D
Huge potential wasted
The hotel is in a private concession (owned by the local tribes) within the Kgalagadi national park. A truly beautiful place, though hard to get to. The location is incredibly peaceful and picturesque, and I am very happy we got to see it. The hotel is also owned by the community, though managed by a professional manager. This is where the problems begin, I'd say. In summary, the issues with the hotel were as follows:
- it is not eco. The electricity runs on a diesel generator and only works for a few hours a day (not at night). For a location in the middle of the desert one would have expected solar panels (!), but there were none (!)
- the rooms and overall facilities were not renovated in decades and are rather dilapidated - broken wooden planks etc. There is a water hole with a light on it to see animals during the night and it was broken for 2 nights of our 3 night stay, so we couldn't see the night wildlife there. The pool is tiny and hasn't been cleaned in weeks - it's really rather disgusting.
- some of the staff are super nice (like Linky, the Head Chef). Others, like the head guide, are frankly lazy and bored. They are all (other than the manager) locals. The guide point is super important here - he was responsive only when asked, drove the car too quickly on drives and helped very little in identifying wildlife (the guests did most of the spotting).
One could easily fix it up and make it nicer with limited investment. This is the most disappointing thing.
- it is not eco. The electricity runs on a diesel generator and only works for a few hours a day (not at night). For a location in the middle of the desert one would have expected solar panels (!), but there were none (!)
- the rooms and overall facilities were not renovated in decades and are rather dilapidated - broken wooden planks etc. There is a water hole with a light on it to see animals during the night and it was broken for 2 nights of our 3 night stay, so we couldn't see the night wildlife there. The pool is tiny and hasn't been cleaned in weeks - it's really rather disgusting.
- some of the staff are super nice (like Linky, the Head Chef). Others, like the head guide, are frankly lazy and bored. They are all (other than the manager) locals. The guide point is super important here - he was responsive only when asked, drove the car too quickly on drives and helped very little in identifying wildlife (the guests did most of the spotting).
One could easily fix it up and make it nicer with limited investment. This is the most disappointing thing.
