Great place, appalling hospitality

My husband and I spent 3 nights at the Lodge. The facilities and accommodation of both the Lodge and the Resort, as well as the other activities were amazing, despite the fact that we only had 1 pool day and pouring rain the other 2. Despite this, my only gripe were the staff at the Lodge. From our arrival, the gentleman at the desk was condescending and punitive at times, and kept questioning our 'affordability'. He kept saying "oh breakfast is R265. That might be too expensive" When we asked what other rainy day activities there were at Zimbali he just said "you came at the wrong time, weather is bad all week," with no further helpful suggestions or recommendations. He told us to go to Durban, after us telling him we were from there earlier in the conversation, for something to do. We also had a negative experience with one of the shuttle drivers. We asked if we needed towels to go to the Valley of the Pools, again quite punitively, we were told we don't need to wait for towels in a place like this towels and the shuttle left before the towels could be brought out. Lo and behold when we arrived there towels were required. We phoned the Lodge and it took just under an hour for towels to arrive with no apologies. There was also a cost involved for the transport down there and this same driver mentioned to us 3 times during the trip are we aware of the cost?

Despite us enjoying the relaxing atmosphere, the poor staff hospitality at the Lodge have really put us off wanting to return here. The drivers, restaurant staff etc were great. I just don't think we'll subject ourselves to such treatment again. A pity really...

I hope they'll be nicer to future visitors.