Mould and dirt in both bathrooms and on the ceilings, bathrooms smelt dank and musty. We had a problem with the showers not draining and then the hosts immediately blamed us and said we must have shorter than our 4 to 5-minute showers and that we must reduce the pressure when having a shower, but when the plumber arrived he said that there was an airlock that was causing the problem.
The air conditioner in the main bedroom started leaking onto the bed at 1:30 am and wet the person sleeping there as well as wet the bed and linen. The hosts immediately said it was our fault as we were running the air conditioner on too low a temperature, although there were no instructions telling us to only run the air conditioners at 21 degrees and higher. They did send someone over to change out the bedding, etc. We then did run the air conditioner at 21 degrees but it still dripped which meant one person had to sleep on the couch, which is very small and not comfortable for sleeping.
Someone parked in our parking and the house manager basically asked us to contact the neighbour and ask them to move!! Rather than sorting it out themselves, which is what the instructions provided say they will do.
We all know that load shedding is a reality in South Africa and were fully expectant of the disruption but really expected to have a working battery operated lamp and/or candles at least. These were not provided.
The host's response to issues was to immediately blame the paying guests first and then to look to sort out the problems, rather than assessing the situation before blaming guests. We were in Durban for my mother's funeral which is in itself a stressful situation so we did not really need the inconvenience of things not working properly in an apartment that cost a lot of money. We will certainly not be renting from these hosts again and can not recommend them.
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