Protea Hotel Dorpshuis & Spa Stellenbosch

It is a hotel with mixed heritage and is rather rambling property. There seem to be rooms in heritage building but also in newer buildings. It is a bit of a rabbit warren, rooms spread all over the place. We arrived late in the evening after a long flight into Cape Town and then driving to Stellenbosch. The main entrance is difficult to find as it is on a side street and the name of the hotel is rather difficult to find. On-site Parking is quite limited. We were verbally recognised as gold Marriott member but no benefits were offered. We were allocated a room on the 1st floor but there were no lifts and heavy suitcases had to be lugged manually, very difficult and tiring. The room itself was not what we expected so we rang reception and they said to check in the morning and an upgrade may be possible. We then had a different person at reception in the morning and as usual the standard response was, “sorry, we are fully booked”. When we explained again that we were reassured about an upgraded room did the receptionist consulted with her manager and we were given a proper loft room with a separate living area in addition to the loft bedroom. The breakfast room is quite nice with nice original plaster ceiling. Buffet breakfast is ok with egg station if you want. The hotel is close to many restaurants on the Main Street of Stellenbosch as well as the historic buildings, some dated from 18th century. I would label it as a 3 rather than 4 star hotel.

We hebben 1 nacht hier geslapen. Deze Marriott is iets ouder maar had dan wel een goed ontbijt buffet. Positief is de afgesloten en bewaakte parking, negatief is dat je niet op veilige wandelafstand zit van het centrum, je moet de wagen nemen. (ook voor 500 meter, niet veilig om te wandelen 's avonds)

Highly disappointing The rooms are old, tired, badly designed and out of date. There were fishmoths in the bed. The spa services and sauna were out of service and the pool was not heated as advertised. There was no service by the pool and the hotel has no contingency to cope with the regular planned power outages that have been a part of love in South Africa for 14 years now. We couldn't even have toast with breakfast. You can find far better accommodation in Stellenbosch for much much cheaper.

It was nice and quiet with helpful friendly staff

The hotel has an old traditional feel to it. We stayed in room 12 for one night. It was large, and the bed was comfortable with nice bed linen. I had a very good sleep there. The bathroom was massive, with a lovely walk-in rain shower, but unfortunately it flooded each time we had a shower. As we arrived late, we decided to have dinner at the hotel. In hindsight, I wish we had walked into the centre of Stellenbosch instead. There are some great restaurants there, and the area felt very safe.

The hotel rooms are spacious and comfortable. I like small hotels and this was it for me, and felt homely. Good spread of breakfast. Nice size pool. Can you possibly consider making it a heated pool. It was summer, but it was still very cold, The good thing is that it’s partially covered by trees and this is great in summer, but doesn’t get enough sun to warm it up a bit. Food at the restaurant is fine, not much variety, but agin it could be inspired by the size of the hotel. Service could be better, on arrival they watched us from reception with suitcase, we had to ask for assistance, before they could move. It wasn’t a good first impression. Besides that, the experience was generally good.