Featherstone Inn

Featherstone Inn 's response

In response to Jacques' criticism I would like to answer as follows:

- The room was definitely not dirty - there was a spider web in the corner of the wall in the bathroom for which I apologise. This he brought to my attention when he left.
- The TVs in the rooms only have SABC 1 - 3 and ETV. The reception is not great, however, in the lounge there is a TV with a full bouquet of DStv channels.
- The top floor of the guest house has 5 rooms and the tea and coffee are on the mezzanine together with fresh milk in a bar fridge. The furthest that anybody has to walk is ± 7 metres. The rooms 6 to 9 are on the ground floor, but they do have kettles with tea and coffee.

When this booking was made it was for 3 people and I allocated him to Room 3 on the top floor. A while later he approached me and said that he had to bring another child. I said to him that it was fine I would not charge him if the child shared the room with them. The only room that I have got that can sleep 4 guests at a squeeze is Room 7. This room is under the main house and, strange as it may seem, has decent TV reception and its own kettle, tea and coffee.

A while before the guest came, he sent me an email saying that his wife and son were not coming anymore and since there was now only 2 of them, how much would it cost. I sent a message to him saying that I would put him into a twin room and that the cost would be R1700 for the 2 nights. I also had to remind him that the second child had not been charged for. He then wanted to know how much would I deduct because he didn’t want breakfast on Sunday morning. Two breakfasts at R50 per breakfast is R100, so the quote was then R1600.

The guest and his daughter were put into Room 4 which, together with Room 5, has a large, covered balcony. The 2 rooms mentioned are the most sought-after rooms in the guest house. They both have full bathrooms and the covered balcony. The Saturday that the guest was here could be considered hot for people coming from the Highveld, the temperature was approximately 30°. The rooms do not have air conditioning and nowhere has it ever been stated that we do, however, during winter we have heaters and in the summer we have fans in the rooms. The fans had not been put into the rooms as most of the time it was still cold. If he had asked I would have given him a fan.

I would like to conclude by mentioning that Featherstone Inn is an ungraded establishment that offers comfortable accommodation at affordable rates which are better suited to those who have a smaller budget. This, however, does not mean that we will not bend over backward to make guests' stay as enjoyable as possible.

Featherstone Inn 's response

Good day.

The lady in question booked through you in January this year, she arrived on Saturday 8 July, I was out purchasing breakfast groceries when my assistant booked them in, he phoned me and said the lady was not happy, so I went straight back to the guest house. When I saw her she said that her biggest problem was that she didn't get what she was expecting as she had looked at the website and presumed she was getting that family room. There was never any attempt to sell under false pretences if a guest requests pictures we will provide them. I said to her that I would refund the deposit and that she did not have to stay, her reply was that she would not get accommodation in Nelspruit on a Saturday afternoon, this is not completely true as she would have got accommodation at a price certainly not at our rates. She then said she would stay. She also seemed to think that because she booked in January she was before everybody else - this is not true as many of the guests had booked in July 2016.

On Sunday morning she came into the office extremely agitated and said she had had enough there was no hot water to shower with, the geyser that feeds that room only feeds one other room which had two people. I told her that it was a short distance away and that she should run the water for a while, her answer was that she had done that and was going. She made no attempt to pay the outstanding (50%) of the booking and left.

I was busy for about an hour with guests checking out, and then went and checked the shower in the room - there was hot water.

I have found that you cannot please all people all the time no matter how hard one tries.

Kind regards,
Trevor.