The hotel is out of town but is a welcome oasis after a days work. Great grounds, clean pool and relaxed ambiance.
The rooms are comfortable and clean.
The steak restaurant needs some work - the quality of the meat was not good - disappointing for Botswana that is supposed to be renowned for its beef. Service was friendly but slow. Wine was warm - unforgivable given that this is a top notch hotel and they are making serious margins on their liquor.
Myself and my girlfriend had a weekend to kill in Gaborone, 15th January - 19th Jan and after a month of hard traveling splashed out on one of the more expensive Gaborone hotel options. Having checked in, a more laborious process than many hotels around the world - photocopies are taken of all guests passports, both sides of the credit card being used, not to mention being debited and an imprint taken - we made for the reasonably appointed bar.
A group of people sat at the table next to us who we quickly realised were hotel employees ranging from senior management to maintenance. They then proceeded to loudly air their grievances about the hotel, it's other employees and their jobs in general. I'm sorry but can they not go elsewhere and do this rather than in front of paying guests?
Dinner in the Beef Baron was poor. I ordered a Fillet Steak and was presented with a T-Bone with the bone cut out. I was assured it was a fillet several times before I pointed out that I once owned and operated a South African steakhouse. A swift apology and it was removed from the bill. Presumably they had run out of fillet and thought they would play on a customers ignorance. NB: The South African wine on the menu is on average marked up by an astonishing 800% on normal bottle store prices in South Africa and an equally mind boggling 600% on local Botswanan prices.
We returned to our room and placed our breakfast in room card on the door handle with our orders. An hour or so later a lady knocked on the door (This was at around 11pm) and instructed me to remove the card from the door handle so she could place a new one on my door! I tried to explain that that was my order for the morning but to no avail.
The following morning there was a litany of errors and inconveniences. My girlfriend cut herself and needed a plaster so we called Reception. Three phone calls and 45 minutes later having been told variously, "There are no plasters," "They are locked away," and finally "The person responsible is not available" a plaster arrived at our room. Thankfully it was not a serious injury.
At 8.30am a lady knocked on the door to door requesting any dirty towels - I hadn't used the 'Do Not Disturb' card as I was expecting breakfast. At 8.45am a woman arrived to check the mini bar - I enquired as to the whereabouts of my breakfast and she said she would follow it up. By 9.30am and following two phone calls to reception asking for breakfast we made for the restaurant to eat there instead.
After finally eating and deciding to check out the bill arrived for our breakfast. There is a 35% premium on eating in the buffet style restaurant which we had to pay despite having ordered it in our room no less than four times.
On checking out one of the managers passed by and I told him of our problems. His response was, "Awww shame, that's not good is it." A further comment from me elicited, "Oh dear," before he said, "i'll mention it to the General Manager" and wandering off.
I'd suggest the management spend more time listening to customer complaints than they do airing their own in earshot of those same customers and standards might improve. We moved elsewhere in Gaborone and had a far more pleasant time at the President and then the Sun.
Excelente place to stay but reception and restaurant staff is not very helpfull! A bit unfreandly...
Carparksecuritys were very friendly and did a great job
Roommaite is very helpfull and everything stays in place!
It seems a shame to stay in a purpose-built casino-dominated suburb when Gaborone is a small city with a better in town alternative (the Sun).
Nonetheless, this hotel, which has had various identities and managements over the years, seems to have found its groove. It offered an excellent room, friendly staff and good buffets. The ATM in the lobby is a convenience, but the small fitness room is nothing special, and the in-room wireless connection kept disappearing.
The hotel food is good, but not cheap. There is only one restaurtant in walking distance, a Chinese dive that caters to the Chinese construction crews ever present in southern Africa. I tried it, however, and found the food good and reasonably priced.
I went to Gaborone on a business trip the 9th of April to the 13th of April.
The grounds of the hotel are very nice - green, looks like a nice oasis. The hotel itself looks like a bunker. Although who looks at the hotel building? :)
The interior is very nice - the sliding doors at the entrance are a bit "unusual" - it's very easy to walk right into the glass, which I almost dit.
The bellboy staff is cheerful, greet with smiles - and that's it! I mean about the smiling. The reception staff and restaurant staff look like they've had lemon for breakfast, lunch and dinner the latest two months. Indeed a big turn-off - how easy it would be to make people feel welcome in the hotel...
The room then: I would say like the review below, very very nice for African standard, but it has a little bit to go for the European standard, and light-years to Asian standard. But it sounds very negative, in fact it is not. The rooms are actually quite nice. There is a safe, although a little bit on the small side, e.g. you can't fit a laptop inside, not even a small one. On the other hand, there is "personal protection" - which I wondered what it was (maze or something?) until I looked in the packet, and saw the condoms! Very very good!
The shower/bathtub is acceptable, very well cleaned, but I think age is showing a little. The windows open, so there is a chance of fresh air instead of air-conditioned.
Grounds are lovely (monkeys are mentioned below) and the pool is refreshing (i.e. coooold). It seems the grounds are very well maintained.
There is an ATM in the reception. This ATM only works with VISA cards; it is hard to find Master Card ATMs in Gaborone, however they are somewhere - try the malls. On the other hand, there is a casino nextdoor which are happy to help getting cash with the Master Card.
By Botswana standards, the hotel is very swanky. By Western standards, it is serviceable. The rooms were secure, and the safe deposit box worked. The bed was comfortable. The grounds were pretty, and monkeys were racing around the pool. The staff was generally helpful and friendly. There was good high speed internet at the business center next door, though it was surprisingly expensive. I found the restaurant staff to be attentive and outgoing. The airport shuttle staff were phenomenal.
But the details that would make the hotel "luxury" were missing. The shower had a lot of mold in it. The tile in the bathroom stops two inches before the carpet in the bedroom begins. The hotel was unable to give advice about items of interest to tourists or to help with travel confirmations.
I would stay there again -- but I might be tempted to stay at the cheaper sister hotel next door, where you seem to get better value for your money.
