Azure House

We chose this place for our honeymoon because of the lovely photos and the room with a private jacuzzi. The booking went wrong when we arrived. Shane couldn’t work the booking system and blamed loadshedding and the system not syncing, even though we’d booked a month earlier. He offered us any room, but we said we wanted the honeymoon room with the jacuzzi that we had booked. The jacuzzi was dirty when we were shown the room, and we were promised it would be cleaned right away. We went out while the room was still being cleaned. The next day, he again said he’d clean it and even offered a bottle of champagne for our afternoon in the jacuzzi. Five days later, when we left, it was still draining. We had no key for the room during our stay and had to push a certain spot on the door to open it. The car gate beside our room couldn’t close because its motor was being repaired the day we arrived, and it was still broken when we left. Breakfast was a joke. We filled out a menu, but it wasn’t read. The eggs we asked to be extra hard were runny, and I never got sausages. Toast came with little blocks of margarine, and the coffee seemed to be instant coffee served in a plunger. I can see the place may once have been great, but it hasn’t been maintained, and the hosts make promises that never happen.

The view really is wonderful, and the owner offered us a two-bedroom suite when we arrived. But as of Jan 2023 the place was literally falling apart and badly needed maintenance throughout. It might have been nice under earlier management; the old photos make it look like luxury accommodation, but don’t be fooled. The worst surprise came when we returned from a daytime outing: a family of four had been put in the suite’s second bedroom, and there was no way to lock the rooms. No explanation or apology, and the manager was nowhere to be found.

The view was great and the price was affordable, though parking our bakkie was a bit of a hassle, especially if there was more than one car. The towels were tiny and so was the shower. Breakfast was OK. We arrived a bit late and the gardener greeted us, then asked us to fill in a breakfast menu that hadn’t been provided. He had to come back for a pen, and there was no milk in the fridge.

The views were amazing and the rooms were nice, but the service was poor. We ordered breakfast for 8am; it arrived at 8.45 after we complained, and it was wrong. The pool was dirty, my friend’s room smelled, and the people above us were noisy.