Simba Safaris Lephalale
TrustIndex
0
Ranking
#9
in Travel & Vacation
NPS Score
0
Recommended: Unlikely
Used this business recently? Share your experience to help others decide.
Used this business recently? Share your experience to help others decide.
Share Your Experience1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
Terrible. Not worth a cent. We booked for 3 nights and ended up leaving on the first night. We absolutely will never recommend such a place to anyone and to pay over R10k and receive such terrible service, food not even worth a cent, no cupboard space because it was so full of clothes for people living there, the bathroom was dirty, toliet broken. We booked the honeymoon room and such a disappointment. Got all inclusive food but what a shame and embrassment. This place should just be open for a day for people to see the animals and nothing more it's a backpackers and doesn't need to be so expensive. They will do anything for money and it is very clear. We tried to speak to the manager on many occasions and she drove off in her bakkie running away and got rude voice notes from her. There wasn't even a cup of tea to drink. Honestly was a shame. And forget about requesting for a refund as they will scavenge any cent to throw their way. No hot water to shower and no internet at night. Truly a waste of time, space and money. Also apparently all the cubs as shown on photos running around are all died 3 days before our arrival. Very ironic.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
Terrible. Not worth a cent. We booked for 3 nights and ended up leaving on the first night. We absolutely will never recommend such a place to anyone and to pay over R10k and receive such terrible service, food not even worth a cent, no cupboard space because it was so full of clothes for people living there, the bathroom was dirty, toliet broken. We booked the honeymoon room and such a disappointment. Got all inclusive food but what a shame and embrassment. This place should just be open for a day for people to see the animals and nothing more it's a backpackers and doesn't need to be so expensive. They will do anything for money and it is very clear. We tried to speak to the manager on many occasions and she drove off in her bakkie running away and got rude voice notes from her. There wasn't even a cup of tea to drink. Honestly was a shame. And forget about requesting for a refund as they will scavenge any cent to throw their way. No hot water to shower and no internet at night. Truly a waste of time, space and money. Also apparently all the cubs as shown on photos running around are all died 3 days before our arrival. Very ironic.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
Our recent experience at Simba Safaris Lodge in Ellisras, Limpopo, was a complete nightmare, unlike our pleasant visit the previous year. Upon arrival in October 2024, we were met with dismissive behavior from the owner, Marti, who was preoccupied with a birthday party. A booking issue quickly escalated as Marti became increasingly hostile. Despite being the only guests, she objected to our soft music by the pool and prioritized her pets over our comfort. Later that night, clearly intoxicated, Marti returned with armed men and evicted us without refunding our R10,000. The lodge itself was filthy, with dirty toilets. I will never return and strongly advise others to avoid this place.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
Our recent experience at Simba Safaris Lodge in Ellisras, Limpopo, was a complete nightmare, unlike our pleasant visit the previous year. Upon arrival in October 2024, we were met with dismissive behavior from the owner, Marti, who was preoccupied with a birthday party. A booking issue quickly escalated as Marti became increasingly hostile. Despite being the only guests, she objected to our soft music by the pool and prioritized her pets over our comfort. Later that night, clearly intoxicated, Marti returned with armed men and evicted us without refunding our R10,000. The lodge itself was filthy, with dirty toilets. I will never return and strongly advise others to avoid this place.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
What a horrible, disgusting and terrible experience at this god forbidden place Simba Safaris Lodge. So it was our second time there, we went in October last year and we had a great time, overlooked a lot of things because they were really nice to us. Fast forward to the 19th of October 2024. On arrival, there was a kiddies birthday party and the place was buzzing with kids, we understood, after all it’s kids. The owner Marti was sitting at a table with other mom’s, fair enough, she welcomed us whilst sitting down and dismissively asked us to go wait by the couches which were filthy by the way. We obliged, we were guests after all. We waited for 20 -30 minutes. Finally Smoley (sp) the manager signalled for us to come through, my friend and I went to her. She then showed us the rooms that had been prepared for us, which was a total of 2 rooms. My friend and I proceeded to let her know that we had actually booked 3 rooms. She was adamant that her employer had said we booked 2. We then asked to speak to her employer, Smoley said we can call her as she’s not around, we told her that we’d seen her as she’d welcomed us, only then did Smoley go and call Marti. When I tell you she came guns blazing, asked my friend and I if there was a problem, we then calmly tried to explain to her what our concerns were. She was very dismissive and told us she’s very busy, it’s her twins birthday party, we only have a minute to talk to her. If we have problem we can leave or just accept things as they are. I then asked that we please respect each other as we’re just merely raising our concerns and not fighting with her, we are just seeking clarity as we were under the impression that our friend that had booked the place for us (she wasn’t able to join us) had booked the same rooms we’d booked last year. She told us no, we hadn’t booked those rooms which we understood. Mind you, the same room we were requesting was full of pets i.e cats, dogs, a rabbit etc. but that’s a story for another day. My friend and I eventually gave up trying to reason with her as she kept telling us she doesn’t have time. After this I was honestly ready to leave, I’d had it. My friends insisted we just stay and enjoy. We then started settling down, I went to the room I was gonna sleep in, put my bags in the small cupboard provided for us, I then proceeded to the built in cupboards to try hang my jacket, the cupboards were full to the brim with Lord knows what, I’m talking about 6 or so cupboards, one even had a drawstring tied to it, which clearly meant no access. I eventually just gave up, went outside to my friends that were already chilling by the pool. Our one friend took our speaker and started playing music, it wasn’t loud at all. Marti came charging to us and told us to please lower the music down as there are other guests that have booked (we were the only ones by the way) as we haven’t booked the whole lodge we can’t play music. Still puzzled, she came a second time and told us we’re making a noise. My friend asked to speak with her in private to which she agreed, they went up to the loft, a few minutes later she walked down the stairs and was having a back and forth argument with my friend, very uncouth and ill-mannered for a ‘supposed’ host. We eventually just gave up, switched our music off. We then went for the animal feeding tour which was underwhelming, came back to the lodge. Upon our return from the tour, Smoley came to me to say that Marti said the passage which lead to our rooms will be completely out of bounds from the evening onwards and we’d have to access our rooms via the back, as Marti has new bengal cats that roam around there, she can’t have them go outside as they might be eaten by lions. Marti came and started shouting at us as we’d declined her request, so animals took precedence over us,at this point I’d just switched off when she went off at us. Marti finally stormed off and promised to get someone to come and remove us from the lodge. We started making our supper, two gentlemen came in, I believe one was Marti’s partner, they didn’t say a word to us, they spoke to the staff, took alcohol and left. We then had our supper, after that we went to chill by the pool and some of our friends were swimming. One of the staff then came to our one friend and said ‘the boss’ wants to talk to them, my friend refused and we left it at that, for crying out loud, we’d just started relaxing and trying to have fun, our music wasn’t loud. Around 11pm a car drives in, 4 people in it, some were armed. Well, guess who starts going off at my friend whilst walking in, none other than our dearest Marti,she asked my friend why they refused to talk to her, went on to say my friend was threatening her at her own lodge. Marti then just went off, started screaming at everyone, told her she no longer feels safe with us at her R20 million lodge, she then went on to tell us to leave, mind you it’s almost midnight. My friends tried to reason with her and she wasn’t having it, she started screaming in Afrikaans. Marti told us we will never be allowed to book at her lodge and she never wants to see us, I had already made a conscious decision that I wouldn’t be caught dead there anyway, so I was okay with that. We asked her to please refund us our money which was about R10 000, she blatantly refused and told us we have 2 minutes to leave. We all obliged, collected our stuff from the rooms and we left. I know Marti was probably under the influence, considering there was a party but that is no excuse to treat your guests in that way, rude, uncouth, disrespectful and a downright disgusting behaviour. I hope Marti will treat other guests better than she did us. I will never, ever go back to Simba Safaris Lodge even if you paid me. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go there, go at your own risk. Ten thousand South African rands (in Cyrils’s economy) down the drain, also Marti, please at the very least clean your toilets, they are disgustingly brown. Have a nice life Marti.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
What a horrible, disgusting and terrible experience at this god forbidden place Simba Safaris Lodge. So it was our second time there, we went in October last year and we had a great time, overlooked a lot of things because they were really nice to us. Fast forward to the 19th of October 2024. On arrival, there was a kiddies birthday party and the place was buzzing with kids, we understood, after all it’s kids. The owner Marti was sitting at a table with other mom’s, fair enough, she welcomed us whilst sitting down and dismissively asked us to go wait by the couches which were filthy by the way. We obliged, we were guests after all. We waited for 20 -30 minutes. Finally Smoley (sp) the manager signalled for us to come through, my friend and I went to her. She then showed us the rooms that had been prepared for us, which was a total of 2 rooms. My friend and I proceeded to let her know that we had actually booked 3 rooms. She was adamant that her employer had said we booked 2. We then asked to speak to her employer, Smoley said we can call her as she’s not around, we told her that we’d seen her as she’d welcomed us, only then did Smoley go and call Marti. When I tell you she came guns blazing, asked my friend and I if there was a problem, we then calmly tried to explain to her what our concerns were. She was very dismissive and told us she’s very busy, it’s her twins birthday party, we only have a minute to talk to her. If we have problem we can leave or just accept things as they are. I then asked that we please respect each other as we’re just merely raising our concerns and not fighting with her, we are just seeking clarity as we were under the impression that our friend that had booked the place for us (she wasn’t able to join us) had booked the same rooms we’d booked last year. She told us no, we hadn’t booked those rooms which we understood. Mind you, the same room we were requesting was full of pets i.e cats, dogs, a rabbit etc. but that’s a story for another day. My friend and I eventually gave up trying to reason with her as she kept telling us she doesn’t have time. After this I was honestly ready to leave, I’d had it. My friends insisted we just stay and enjoy. We then started settling down, I went to the room I was gonna sleep in, put my bags in the small cupboard provided for us, I then proceeded to the built in cupboards to try hang my jacket, the cupboards were full to the brim with Lord knows what, I’m talking about 6 or so cupboards, one even had a drawstring tied to it, which clearly meant no access. I eventually just gave up, went outside to my friends that were already chilling by the pool. Our one friend took our speaker and started playing music, it wasn’t loud at all. Marti came charging to us and told us to please lower the music down as there are other guests that have booked (we were the only ones by the way) as we haven’t booked the whole lodge we can’t play music. Still puzzled, she came a second time and told us we’re making a noise. My friend asked to speak with her in private to which she agreed, they went up to the loft, a few minutes later she walked down the stairs and was having a back and forth argument with my friend, very uncouth and ill-mannered for a ‘supposed’ host. We eventually just gave up, switched our music off. We then went for the animal feeding tour which was underwhelming, came back to the lodge. Upon our return from the tour, Smoley came to me to say that Marti said the passage which lead to our rooms will be completely out of bounds from the evening onwards and we’d have to access our rooms via the back, as Marti has new bengal cats that roam around there, she can’t have them go outside as they might be eaten by lions. Marti came and started shouting at us as we’d declined her request, so animals took precedence over us,at this point I’d just switched off when she went off at us. Marti finally stormed off and promised to get someone to come and remove us from the lodge. We started making our supper, two gentlemen came in, I believe one was Marti’s partner, they didn’t say a word to us, they spoke to the staff, took alcohol and left. We then had our supper, after that we went to chill by the pool and some of our friends were swimming. One of the staff then came to our one friend and said ‘the boss’ wants to talk to them, my friend refused and we left it at that, for crying out loud, we’d just started relaxing and trying to have fun, our music wasn’t loud. Around 11pm a car drives in, 4 people in it, some were armed. Well, guess who starts going off at my friend whilst walking in, none other than our dearest Marti,she asked my friend why they refused to talk to her, went on to say my friend was threatening her at her own lodge. Marti then just went off, started screaming at everyone, told her she no longer feels safe with us at her R20 million lodge, she then went on to tell us to leave, mind you it’s almost midnight. My friends tried to reason with her and she wasn’t having it, she started screaming in Afrikaans. Marti told us we will never be allowed to book at her lodge and she never wants to see us, I had already made a conscious decision that I wouldn’t be caught dead there anyway, so I was okay with that. We asked her to please refund us our money which was about R10 000, she blatantly refused and told us we have 2 minutes to leave. We all obliged, collected our stuff from the rooms and we left. I know Marti was probably under the influence, considering there was a party but that is no excuse to treat your guests in that way, rude, uncouth, disrespectful and a downright disgusting behaviour. I hope Marti will treat other guests better than she did us. I will never, ever go back to Simba Safaris Lodge even if you paid me. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go there, go at your own risk. Ten thousand South African rands (in Cyrils’s economy) down the drain, also Marti, please at the very least clean your toilets, they are disgustingly brown. Have a nice life Marti.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
The photos and accomodation is 2 different places. There was no braai grid for us to braai and the fire pit was still filled with old ash from the night before. We booked and paid for a game drive and exotic animal tour. We were told that the game viewer is in for a service and that we will be pick up a bit later the afternoon. That never happened. Marti just informed that we will do it the following day at 7am. At 8:30 she pitched up with her own bakkie with no space to sit and with 5 people already on it. There was no space for us also being 5 in our group. We offered to drive with our own vehicle but soon realised that that was not a good idea. I am very dissapointed in this place. I will not recommend this to anyone. We paid for something we never received and request our money be paid back.
1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020
The photos and accomodation is 2 different places. There was no braai grid for us to braai and the fire pit was still filled with old ash from the night before. We booked and paid for a game drive and exotic animal tour. We were told that the game viewer is in for a service and that we will be pick up a bit later the afternoon. That never happened. Marti just informed that we will do it the following day at 7am. At 8:30 she pitched up with her own bakkie with no space to sit and with 5 people already on it. There was no space for us also being 5 in our group. We offered to drive with our own vehicle but soon realised that that was not a good idea. I am very dissapointed in this place. I will not recommend this to anyone. We paid for something we never received and request our money be paid back.
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