4 Star in RSA vs 4 Star in Botswana

Last week Sue was on a course, which was held in Rustenburg, in South Africa, I went through with her as it was an opportunity for me to see clients and catch up with my daughter.

Staying in a 4 star guest lodge one had certain expectations about the quality, facilities and service one would get. We stayed in one in Rustenburg (RSA) and one in Gaborone (Botswana). This is how they stood up to each other

Having driven 8 hours to get to Rustenburg all we wanted to do is to relax and to watch the World Cup cricket that was on. Turning on the TV, an old small tube box TV we found we had 5 channels of fuzz and 1 clear one, but no sound and of course no cricket. I am sure you are chuckling Howard.

The TV in Botswana was a massive flat screen, with a crystal clear picture, with a full array of satellite TV stations – with the cricket.

Lets move onto the bathrooms:

Rustenburg: We had a cracked toilet that when flushed didn’t clear the bowl and the floor of the shower was disgusting.

shower floor

Botswana: The bathroom was magnificent

Our room in Botswana

Food wise: in Rustenburg we ate at a different guest lodge, which was the venue forSue’s course (well I only ate there 2 nights). The first night there was chicken, rice and disgustingly overcooked vegetables, the second night was meatballs and once again overcooked vegetables. I just took a meat ball which I had one bite out of it and found it inedible. Each dinner cost me R140. On the third night we went to a restaurant in town and had “eat as much Sushi” for R136.00.

In Botswana we had a choice of 3 restaurants at the place we stayed, all with comprehensive menus. My enormous plate of ribs and wings, which I couldn’t get close to finishing cost BWP 70. Almost half of what I had to pay for the rubbish at the Rustenburg establishment.

I could carry on and on, but here are some other highlights of the Rustenburg 4-star:

• 

  Bed covered in termites

  There was no hairdrier in our room for Sue. One was given to her on the last day but no adapter was given and she couldn’t plug it in.

• One of the girls staying in another room, woke in the morning to find her bed covered in termites that had fallen from a hole in her roof.
• A beer can left on the “bar” was only cleared 3 days later.
• There was no drinks for sale and no fridge in our room – lucky I had my camp fridge with me.
• Another girl had dirty linen on her bed when she checked in.

It was so bad that I went onto the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa’s website and downloaded the criteria for 4-star establishments. From the first 25 pages of 70 I found at least 20 things that was wrong.

I guess it is clear that things are far better in Botswana. If you are in Gaborone I highly recommend you stay at the Phakalane. If you are unfortunate enough to have to go to Rustenburg, let me know, and I will tell you where not to stay.

View from our room in Rustenburg – old rusty garden furniture

View of the beautiful golf course in from our room in Botswana