****s and *****s

We had booked at the Hippolodge and our stay was supposed to be from the 30th December 2025 to the 2nd of January 2026. Upon the arrival, we discovered that the placed we booked was not as it was advertised on Booking.com. It was advertised as a beachfront which turned out to be an hour’s away drive. We also realised that even though we had arrived over an hour later than the normal check in time which is 14h00, the lodge was not ready to accommodate us, which was very unfair considering that we had droved for over 9 hours from Johannesburg.

There were other unrealistic demands like we should pay additional R11 000.00 plus in order to be accommodated at a bigger space and we had nowhere to rest while waiting for them to get the rooms ready. This was worsened by the lies the lady that was assisting us was making with a straight face.

We then decided to go as the place was neither ready for us or suited what we had invested into.

Before we leave though, we wanted to under stand if we should cancel via Booking.com or from the lodge itself. We also wanted to understand the costs of cancelation. We were informed that the lodge would cancel and also refund our funds in full which is ZAR6 536.34. The commitments from the lodge was that the refund would be effected within 3 days. Today we are sitting at day number 19 and the refunded hasn’t been made.

The challenge now is that the lodge is claiming that the refund should be coming from Booking.com even though they had initially committed. When we reach out to Booking.com, they are saying that the lodge should be engaging them privately while they are sorting us out.

Who is assisting us when it comes to this refund as we needed to use the funds for the kids stationary and other household matters?

@hippolodge17@gmail.com please share with us the email you had sent to Booking.com initiating our refunds.

Disappointed.