Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani

Good location with easy access to the beach

Service was slow. The rooms are in need of refurbishment as there are stains on the walls, curtains, lamps etc Rooms are very dark. Very noisy with the cleaning staff regularly waking you up early

It did not showed I already paid when I arrived at hotel. I was pressured to pay again. When I had evidence that I paid twice the hotel was very unprofessional in addressing the matter. They said that the card on file that booking.com was booked ended in a number that was not any of my cards. They said I needed a letter from my bank in order to get a refund. I came back to the desk 3 times. They told me it would be handled at checkout. They demanded copies of my bank statement and other private details and had me do paperwork when I was needing to go to the airport. The process took two hours before it was settled. I am also angry with booking.com as the hotel says this happens frequently with your bookings. That your payments are delayed. Though if this does happen, I don’t know why a smoother process for refunding isn’t in place. They said that the problem was I paid with my business debit— as in directly from my bank account— rather than a credit card. It seems that hotels are no longer set up for the fiscally responsible who actually have the money in their account to spend versus needing to rely on credit.