Bateleur Lodge, Mabalingwe

The size

Loved it

The house was really big, bigger than we expected. The pool was great at the property just to cool down and have some drinks. Mabalingwe itself has nice facilities and bigger pools were great fun. We saw quite a lot of warthogs, buck and mongoose. The host was available whenever I called and tried to assist where possible. We had a good weekend away.

The advertised accommodation was a bit misleading, I thought the main house had 4 bedrooms but there were only 3 rooms and there were 2 cottages so some of our friends had to sleep separately. There was an issue with the power in one of the cottages. The microwave glass was missing and the helper kept using the dishwasher even though there was a leak / the water pipe kept coming out of which we had to clean and not the helper. The aircon in the main room ran out of gas.

Nature

Insects and unsafe balcony

The house was super clean, welcoming and enough bedrooms to accommodate us. The beds were comfortable. Clean refreshing insight swimming pool. More than our expectations we had fun. With the load shedding schedule Lynnette allowed us to check out later than the expected time. Big Upps to that 👍👍

Nothing

The place was clean and spacious. The host was kind and accommodating. Animals greeted us upon arrival.

Nothing , the service we received was extremely bad

What a bad service we received from Lynette the owner . We were communicating with her on our way then she told us inorder to get the keys we have to pay R2000 upfront for security damage I made an immediate payment to her account then we arrived at 17:46 by the gate and we asked the security for the keys and they said Lynette never left the keys so please go around the place while we try calling her . We waited for the keys and tried to call her she told me that it wasn’t her problem that we arrived late it was news to me cos anyone can check at any time after 2pm but she ddnt send us house rules for her own cutoff time . We stood outside with my 3 year old son and an 8 year old son and when we called her she wasn’t even interested in helping later on around 8pm thus when the guy came with the door keys, Her service was really bad and when we arrived in the house it was full of dust very untidy especially the upstairs. We checked out first thing the following day as it was only for a night as we were heading home to Limpopo we hardly used any of her gadgets in the house . The rule of the security damage deposit was written to be paid back within 7 days after checkout , 9 days passed by and I asked her on WhatsApp when can I expect my deposit then she asked for my banking details then after she kept quite I never received my money then on the day 12I tried calling her with my number she ddnt pick up my calls the whole day she ddnt respond my WhatsApp the whole day , my husband grabbed his phone and called her number and she answered the call thinking it was another guest and he explained who he was and he’s asking for the deposit back the least she can do is to respond to my wife and tell her if ever there is something holding her deposit back and she said there’s absolutely nothing just that she’s been busy 🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️on the same night we did receive the pop from her but after a long struggle. I would rate her to extremely bad service and unprofessional and rude .