Town Lodge Menlo Park

We were stuck outside the gate in the dark because the voice intercom didn’t have enough airtime. It was an uneasy and dangerous situation. When we eventually got in and started unpacking, we found yellow stains on the bedding and a torn pillowcase. The towel was so rough it could take the skin off your back. There was a kettle, but no coffee, water, or cups. The fridge was off and smelled foul, and the TV wouldn’t turn on because the remote had no batteries. The place was basically an ongoing construction site, which no one had told us about, and it was nowhere near what was advertised. The worst discovery was a HUGE cockroach inside a pillowcase in the other room. That bedding looked used and was even more stained. We tried to work it out with the manager. She said there was nothing she could do about the cockroaches and didn’t believe us about the dirty bedding, though she did offer another room. We turned it down because management and customer support seemed so poor, and the cockroaches in the beds were disgusting. We had to find new accommodation at 00:30, with no refund or offer of one. This was the worst and most misleading accommodation I’ve experienced, a mismanaged construction dump. I’d never recommend it to anyone.

Construction noise went on even on Sunday, and they didn’t provide any refreshments. The room, bedding, and towels were clean. The best part was the staff, two friendly, welcoming ladies.

I paid R800 a night and got a bed, nothing more. On arrival there was no toilet paper or soap, and the staff were unfriendly and unprofessional. The TV and aircon in our room didn’t work either. The guesthouse pages said breakfast and coffee were included, but neither was available. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

The shared kitchen was a real disappointment. It was very untidy, and everything there seemed to be in bad shape. The service also fell short: the towels weren’t clean, there were no hand towels in the rooms, and the toilets had no hand soap. With Covid affecting the whole world, I wasn’t sure the rooms had all been fumigated, and we should have had sanitizer in every room. Even a small bar of soap shouldn’t have been used in place of hand soap. The place needs to be kept tidy and neat.