Name: Shades of Africa
Address: 173 Hoog Straat,, Oudtshoorn, Oudtshoorn, Oudtshoorn, 6625, South Africa
Rating: 9

Air conditioning

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Heating

Washing machine

Gift shop

Garden

Terrace

Patio

Outdoor furniture

General

Allergy-free rooms

Non-smoking rooms

Soundproof rooms

Room service

Fridge

Indoor Fireplace

Cable TV

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Bathtub

Shower

Wardrobe/Closet

Linens

Toiletries

Rooms

Accessibility features

Accessibility

Iron and board

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Services and amenities

Coffee/tea for guests

Diet menu (on request)

Common kitchen

Microwave oven

Bottled water

Kettle

Meals

Internet access

Internet

English

French

Languages Spoken

Free bicycle rental

Library

Barbecue grill(s)

Picnic area

Sun Deck

Ping-Pong

Recreation

Parking

Garage

Swimming pool

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Fax and copy machine

Business

Cycling

Fitness facilities

Sports

Kids' TV Networks

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

George Airport

Shades of Africa

Oudtshoorn

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

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3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

Shades of Africa could not have been a more perfect spot for a few days in Oudtshoorn.  Lizanne and Graham and the girls were fantastic hosts, with attention to every detail.  The Carriage House was beautiful and perfect for our family of four.  Shades of Africa is safe, clean, beautifully decorated, and close to everything. 

If you're in Oudtshoorn and you're not staying at Shades of Africa, you're in the wrong place.

We stayed here one night while travelling through and wished we’d had longer. Our room was king-size en-suite and in a stand alone building with another room. Both bedrooms shared a communal lounge/kitchen area, very spacious and would have been ideal for 4 people travelling together. We were lucky enough to have this building to ourselves for our visit. We spent a pleasant afternoon on the deck,accessed from our room, and around the pool. Despite the water shortage problems in the area, the pool was in use and very clean. Our host Graham was very hospitable and breakfast was more than adequate. We will be back if we are ever in this part of SA again. 

Hidden oasis near the centre of town 

Thank you Lizanne & Graham for your warm reception and special care towards your guests.  You made our day very special ! Thank you for all the love you put into your establishment.  It was an amazing experience to take Carmen's matric farewell photo's at your lovely guest house.  All the best for the future!

Lovely owners and fantastic place!!

Such a gorgeous property and extremely helpful hosts who made our experience of Oudtshoorn one of our favourite places. The accommodation was very comfortable, clean and stylish. Graham was very interesting and hospitable. Breakfast on the veranda was delicious. I would highly recommend a stay here - can’t wait to go back!

Fantastic Place

What a nice place. Lizanne was super helpfull and Graham her husband also. Helped us with early breakfast too. The ladies that work there are super friendly and helpfull. I will definitely recommend to stay here.

Excellent 

When I arrived at the entrance to the property I was not very hopeful of finding a nice place. Wrong! Once inside the gates it is large with various cottages spread in extensive grounds. I had a big bedroom which led into a huge lounge/kitchen shared with another bedroom but thankfully I was the only resident. The TV was on the blink as the aerial had been moved in a recent storm but I was invited into the main building to watch a large TV there in the evening. The lady in charge could not have been more helpful. Excellent breakfast sitting outside on the veranda.

Surprising and enjoyable

Two years ago we stayed at this property and had a fabulous time. How things have changed. Despite directly booking over a year ago with a lot of emailing conversation, they had no knowledge of our reservation. Luckily, the lovely Apronia managed to clean the room and accommodate us..much to our relief. I send a factual email to the owner,as I had booked directly with her...for clarity this is my email..
Just arrived and to my shock we haven't got a booking.
How annoying is that?
Lucky it's available.
Also just been told we now have to pay for the cooked breakfast.  You should have told me this prior to booking as it was all included last time.
All very disappointing

I was then summoned to the phone by the owner, Lizanne, started ranting at me that she could have us thrown off the property and how dare I email her and disturb her on a sunday!! Literally, she yelled at me for 20 minutes...i was in shock at her utter rudeness and belligerence. 
I just wanted to leave but as we were 4 people travelling in January I worried we wouldn't find anywhere else. However, I wish we'd have moved.
The pool was dirty, slimy and green, the wifi useless, the bedroom had been prepared for decorating and abandoned, the bath enamel chipping off, grass needed cutting, no aircon, dog poo in the garden. Poor Apronia tried her best but it was so so disappointing to be so abused by an owner of a guest house and that totally spoilt our time there. Unfortunately our next location could not accommodate us early so we had to stay. The vile manager didn't even attempt an apology although gave a small discount which was the same price she had already agreed! Oh and a very sweet unlabelled bottle of fizzy plonk. 
Nothing would make me return. 
Do yourself a favour...stay away

The owner needs a muzzle

Looking at the reviews on here it seems that a couple of other people have had a similar experience, which seems to come about when there is an issue. Unfortunately for us, the owners were so rude and aggressive that we decided not to stay for the night and found accommodation elsewhere. 

We had just made the long 5 hour drive from Cape Town and were looking forward to a comfortable stay prior to our visit to Cango Caves the next day. The price was relatively high for one night in Outdshoorn (NZD177/ 1,667 ZAR), but we had decided it would be worth it as we needed cooking facilities, as well as a good night's sleep. Our son has a serious medical condition which means we need to prepare his meals ourselves, and the listing was very clear that cooking facilities were available in our room, with our reservation stating the following were included: refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, dining area, electric kettle, kitchenware, toaster, tea/ coffee maker, wine glasses. I've included a screen shot so you can see what we were told was included. To us this sounds like a decent kitchen - right?

However, when the on-site manager showed us to the room, it was obvious these items were not in the room. Although it was very nicely furnished, with many attractive touches, there was no ability to store the food we had travelled with, prepare a meal, or even make a cup of tea. We raised this immediately with the manager hoping they could provide us with the room we had reserved, and although she was very understanding and pleasant, ultimately she could not help. She explained the property does not do self-catering and none of the rooms have kitchens or even kitchenettes - which clearly would not work for us. She said she may be able to talk to the owner and see if we could use the communal kitchen in the main house, i.e. a separate building and quite a walk away. This was also not really ideal for us after a long drive, being tired and with a small child, and for the price we were paying, we really didn't feel it was an acceptable solution. However, we asked to speak to the owner to see how we could resolve the situation - we understand that misunderstandings can occur, and were expecting to have a solution-focused discussion that would help us deal with the issue at hand.

However, the response from the owner was pretty much the opposite of what we were expecting. Instead of trying to understand our situation and fix it, the owners (specifically the female owner, who did not provide her name) were defensive, angry and downright aggressive. I can honestly say that in all my years of travelling (which are quite a few, we're no spring chickens) I have never come across such appalling customer service. As soon as we pointed out that we were expecting kitchen facilities (which are stated as being included, in black and white on our confirmation), the discussion escalated into an enraged rant about how they had been extremely hospitable, we were completely wrong, and everything was our fault. We had previously emailed to confirm that the room would have a single bed (for our son) and a double (for us), as we understand that bed configurations can vary in the same room, based on requirements. According to the owners, we should also have confirmed any other "special requests" at this time via email - i.e. the inclusion of kitchen facilities in our room. Of course, since kitchen facilities were written on the listing, we hadn't bothered to confirm they were included, any more than we had bothered to confirm the room had a bathroom and the bed had pillows. However according to the female owner (shouted to us down the phone, with a few swear words thrown in - "You're making an a*se out of you and me!"), we should have known that a 44sm room could not possibly have cooking facilities, with the implication being that we were crazy and unrealistic, and perhaps just a bit stupid. We have all travelled a lot all over the world for both business and pleasure (including in South Africa), and are familiar with how accommodation listings work - it is totally possible to fit kitchen facilities into a room of that size, and if those facilities are listed as part of the room, it means...they are in the room. Having a kitchen (or washing machine, or tumble dryer) in another room, or another BUILDING - is certainly not the same thing, and to list these items under the room description is at best misleading, and bordering on fraudulent.

Anyway - by now things were unbearably heated and it seemed that the female owner was more focused on proving a point than assisting us. She told us we could use the communal kitchen in the building that our room was in, and it should be "good enough" for us. At this point the manager explained to the owner that this would not actually be possible, as they were out of gas. The owner then told us we should just leave if we didn't want to stay at their property, and "Oudtshoorn is fully booked, so good luck finding anywhere else to stay". Quite charming. She became so aggressive that the manager took the phone back and ended the call, as it was embarrassing for everyone else involved.

By this stage it was around 5pm so it was pretty upsetting to find out that on top of having been given a room that did not meet the description, we had no way to feed our child, and possibly nowhere else to stay. However, we felt we really didn't have a choice given how unpleasant the owner was being, and fortunately within about five minutes we were able to make a reservation 5 minutes from the Cango Caves, at less than half the price of Shades of Africa, and with kitchen facilities in the (smaller than 44sm) room. 

I guess the owner didn't like this outcome and wanted to keep berating us, as she subsequently sent us four long text messages telling us why we were wrong to expect kitchen facilities, and that we should have used "a degree of logic" to understand that the facilities we were expecting "can not all possibly be inside a 44sm room". We didn't respond, as by this time we felt we were dealing with a rather childish playground bully, and just wanted to find somewhere to eat and rest for the night - which we achieved quite easily.

Probably worth mentioning that it wasn't just the kitchen facilities that were misrepresented on the room details. We found out that there was also no wifi in the room ('due to the thick walls'?), and there was also no 'separate entrance', no washing machine, no tumble dryer, and of the two pools on the property, one was empty, and the other was green and not suitable for swimming. 

I guess if you are expecting a straight-forward B&B, this could be a good place to stay, as long as you don't end up with an issue that requires involvement from the owners. For us, no amount of tasteful decor can make up for the abusive attitude we received. This could be a great property if the listings were updated to be accurate, and the owners learned how to treat their guests when things don't go as expected. When travelling you get used to things not always being perfect, but empathy and a professional, courteous approach can go a long way. Unfortunately in this situation, that was sorely lacking.

Shades of Africa

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General

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