Angelo and Janneke's holiday notes
South Africa
2017 - February 12 to March 11
Accommodation : Knysna
Headlands House Guest Lodge
Address : 50 Coney Glen Rd, Knysna Western Cape, 6571, South Africa
Website : http://www.headlandshouse.co.za/
Email : info@headlandshouse.co.za
Phone No.: +27 (44) 384 0949
Contact : Lydia
Lat/Lng : 34°04'41.60"S - 23°03'53.20"E
breakfast room
tiny pool at the back
view from bed
Elephant room
these are TripAdvisor pics
"Great view but …"
Published : 28 March 2017
The view from the Elephant room is as excellent as advertised.
Friendly hosts/reception and clean premises.
We stayed 6 nights and did miss :
1. Free power points by the bedside for to use and recharge devices.
We bought our own 5 plug extension lead and used the single bedside lamp outlet. We probably would have been supplied an extension had we asked for one.
2. Wi-fi reception.
You get one bar at the door of the room and zero at the bed. We bought a plug-in TP-Link signal booster which gave us 5 bars in the room, but the service provider is so bad we still had 0,01 (yes, that is 0,01) download speed. Ended up using our own TP-Link portable wi-fi with local Vodacom SIM card which worked very well.
3. Fridge in room.
We were allowed to use the bar fridge in the lounge downstairs, but this was a huge inconvenience.
4. Aircon (or ceiling fan).
A rather noisy small indoor air cooler battled to keep the heat down. Some relief was obtained from keeping the windows wide open in the late afternoon. Ended up sleeping without sheets for comfort.
5. Black-out curtains.
We would have liked to sleep late a couple of mornings, but this was impossible due to early morning light flooding in.
We stayed in 5 other similarly priced B+Bs on this 28 day trip and enjoyed 1-5 above in each one of them. We blame ourselves for not doing our homework better on this one.
But repeat : the view from the Elephant room is as excellent as advertised (and earns a full star for itself alone).
Stayed February 2017, travelled as a couple.
Breakfast was also just so-so... but I did not want to add that to the TripAdvisor review.
I think these folks have become very complacent because of the stunning views... and are just not bothering to provide quality finishes and service.
Angelo
Written : 28 March 2017
The owner at Headlands House, responded to this review
Thank you so much for taking so much time to write this review.
We are so glad you enjoyed the view,the friendliness of our staff and the cleanliness of our premises,
We really would have loved to respond to your request for an extension .. by providing you with one.
We are delighted that that our Wifi has been just been upgraded ,to prevent any further problems--it will be fully up and running within a day or two.
We do not advertise fridges in the rooms, nor aircon -- on most days the ventilation due to the wide sliding doors suffices.
The small indoor air cooler you refer to ..is not designed to keep the heat down -- it is a dehumidifier !
The Elephant Room does not have block out curtains.. these could detract from the ventilation in the room,
Regards
Mandy
The owner has been responding quite aggressively to all reviews with criticism ...
so we were expecting a response.
Angelo
This is what TripAdvisor reviews are for.
Anyone who can think for themselves and reads this review and the response will be made aware that :
1. Free power points by the bedside for to use and recharge devices.
Guests will have to ask for an extension lead.
There is no declaration of intention of providing one at each bedside table.
2. Wi-fi reception.
"our Wifi has been just been upgraded" probably means they have installed signal boosters.
There is no declaration that they have actually changed service provider and improved upload/download speed.
3. Fridge in room.
There is no declaration of intention of providing fridges
4. Aircon (or ceiling fan).
"ventilation due to the wide sliding doors suffices" on "most" days but not all days... certainly not on the days we were there.
And humidity is so high that a humidifier is provided.... so guests have a choice between (A) open doors and let in humidity, or (2) keep humidity down by closing doors and suffer the heat.
5. Black-out curtains.
There is no declaration of intention of providing black-out curtains. Even if they do, they admit that without aircon. that would leave guests a choice between (A) close the curtains and suffer the heat, or (B) leave the curtains open and give up on sleeping late.
Not a very smart response from management ...