Room 122 @ The Nicol Hotel

The location was the one good thing about this hotel. For a place calling itself 4 star, my stay was awful. I asked for a high floor and a double bed, but got a low floor and two singles. They moved me to a double room, but it was still on the 2nd floor even though the hotel has 9 floors or so. There are loads of rooms and apartments, yet only 8 pool loungers. The pool seating area closes at 6pm, and smoking isn’t allowed on the room floors, so smokers are left standing by the entrance. It’s embarrassing, with other guests coming and going, and anyone might think you’re waiting to rob them. Breakfast was another problem. The room is tiny, gets crowded after 9am, and smells bad when everyone’s packed so close. I ordered room service once and got a plate under plastic wrap with one piece of bacon, huge toast slices, and a stick of butter. Those portions are what we’d give my 3 year old. On arrival day, the 31st, the restaurant’s pregnant staff member told me service was closed for the night, despite the hotel message I showed her confirming the hours. She said I’d been given wrong information and sent me on my way. Nobody even offered a dry piece of bread. In the following days, she and her colleagues acted as if they were the ones who’d been left without a meal on New Year’s Eve, and she looked especially displeased to see me. Our room had no rooibos tea, so I went down to ask. The man gave me two loose, uncovered teabags and one in a bag. It felt insane and unhygienic. The tea station looked shocking, the wrappers seemed old, and I didn’t touch them. There wasn’t enough sugar either. Our white towels had turned brown, and they were taken each morning and brought back in the afternoon, which was odd. The iron they brought to our room was scary and shocking, too. When we moved to an apartment, it had no balcony furniture. We had to ask for chairs and a table like the other apartments had. This isn’t 4 star!

The clean room and towels were the only positives. The listing for the rooms is misleading, and what you get definitely doesn’t match. Ours smelled of stale cigarettes, had no windows opening to the outside for fresh air, and felt like a dark, gloomy cell. The spring bed base squeaked at the slightest movement. Shocking stay, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend The Nicol.

The rooms were comfortable, the hotel very clean, and the staff really friendly. It’s a pity the noise and cold breakfast made the stay so disappointing. The Nicol Hotel is next to one of South Africa’s busiest highways, something I hadn’t realised when I booked. Traffic roars around the clock, like heavy rain on a tin roof, with the occasional hoot. The dining room doesn’t offer much of a break from the noise because loud music blares there too. You have to shout to hold a conversation, so it’s hardly a quiet breakfast. I chose the full English breakfast. There’s a good choice, but it arrived cold, and The Nicol doesn’t warm the plates. On my next trip to Johannesburg, I’ll pay more attention to how close a hotel is to a highway.

Breakfast was delicious, and the kitchen staff and security were friendly. The room itself smelled of cigarette smoke. I reported it at reception, and they said they’d tell the manager to spray air freshener, but that didn’t help. Towels were old and brown, and the bed wasn’t comfortable at all. Some white international guests were extremely noisy and showed no regard for the rest of us. I reported it to the hotel WhatsApp number and was promised security would come sort it out, but nobody arrived. I can’t help thinking management would have acted much faster if white guests had complained about black people making noise.