and it was of a much higher standard than this one.
The check-in process was fine. Quite efficient from my experience. However, the service received after that was a little disappointing. I returned to the reception in the afternoon to find no one standing at the desk. I could hear a lot of talk and laughter coming from the back office. I called out for someone to come through, but obviously I was not heard as the talk and laughter continued. I was standing there calling out for 5 minutes, before another lady came and yelled out even louder whilst she was banging loudly on the desk. Apparently this is what it takes to get their attention.
The hotel does provide basic facilities, like a pool, gym, restaurant, business centre and travel agency services. I didn't see the pool, as it was too cold. The gym was very small, with minimalistic equipment at hand. Luckily there wasn't anyone there, so I didn't have to queue up to use the 1 piece of gym equipment. The good thing is that it's available for use 24 hours a day. The internet is available at a cheap rate. But when the connection is so slow that it takes you 5 minutes to load a page, then this doesn't work out to be quite so cheap. I had issues with the internet on the 2 occasions that I could be bothered to use it. The restaurant is ok. I had breakfast there and the food wasn't anything to get excited about. I would've expected the food to look at lot better since I had been there early in the morning when you assume the food is fresh from the kitchen.
The rooms themselves are best described as sufficient. The space you get is adequate. The room does look a little dated, including the bathroom. I wasn't impressed to find the towels in the bathroom were a bit tattered and frayed. The room doesn't come with an in-room safe as well. So you may need to lock up your bags if you want piece of mind. The important thing is that the room was relatively clean.
The hotel's location is quite good. It's a 10 minute walk to the centre of town. The hotel also offers a free shuttle every hour to V&A Waterfront for anyone interested in shopping or catching a ferry to Robben Island. I felt quite safe and secure in the location during the day. So no problems there.
Overall, I would only recommend this hotel if you get an outstanding rate. I booked a room with breakfast for a little over 350SAR. I wasn't spending much time there and just needed somewhere to crash for the night. Just don't expect too much in terms of service or quality in detail that you would find in a true 4 star hotel.
