Umdloti Letting (Sugar Beach Umdloti 4A, 5A): Worst Letting Agents - Disgusting Service/Bad Accomodation

My family stayed at Sugar Beach (4A & 5A), which we let from Umdloti Letting, these were the issues: - Units in general and unacceptable state of disrepair; - Subpar cleanliness to downright filthy; - Basic amenities not provided; - Insufficient amenities; - Insufficient cleaning service; - Broken lifts. All of which was brought to Mr David Downs attention during our stay within a day of arriving, and instead of resolving anything at all, he dared us to find something else (yes right - at short notice for 7 people with 2 babies!?), and added that "we'd have to pay for the time we stayed". We had to spend the remainder of our time there; even attempted to resolve the issues after we left, but have had no resolution from these letting agents - of course they are done once they've taken your payment and happy to leave it at that. Worst of all, they hide behind their "terms and conditions" (Ts&Cs), which are only shared with you after you've paid a deposit, notwithstanding the fact that their Ts&Cs do NOT release them from the complaints herein listed. I have uploaded photos of the disrepair, but what was most upsetting was that even a bit of upkeep would have prevented our experience of things like peeling laminate in the bathrooms, broken sliding door handles, etc. Totally unacceptable for the price you are paying. The units were filthy! I have uploaded photos of the bed linens: when we arrived the linens had actual mold and yellowish sweat stains. I requested the cleaning lady (more on that further) to please change the sheets, which she did as I showed her the mold, but that was only after I had to spend a night sleeping in a dirty, moldy bed with my infant baby - it's downright wrong! The bath had a strange smear on it, and the kitchen drawers and floor were dirty. On arrival, both units had all of only ONE floor towel, ONE roll of toilet paper per bathroom, and one TINY bottle of cheap dish washing liquid. I've been to many self-catering places before, and never have I been met with such stingy cheapness - they provide camping ground provisions at an upper-class rental! – and these places were anything but cheap to let. They claim their units are fully stocked/furnished: both sleep up to 6 people, so in the kitchen, you'll find exactly - and ONLY - six of everything (mismatched and poor quality, also) - so you spend most of your time cleaning dishes (crockery and cutlery), because you'll need them the next time, then you quickly run out of their dish washing liquid. But wait, they don’t even give you a dish cloth or drying cloth – you are told to bring your own in the fine print! Also, they don’t provide bathroom towels, but that’s something you find out on arrival. This is almost expected when you’re renting (much) cheaper holiday accommodation, which this was not. The cleaning? I’ve skimmed through other reviews, and in reply to another complaint of the place being dirty, Mr Downs responded that they would address it with their cleaning lady. It’s exactly the same “PR babble” I was given, so this is clearly a recurring problem. Their Ts&Cs say cleaning is every second day, excl. weekends and public holidays. So for our rental, they clearly timed the cleaning lady to come on the Thursday, instead of the Wednesday and Friday, so that they could deliberately limit the services to us. One of the worst things we had to deal with was an utter breach of a pre-condition of our stay: working lifts, because my father is elderly and struggles to walk. The lifts were broken from the ground floor. We had to go through a whole routine to send the lift down to my father every time we returned to the parking garage. It wasted time, added stress, and my father had to stand around waiting, no doubt feeling like a burden. Prior to booking, it was absolutely stressed that we needed lifts (obviously in working condition) for this reason. Umdloti Letting’s reply: it is a recent malfunction and the building is awaiting a part from [wherever]. We spoke to an actual resident of Sugar Beach who told us the problem has existed for months. That to me, is the definition of unethical, dishonest business practices. I hope the owners of these units read this review and remove Umdloti Letting as their agents. Otherwise, I hope you use other means to book the lovely accommodation available in this part of South Africa.