External Review's Review of Umngazi Hotel And Spa

TRIPADVISOR - 737sp - 24 Nov 2020 - - - All in all, a great stay - - - Had a wonderful experience this past weekend at Umngazi! The scenery was sublime. The food was pretty good; the hotel catered to our dietary requirements very well. We're Muslim so we stick to seafood and veg when we travel (seafood and veg is always halaal, as long as no alcohol and meat based items are used). I think any vegetarian would be quite happy; there was a vegetarian meal on every menu. In fact, on Sunday there was a braai. We avoided the meat, as per our diet, but were very happy (and quite full) with the salads and sides that were offered. The salads were substantial, bulked up with things like avo and chickpeas. Fish was great. No complaints in that regard. The spa was brilliant. What a location. What a view. Your massage takes place with the sound of the ocean in the background. Great therapists as well. On top of all this, it's quite affordable. A 60 minute full body massage is R500. Considering the setting and the spa being of such high quality, I thought it was excellent value for money. Just one suggestion: please use warmed oil, or just check with the guest his/her preference first. The room: lovely. Well designed. Outdoor shower was a lot less 'rustic' than I expected. Very cool and comfortable inside, even when the windows and doors are shut. We didn't find the lack of an aircon a problem at all. There was a fan which we hardly used. Service: almost all the staff in Umngazi are great (special mention: Ethel and Welcome. Ethel accommodated our every request with a smile. Thank you). The receptionists let the place down though. We had an awful first impression when we arrived on Friday. The receptionists were honestly the worst I've seen. Terribly unhelpful. Lazy. Chatting amongst themselves. Terrible communicators (not a language barrier, simply poorly trained). Please, please train your receptionists to bring them up to the level of the rest of your staff. We arrived at the resort at 14h30. We were told to quickly hurry and have lunch (the buffet was by this point, mostly empty, and cold). At this point, were not told that there was afternoon tea available. Thinking that this would be our only meal until supper, we ate something cold quickly. I thought that the buffet was going to be like that (cold with limited options) for the rest of our stay! It would have been better if our receptionist told us that afternoon tea will be served from 15h30, so we could have relaxed and came down for some tea and snacks to fill us up before supper. In addition, during our stay, there was no wifi or cellphone reception for two days. When we enquired with the duty manager on on Saturday night, instead of telling us that the there was no electricity (we found out later), we were told that there is no reception. Huh? She was another disappointing staff member. We enquired about booking a hike the following morning; she said the reception closed at 8pm and therefore she couldn't tell us if there was space available on the hike. She told us to come to reception at 6:30 the following morning to find out if there was space (this said with her mouth full of chicken). Really, guys. Come now. At least check in the book for us, or tell us that you don't have access to the book at all. Communication! The hikes and walks: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We did Sugarloaf rock and walked along the beach the following day. No picture can do them justice. One suggestion: seeing as no physical hike/trail maps were available (acc to reception), maybe the trails could be marked with differently coloured arrows? Krantzkloof in Durban does this well. All in all, we will be back! (https://tinyurl.com/yxuustbo)