Southern Sun
Southern Sun
Brand's performance
Satisfaction Index over the past 12 months.
Response Rate
25%
Average Response Time
0%
Solution Rate
25%
Average Ratings
50%
Customer Retention Rate
50%
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Southern Sun - Service failures, previous experience years ago far outweighed current visit

Resolved
9/10
Sharika
Sharika filed the complaint
20 December 2022 (edited on 5 January 2023)
Good day,
We have previously stayed at the Mount Grace hotel a few years back, in a Villa, when everything from start to finish was perfect.
Needing a break from city life to the country, we decided to go back to a place that made such a memorable impact. The check in experience was just the beginning of a service failure..
We had booked a Executive Premium King Bed Non Smoking, and were looking forward to a private plunge pool to relax in ( the most enjoyable working aspect of our room).

We arrived afternoon of 19/12, and was offered no welcome drink etc on arrival as per process, yet another couple to our right had been treated like royalty, offered all sorts of things to drink and assisted with every whim. I thought it odd, but presumed the individual attending to out check in was possibly distracted. We then were taken to our room via golf cart, and on arrival, noted there was no welcome letter in our room as per process, nor was room correctly dusted, windowsills dirty, did not look like it was prepared for our stay. It was also kitted out for what appeared to be a single person, not a couple, there was only 1 teaspoon, not enough coffee pods for the machine etc.
This made me feel like we were placed into a different room that had perhaps previously been assigned to us, but was not sure, so would not ask as yet. Tired from the day, we decided to go up to the restaurant for dinner, which was a choice of an ala cart menu, or a buffet, which was enjoyable, if not somewhat slow if ordering from the menu.

Tired, we went back to the room, and noticed there was no turn down service. Had this been changed, as nobody told us of this at check in? Also, there was no ice in the room, and no extra water. Load shedding hit, but thankfully the generator kicked in rather quickly. Going to bed, we hoped for a better turn of events the next day, as the TV had also suddenly stopped showing any channels.

Breakfast the next day was alright, but there were a lot of guests that needed to be fed, so some items were not present at the breakfast buffet. Not feeling this stay thus far was up to the usual standard we expect and have had before, decided to go to reception to bring up my findings.
I was assisted by Thabiso( young gentleman), who listened to my complaints, then told me he had no power to change anything, but would relay my concerns to the relevant department.
To de-stress, we decided to book a couples spa for later that day, which we had attended and was lovely.
In the afternoon around 4pm, we had a sudden rain storm and terrible lightning struck in the area. Suddenly, the power went off.. we waited and waited, odd, no generator kicked in very quickly, as it normally would. After about 30min, I called up to the front desk to be told the back up generator had been affected and they would get a technician out to attend to this, we otherwise had to wait for the power to come back only, normally, at 6pm.

At 6:30pm, we ordered dinner to the room, as we did not feel like going to the house. This only arrived after 8:30pm, 2 hours later, which we had to chase for 3 times.
When it arrived, it was only warm and there were no condiments provided to us, like salt/pepper/ tomato sauce or mayo. We were not told of any short comings of the kitchen, nor any problems to delayed food deliveries. There we were (again), still no turn down, no condiments and still only 1 teaspoon etc.

Upon waking this morning, power went out at 8am, and then, no generator kicked in. I tried to call the front desk, but the phone was dead, I then called the front desk with my mobile, only to be told the generators had caught on fire from the lightning strike and nothing was working. I was then asked if we got a letter explaining this under our door, I checked, NO, we had no letter informing us of anything. I then asked if it was possible to either get a coffee or some boiling water to make our own, was told yes and put through to the kitchen.

The kitchen staff thought I was crazy, as they would not even be able to make breakfast, until normal power came back at 10h30. We decided rather to check out earlier. and so made our way to reception at 09:30 am, calling with my mobile to arrange a lift there, at least the golf carts were still working. We were assisted by the same young gentleman as the day prior, who asked if we checking out and "where is daddy"? He continued to call myself "mommy" and my husband "daddy", which I believe is highly unprofessional and do not agree to be greeted that way by any staff member of a hotel establishment.

I presumed a small refund would be granted due to the missed breakfast or the inconvenience of the generators having failed, but no, nil to be provided. Nor any feedback on my complaints raised with staff present at the Hotel.

I had been hoping some service level issues would have been addressed, due to the amount of money that was spent at the establishment for both the room and the extra's we undertook.

I want an explanation as to the failures I have brought up and would prefer a resolution.

With regards
Incident date: 18 December 2022
Sharika
Sharika rated the brand
20 January 2023

Have been offered a stay in return, Will reassess once there.

This complaint was considered resolved.
Comments
Sharika Author
5 January 2023

Update 2023: I was contacted via email by the GM of the hotel and advised what lead to some of the service failures. They have offered a night back in lieu of problems had, but I will only close the complaint once we have tried staying there again, in order to correctly rate the resolution suggested.