Tinghala Holiday Home (horror)

Good day Yoliswa

I booked a family stay in Tinghala holiday home in Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate via the Fine & Country Estate Agency. Our stay was from the 24 December 2018 - 29 December 2018 at a rate of R9 583.75 per day and a key deposit of R1 500.00 which was all paid in full.

On the 24 December 2018 we were welcomed by Meka Ravenhill (PA to the agent) who coordinated the stay. When we got to the house she explained that due to the fact that we had booked for 6 people we were given one wing and not the whole house. I then asked her to explain why as this was not my understanding. No where did they mention that I would be using 3 bedrooms not 5 bedrooms as advertised. I booked a 5 bedroom house for 6 people which what I did all the time. I do not let my family share a room as these are old people who can not be sharing a bed. Meka (PA to the agent) then left and returned with her boss Cristelle Stoop (agent)who then explained that they run it as a lodge and not a house. I explained that I always book 5 bedroom houses for 6 people and this had never occurred however it was a lesson for me to verify in future before making a booking. I had booked a 5 bedroom home in Zimbali December 2017 for R10 000.00 per day and a 5 bedroom in the Vaal in 2016 for R9 500.00 per day and all never limited us. They informed me that the owner was not willing to negotiate and we left it at that. I told Meka (PA to agent) that my brother would be joining on the 25 December 2018 so for now we will be 5 people.

We were told to engage them if there were any issues and there were restricted areas that were clearly marked. Later in the evening it started raining and thunder storm which is when I got a sms from my insurance to move my car to a safe undercover parking. Only then did we actually realise that we were not given access to the double garage. I sms Meka (PA to agent) to find out why we were not given access in the morning and she explained that the owner had some new toys for her kids that she had left in the garage which is why she did not want us to use it.

When we went to bed we realised that the beds did not have a flat sheet only fitted sheets and a duvet cover. I found it strange that they would do that when it was very hot in Limpopo. The bedrooms did not have aircon only a slow fan that did little to nothing to relief the heat wave. We cooked using the gas stove and washed dishes in the sink. There were 3 fridges which seemed to have been switched on before we arrived and they had not got cold when we arrived. A ice maker also turned on which switched off once the ice it had generated got to a certain level.

My brother with a friend arrived on the 25 December 2018 around 5:50 p.m. He then explained that he would not be staying as he had been working through the night and morning. He was too tired to drive so he got a friend to drive him. We made a decision that they rather drive the following day so now there were 7 people in the house. The following day on the 26 December 2018 I received an email from Meka (PA to agent) stating that my R1 500.00 deposit would not be refunded due to the extra person in the house. I then responded that it was not a problem, they could take it. I further asked then to please refund me for the 24th, 27th and 28th December 2018 as these would be days that only 5 people would occupy not the 6 people paid for. I stated that the same principle should apply as with holding the deposit which I do not have a problem with. I never received a response to date with regards to that.

On the 26th December 2018 at 7:45 the lights went off and we thought it was load shedding. In the morning 27 December 2018, my dad then informed me that the main switch was off and he tried to push it up several times and it kept falling so he suspected that there was a problem not caused by load shedding. I contacted Meka (PA to agent) and she got the Nancy (helper) to come through to the house to assist as she would know better as she is always in the house. She arrived and indeed pushed the main switched and it went up. Before long it tripped again and she called Meka (PA to agent) and the suspected the aircons of which they then switched off. It was extremely hot even with all the doors and windows opened so we switched one aircon on while we waited for a Archie (technician) to arrive. Nancy mentioned that the previous people before us who were from Germany had also complained about the heat and the fact that there were no air cons in the rooms. The owner had mentioned that she would be putting then in January 2019.

When the Archie (technician) arrived he looked at the switches and said he suspected it was the aircon as well as they were too many and the house was not installed to handle so many at once. He switched everything on and only left one aircon on and as he was leaving the electricity tripped again. We called him back and he said now he did not think it was the aircon but the geysers and they had been cold. He further said it could be that the house could not handle the load as 3 fridges, washing machine, dish washer, ice maker, 3 geysers, 7 aircons, gardener using an electric cuter outside could be the cause. I informed him that we were not using 7 aircons and 3 geysers. Due to the fact that the mother board was not numbered I suggested we do a trial and error to figure out which aircons to switch off and rather switch off all the geysers. Which we did by switching one one by one and checking the rooms we had access to. We switch on only one geyser that we hopped would be the big one that we thought might be feeding the main areas. Once we did that, it did not trip anymore.

I asked the helper the Nancy (helper) if there were flat sheets as it was too hot to be expected to use a duvet. She told me that she was told not to use the flat sheets as most people did not prefer it. I asked her to please include them as preferred it. She took out an iron and ironing board from the garage and I asked her, why we were not given access to an iron and broom locked away as we had to use the mop to sweep the floor for the previous days? She said she did not know why so we left it at that. I then realised that she only put the flat sheets and made up the beds and left the stained linen unchanged. I then asked her to please changed all the linen in the bedrooms. She later came back to me and asked me again if I wanted all the bedrooms changed which I insisted yes as it was very hot and we had sweated and the linen was dirty and stained. She started ironing and it seemed she got what I had asked.

Her friend then arrived in the same car that dropped her off wearing a unformed as though from cleaning in another house. She joined the Nancy (helper) and the gardener for lunch which we did not mind. Once they were done, the Nancy (helper) opened one of the restricted rooms and her friend went in and took a shower and changed her clothes. My mum then asked her if she was also cleaning the house were in and she said no. We had asked for toilet paper earlier and it had not arrived so my mum had reminded the Nancy (helper), Nancy's friend then took the toilet paper and put it n the rooms. Once she was done she left the house.

While we were seated in the living room watching TV, we saw some suspicious movement. A young man carrying green bottle that looked like alcohol and a young lady sneaking through the bushes into the house through the garage. My aunt called me in a panic and asked me to rush and see what was happening. As I rushed out they ran back into the bushes carrying some items and into a car. We only managed to take a picture of the car leaving.

I called Meka (PA to agent) who then said she suspects its the owner as she usually does that when there are guests as she does not want to interact with her guests. She then sent me a watsup confirming that it was the owner of the house. I asked her why they did that as it was very scary and uncomfortable to experience. Nancy (helper) then left and I realised that she had only changed my linen. She took all the dirty towels and folded them as though they were clean. Even the swimming towels full of chlorine from the swimming pool. I called Meka (PA of agent) who was busy so I called Cristelle (agent) and told her what Nancy (helper) had done. Cristelle (agent) told me she had spoken to Nancy(helper) and she had mentioned that she changed the linen so she was not sure what I was talking about however she would check and get back to me. When then returned my call and confirmed that indeed Nancy had not changed all the linen however she could not do anything about it as Nancy was already on her way home. Cristelle (agent) did not have access to the restricted areas in the room and I told her she needed to make a plan. She then said I was out of line as there was nothing she could do. The call got cut off so I decided to drive to their office close to the estate main gate.

When I got to the door, there was a sign in bold attached, "Please come in, door closed due to air con" so I walked in. The moment Cristelle saw me she shouted at me and asked me to leave as she was in a meeting. before I could even open my mouth, and I said I did not mind waiting for her as there were couches and they were sitting at one of the many desks. She insisted that she did not want me inside even though there was a guest sitting area in the middle of the room. I did not want to be rude as I could see she was with a client. As hot as it was I went to my car and sat with my door opened. Meka then returned to the office and saw me outside and said she would come attend to me. She was just going to drop off the documents she was carrying and would return. She then went in and out several times and several minutes after the client had left. Meka stepped out and called me in an unpleasant tone and I told her that she could come down and she refused and said she would not talk in the sun as it was very hot.

I came up and I asked her why she was being rude when Cristelle in fact chased me out of the office? I told them I did not appreciate their tone and the way I was being treated. I told then that they were being very racist in the manner they were handling this. I did not believe they would have treated a white person like that. If the heat is fine for me why would it not be fine for them. Cristelle also mentioned that they do not change the linen for the duration of a client's stay. There was a back and forth and then their tone changed and Cristelle apologised and we agreed that Nancy would come in the following day 28 December 2018. They would also deal with all the issues that I had raised such as the broom, iron etc. They mentioned that they had never had such issues before and they had been managing the house for a year already.

In the evening around 9:30 p.m the electricity went off and checked the main switch and found that all was in order. We then assumed it must be load shedding so we went to sleep. In the morning still the electricity was not back and my dad mentioned the prepaid electricity. He suspected that it was finished and not loaded. I then drove to the security gate just to confirm because I just did not think they would not load electricity for the price that we paid. They confirmed that there was no load shedding through out the night and told me that I needed to go buy electricity and showed me where it was sold as it was prepaid.

Nancy (helper) arrived and I asked her about the electricity and when it was loaded and she said she had no idea. She actually thought it was load shedding. I showed her that it was 0.00 on the unit which meant there electricity was finished. She said she did not see anyone load electricity so she could not comment on it. I sms Meka( PA of agent) and I realised that Nancy was speaking to Cristelle over the phone about the electricity. She never called me to find out what was going on. I realised that things were just getting worse, it was just unbearable to stay. This just a holiday from hell, nothing was going well and we had heard enough so we all took a cold shower as the geyser were off. We packed up and it started raining. We asked Nancy (helper) to open the garage so that we can load the car out of the rain which she did. We realised that the my dad's CD was stuck in the sound box so we left with the sound box to the office where we would have to check out.

When we arrived we asked to plug the sound box and we too the CD out and checked out. I told Cristelle that I had heard enough of the drama and this was the last strew. It has been such an unpleasant stay and they have really made it intolerable to stay. Cristelle said ok and wished us well and to drive safely. No apology, no sympathy, no explanation about the electricity just a drive safely was what we got.

We went to Mug n bean to get breakfast across the road then we received a watsup from Cristelle telling use about the electricity. She wrote that 400 units were loaded on Monday 24 December 2018 and 250 units loaded on the 27 December 2018. In her 3 bedroom house she uses 350 units per month so she would speak to the owner or we would have to pay for it. I responded and asked her to please show me were this was discussed before and one the day we checked in. We then decided to go back to the office and by then she had left. We found another gentleman and we decided to wait for her to get back and explain the electricity issue as we only found out that it was prepaid on the 28 December 2018 and no one had loaded any electricity on the 27 December 2018 that she mentioned.

Before Cristelle got back, a gentle man arrived and sat in the office and shortly there after Cristelle arrived just before 12:00. She just started with saying she would not speak to me and the owner has stated that she would not refund us as we decided to leave. I asked her what she what she meant when they have made it intolerable to stay. As I kept asking her questions she kept screaming that she would not talk to me and I should put everything in writing. Next thing I knew she made a very disturbing statement "don't think you can just keeping threatening me". This came as shock and I asked to to clarify why she would make such a statement and what I said or did that was threatening? She could not answer so I asked everyone in the room if anyone had me say or do anything threatening and no one could respond. I then told her that I did not appreciate her racist comment which simply meant when I as a black person speaks then its threatening and when she speaks its not threatening. Just because she did not have answers she had no right to start making accusations. I also told her that I had already put everything in writing and the reason we came back was due to her watsup about us having to buy electricity. She said she would only respond on email and the owner did not want to talk to us further more she would not talk to me. I then reminded her of the fact that firstly I paid her company all interaction was there her and she had to take accountability. She can not just push the buck to someone else when she is the agent who was coordinating everything. There was alot of back and forth however I believe she finally realised that things had not gone accordingly and her human side appeared. She apologised for how things had ended and that it was not her intention. Of which I accept as I do not believe anyone would want clients to leave unhappy.

All I want is for them to refund me for the one day that we did not stay as it was beyond our control and it was really intolerable. the one thing that keeps crossing my mind is Cristelle stating that she runs the place like a lodge. I have never been to a lodge where linen is not changed for the whole duration of your stay. Which lodge does not change towels for your whole stay. What kind of lodge asks you to buy electricity?

Many thanks Tsholo Gabela Cell: ********** 910