The Table Bay Hotel

This was our third trip to Cape Town but first time staying at the Table Bay Hotel within the V&A. We appreciated the hand written memo on our arrival ,balloon,chocolates and a bottle of bubbly.. the foyer of the hotel is relaxing ,bright and spacious, the reception staff were very accommodating. Our room overlooked the ocean and we enjoyed the view. The room was very clean, with turn down service and daily cleaning. The outdoor pool had plenty of seating and a relaxing way to spend an afternoon if sightseeing in the morning. The breakfasts offer a wide selection of food, it can be quite busy and possibly lacking in staff numbers but not a major issue. The corridor into the waterfront shopping centre is a great idea . The location is the best part of this hotel, a relaxing atmosphere within the V&A waterfront and no hesitation about staying here again.

First the good: The location of the hotel is fantastic and the view from our room was lovely. The bed & bedding were comfortable. We were pleased with the ability to control the room temperature. However there were many, many small problems: For the first 24 hours the welcome on the tv screen was for the previous guest so not a great start. An upholstery tack from the ottoman was laying pin up on the floor. Fortunately we saw it before stepping on it. We reported it and moved it to a table. When we checked out two days later the tack was still on the table. A sock from a previous guest was on the edge of the laundry hamper when we arrived until we checked out. The foot switch on our floor lamp was not functioning. A previous guest or staff member must not have realized that the socket the floor lamp was plugged into was controlled by a switch at the door because they climbed over the arm chair and unplugged it to turn it off (since the foot switch was not working). We were unable to get the pump on the shower gel to work after twisting the pump top to the open position. We removed the pump & poured the shower gel. We reported it after our first day. The second day we fiddled with it with more force and got the pump to work. The sink drain was very slow to empty. Staff or the previous guest must have had the same experience because someone had removed the plug. On our second day the plug was back in the sink and the performance had not improved. For our first breakfast all tables were either occupied or contained dirty dishes - making it difficult to determine whether the occupant was up getting food. We suspect that a large tour group had just finished breakfast. Eventually a staff member noticed us searching for a table and cleared a table for us. At breakfast, I got a mild case of food poisoning from an undercooked omelette and had to order a cappuccino three times before I finally received one. We wanted to get some change for tips, but the Concierge / Reception could not provide change for a 100 Rand note. It's really unfortunate that a five star hotel with such great potential has so many little problems. We were in Africa for six weeks and it was our least favourite hotel. Our impression was that the management and staff simply lack attention to detail and/or don't care to address these small problems, which was not a problem we encountered at any of the other hotels on our trip.

We were two couples who stayed 2 nights here and really loved it. The room was spacious and very clean with everything we needed. The breakfast buffet was lovely with great choice, and the location of the hotel at the waterfront was terrific. Great views and close to restaurants and bars, and easy walk to catch a ferry across to Robben Island. The staff were all very friendly and helpful and we had a very enjoyable stay.