Southern Sun Rosebank

This is one of the best hotels we have stayed in. Very classy and upmarket. Beautiful rooms. Outstanding customer service. The restaurant was also great experience. Food was delicious. I will stay there any time again!!!

I am sharing this review after giving Southern Sun Rosebank’s management several weeks to address my complaint directly. I had hoped to give the hotel the benefit of the doubt and allow them an opportunity to do the right thing before posting publicly. Unfortunately, it is now several weeks since the incident, and despite my attempts to follow up, I have still not received a refund or satisfactory resolution. I checked in on 7 August and was initially given a room with a strong moldy smell. The bathroom tiles were dirty, the refrigerator had not been properly cleaned, and there were smaller issues including missing water and a broken lamp. To be fair, the front desk staff were initially helpful. They showed me three alternative rooms and I moved to another room, believing the issue had been resolved. Unfortunately, on the evening of 8 August, around midnight, I found a cockroach in the bathroom. After killing it, I went to make tea and found another cockroach in the room. These appeared to be jumping cockroaches. I called the front desk, but nobody answered, so I had to leave my room and go downstairs to find someone. I explained what had happened and requested a full refund. At this point, this was no longer simply a cleanliness issue. Multiple pests were in my room, and I was concerned about them getting into my luggage and belongings. I was offered another room and complimentary food. I made it clear that I still wanted a refund. The first room I was taken to was only three doors away from the affected room and was the same room type, despite being described as an upgrade. I questioned this and was eventually moved to another room. On 9 August, someone from the front desk and the Director of Housekeeping, came to apologise. During this conversation, I was informed that the hotel had reportedly undergone extermination the week of 21 July, just over two weeks before my stay. Despite this, I had encountered multiple cockroaches in my room. Later that same day, I found a dead cockroach in my suitcase. Management offered me a complimentary future stay. I did not consider this an appropriate resolution, as after this experience I would not feel comfortable returning to the property. I subsequently attempted to contact the hotel and the General Manager using two different telephone numbers. I eventually received a call from the General Manager/manager. Unfortunately, the conversation was handled in a rude and irritated manner, leaving me feeling as though I was the inconvenience rather than a guest who had experienced a serious hygiene issue. There was also a lack of accountability, meaningful apology, and urgency in resolving the matter. I was told that the refund would take a long time because the hotel would need to refund Booking.com. I understand that there may be an internal process between the hotel and Booking.com, but the way this was communicated was extremely disappointing. I checked out at approximately 3:00 a.m. on 10 August. I have photographs and videos documenting the issues, including the condition of the rooms and the cockroaches. Booking.com reached out to them and have failed to respond. I am now requesting a full refund for my stay. I have been patient and made several attempts to resolve this privately, but the lack of follow-up from management has left me extremely disappointed. I would strongly encourage future guests to consider this experience before booking this property. For me, the issue is not simply the presence of pests, but the combination of the hygiene concerns, finding cockroaches in the room and my suitcase, the inadequate initial relocation, and the way management handled my complaint afterward. After this experience and the treatment I received, I would not stay at Southern Sun Rosebank again.

Our 19-day stay at the Southern Sun Rosebank was pleasant, with a late checkout on the 20th day due to a late flight. We occupied two rooms: a twin bedroom and a junior suite. To extend our stay until 6 pm, we paid half the daily rate of the junior suite. The twin room was quite small, and if we hadn't had the junior suite to relax in, our stay would have been uncomfortable. The junior suite, however, was spacious. Pros: - Reasonably priced dinner and room service - Clean rooms and excellent housekeeping - Varied breakfast options, including an omelette station and coffee station - Convenient location, with easy access to Rosebank mall and The Zone - Great spa services at reasonable prices - Friendly staff, particularly Tamera, Jacob, Jichana Grill, and Dudu/Duou(sp) she was kind and friendly Cons: - Dated rooms with low ceilings - Food was often undercooked, despite requests for well-done - Room service orders were occasionally incorrect or delayed - Unfriendly restaurant!/food manager and unsanitary breakfast policies - Small bathrooms in both rooms -Yvonne at breakfast. She didn’t allow my son to bring a muffin to us while we were sick for breakfast. - People stare too much. They literally look you up and down. Not all, but mostly the females working the entry door at breakfast. Curious, who knows, but the stares are obvious. Yvonne looked you up and down each morning. - Anyone can walk into the hotel and go all the way to guest rooms. Need to activate the key card access in the elevators.

Southern Sun Rosebank was a very good choice for a work trip, offering a great location, friendly service, and comfortable facilities. The staff were immediately available on arrival, and check in was quick, simple, and handled warmly. The room itself was comfortable, with a large double bed, a window overlooking parts of the city, a built in desk area that made working convenient, a television with a good selection of channels, tea, coffee, and water provided, and a well kept bathroom. The bathroom was generally good, although the shower setup felt a little awkward. It was a bathtub with a rain shower head that did not feel particularly high quality, and the small glass screen meant water could easily end up on the floor. There was also quite a lot of noise from the hallway during the stay, both from other guests and from cleaning staff. This happened at odd times during the day and night, which made the room feel less peaceful than expected and suggested that the sound isolation could be improved. The biggest downside of the stay was the Wi Fi. For a work trip, speeds below 5 Mbps for both download and upload made working slow and frustrating. The plug points were also slightly inconvenient, as my EU charger did not fit properly despite usually working with South African two pin sockets (these were just the phone charger indented ones though). However, the hotel provided an adapter for the duration of my stay, which solved the issue. Overall, the rest of the hotel was lovely, and the facilities were great. I felt it was well worth the price, especially for a work trip. With a few smaller improvements, particularly to the Wi Fi and sound isolation, Southern Sun Rosebank would be an even stronger option.