Active since Dec 2022
I made a booking on the 29th of May 2025 and paid a deposit to Afristay.com after booking has been approved. I've emailed the proof of payment of R2835.00 to pop@afristay.com for dates 14 - 16 June 2025. I received a confirmation email of the booking confirmed with the Lodge and was advised to pay the rest of balance to another account. All have been confirmed and I got in contact with the lady of the lodge as well to confirm our stay. On 05 June 2025, my mom passed away and I tried contacting Afristay as we had to arrange a funeral. There were no contact details available. I then contacted the lady where we were supposed to stay and she advised she'll wait for Afristay to pay her and then she would also cancel.or postpone our stay, as requested. The lady couldn't find any contact for Afristay. From my side I've searched and email the pop@afristay and all other emails linked to the name. I even got holf of numbers and email addresses for the Director, Rupert Bryant. I requested a response and up until today, no response from any of the emails who confirmed my booking and received my proof of payment as deposit. I even tried rebooting on the website, but it looks like my email address have been blocked from their site. I would never ever make use of Afristay unless I have intentions of loosing money, which I don't. I just hope I can save someone else from making use of this website to book accomodation.
This is how my nightmare began with Italian Restaurant in Nigel. 16th June 2022 we visited Italian Restaurant to book the venue for my daughter's upcoming 21st Birthday party. We confirmed a menu and was told they can't prepare the food we need, only pastas and roast chicken. They said we can bring food in. They will not be able to open their kitchen for us. Which was fair. They would contact us in 2 days with the quote for food they can prepare.We called after a week and was told they still don't have a quote. We waited for them. 14 August 2022, we went back to Italian Club and was given permission to use the Pizza Hall to serve our food from. We had to pay R2600.00 for the big hall and pizza hall. All crockery and cutlery included. Few days after the lady called and said they cannot include their crockery and cutlery and provided me with someone's number who can assist. Still no quote for preparation of food.We started asking around for quotes for catering and also found prices for different venues. On the 6th of December I called the Italian Club and spoke to Mariette who confirmed the hall was never booked for that day. She even went through her diary to make sure. I tried giving her information about the time where she charged us R260.00 instead of R2600.00 for the hall. She had to swipe for the remainder of the balance right after. I even tried refreshing her mind by telling her she hurt her hand and was in bandages. Still she could not remember.I then said it's fine, no need to worry, rather just cancel all so that I can book another venue where everything is included.Mariette asked me to send her proof of payment. The only proof I had at that moment was the sms notification. She then later advised me they have to deduct R500.00 as cancelation fee.I asked what cancelation if the place was never booked and they never lost money due to our "booking" The date was still open. She then told me the money does not reflect. I asked if the.money does not reflect, how can they insist on a R500.00 cancelation fee which we never agree upon as well. I explained in a voice note we were there on the 14th of August 2022 which was a Sunday, so they must check their bank statements for that week after, when they did their banking. She then asked for the invoice, which I misplaced when we moved. She then came back later, after I asked her to look in her books for the invoice because they should have a copy. This she provided and it specifically stated the date which had to be booked and was never done.I provided them with my proof of account as well and a bank statement where it reflect the money was released 17th of August 2022 from my account.I even asked them to send a proof of agreement of the cancelation fee to my legal advisor which they never did. I told them I requested a service which was not provided, so I could insist on interest for the few months.I called again and nothing was done. Mariette is waiting for her bosses to refund me but the R500.00 cancelation fee will be deducted.I sent another message and advised them they can go ahead to take the R500.00 as cancelation because my boat won't sink and their business won't florish with a R500.00.Up until today, since the 6th of December 2022, no response from either Mariette or her bosses from Italian Restaurant. I sent a copy of this review to Mariette and she never responded. I had to call her this morning, 20 December 2022 and she advised me the bosses will draw the cash, ONLY R2100.00 of my R2600.00 and she will let me know when to pick it up. I have to pay R500.00 for USELESS SERVICE!!! 21 December, still no response from Italian Club.
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