NO NO NO NO NO NEVER & NOT ON YOUR LIFE
Beautiful photos of a magnificent sunset on the banks of an equally beautiful Orange River, wow, powerful and convincing – that is nature.
However, albeit that the positioning and placement of this facility is facilitated by this natural beauty, Sunset River Guesthouse in itself, is a disaster and abuses the natural beauty as bait for gain.
Therefor you will not find any photographic information in their enticing advertisement confirming their facility as such.
It is well below basic, minimalistic, dilapidated and crumbling,
The room assigned to us (number 4) was dark, filthy and minimalistic, the furniture especially the bed well below standard and unacceptably inhospitable.
The shower was dirty, years of uncleaned ‘fossilized dirt’ skirting the frame, taps, drain cover, door and hinge. The toilet dysfunctional and dirty.
The only items with reference to the room that are commendable are the clean linen? and the not so modern key safe outside of the door.
The positioning of the rooms is not what you are led to assume (according their ‘informative’ (tong in cheek) advert/information, all the rooms face the road towards the back of the river bank setting, with no provision for private outside room associated seating, barbeque facility etc.
Right next to this room is the neighbour’s backyard, literally 5 meters away engulfed in junk, scrap and the kampong housing his servants – loud and vex.
The so-called common/communal area is a sparsely furnished kitchen, equally dark and soiled (years of unattended care) no condiments, extremely basic, extremely inhospitable, minimal tables and chairs, basic, dilapidated and soiled groaning under years of use and abuse, minamalistically maintained if at all.
The best aspect in all consideration in this setup is the communal barbecue area which is on the river bank side, the other side of the building in relation to the rooms and entrances, necessitating a walk around the building or through the communal kitchen.
Here the built barbecue platform boasted the absence of any grid and/or preparation platform of any kind - minimalistic.
Needless to say the whole building is dilapidated and screaming for maintenance attention; plaster and paint peeling off, a real third world picture.
None of this available before hand to potential visitors accepting the beautiful sunset and river, even in direct telephonic communications with Janette their agent/representative/owner?
The cherry on the cake here is that the pricing competes well with many much better and acceptable Guesthouses in Douglas.
Cancellation Policy: “Non-refundable” from the moment of booking and paying.
“This is a non-refundable reservation. If you choose to cancel you will not be refunded”
How’s that for securing an income that would otherwise not be forthcoming on full disclosure? Could this be considered as honest in view of the above?
Needless to say, we left the premisses immediately after our reconnaissance of the dire establishment as two nights lost in payment could never convince us to suffer this exposure and disrespect.
A lesson learned: do not accept Cancellation policies as demanded herein; do not make a final decision based on distracting and minimal information re the facility itself.
Scenery without facility is doomed in this industry, they will be exposed.
