BREAKERS RESORT, KWAZULU-NATAL

Very disappointing

My first time at the Breakers Resort will definitely be my last. I didn’t know what to expect but for R15 000 for the week, I certainly didn’t expect the derelict, run down, disgusting hotel and accommodation that we experienced. The hotel was revolting and clearly had been neglected for many years. The room that we had rented through Flexi Club Timeshare was worse than nauseating.

The image that greeted us when we entered room 316 was beyond any nightmare! The accommodation wasn’t fit for an animal never mind a family with children. I immediately contacted reception and requested that we be moved. They didn’t even enquire as to why… nor did the GM when I got hold of him on the Monday morning. They knew exactly why. The question to ask then was … why was this room (and I am sure many others) even put on the market as rentable? The only reason that I can think of is to take a chance and hope that the people who rent don’t complain so they can add to their bottom line.

To say that room 316 was horrendous would be too kind. Some of the reasons being:
• The unit is advertised as a six sleeper. The sleeper couch was unusable. It was rickety and broken. When it was fully opened, the mattress extended over the base so it touched the floor and the hard metal horizontal bar across it prevented anybody from sleeping on it. My 14 year old son had to lie vertically across the bed with his feet hanging over the side so as not to lie over the bar.
• Tiles were broken, coming off the walls or lying loose and not put back at all, but rather placed against the wall to try and cover where they should have been
• Every time we tried to open the window to look outside, it came off its hinges. The guest below us even said “careful that doesn’t fall on my head”
• There was no cover over the drain in the shower which stank, and when hot water started to drain the stench became stronger
• The two bathroom doors weren’t even proper doors. They didn’t close properly and didn’t seal at the top or the bottom. There was absolutely no privacy. Not only that, they were filthy, grubby and broken in between the folds. It was so bad that you felt dirtier when you came out of the shower than when you went in
• The light above the mirror had no light fitting cover – it was just the bare globe and wires. Not very safe for a bathroom
• A few of the plug points weren’t working
• The tap over the kitchen sink wobbled every time you tried to turn it on or off
• One of the TV remote’s back cover was stuck together with a piece of old tape that didn’t stick, and the other remote didn’t even have a back cover

I got hold of the General Manager – Ian Hume (copied above) on Monday morning at 09h00. Once he heard what room we were in there was no argument. He immediately said “let me see if I can move you” and asked for some time to sort out another room. By 14h00 that day it was confirmed that we could move to room 421. When I told him that room 316 should not even be advertised for rental as it wasn’t fit for anybody to stay in, I suggested he go take a look. His response indicated to me that he knew exactly what I was talking about and he knew the exact condition of the room.

While 421 was noticeably better and we were extremely grateful to be out of 316, it wasn’t without its faults either
• The place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for months … from the extractor fan above the stove to the tops of cupboards and cupboard doors
• The fridge was situated in a tiny corner of the kitchen and the hot air that it generated prevented you from standing near it for too long
• There was no safe facility. The owners had placed the safe in the lock position
• No TV in the bedroom
• The aircon duct in the main bedroom was in the cupboard so your clothes were very cold when you put them on
• The towel rail in the bathroom was loose
• Some of the power point plugs didn’t work
• The chairs around the dining room table were all loose and unsteady and couldn’t be sat on
• There was no light in the shower
• Ants all over the kitchen
• And the pillows were extremely uncomfortable.

The hotel and service in general was unsatisfactory and deplorable.
• The service at the pool was non-existent. We had to call reception to send a waiter with loungers, and cushions were being packed up at about 15h00 – regardless of anybody wanting to still catch the last hours of day light.
• Food and dirty plates hadn’t been cleared from the tables at the pool for hours. The tables that had been cleared hadn’t been wiped down, probably for the day, as seen by the stains and left overs.
• The furniture inside the lounge area was so old and badly worn that I had to sit on the wooden bar under the cushions because there were no springs or sponge left inside. They smelt musty and mouldy. We felt like we had been bitten to pieces from what seemed like flea ridden, unclean upholstery.
• The bathrooms were outside. There are no facilities for guests in the hotel – which is unheard of in this day and age! If you wanted to go to the bathroom, you had to trek outside and share it with the rest of the people who have been in and out of the pool the whole day or go back to your room.
• Our food took over an hour to come, the kitchen was extremely slow.
• The beach and bath towels were so old they were thread bare and some even had holes in them.
• The pictures on the walls in the corridors had not been cleaned for so long that they had mould growing on them

This was our annual holiday. R15 000 in anybody’s world is a lot of money. I am writing this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, that nobody else experiences what we did and secondly, that the management of the hotel might even have a light bulb moment and decide to do something about their flea ridden, disgustingly dirty building that they advertise as a hotel which certainly will not be recommended by me or the friends that were with us