So, the oddest thing just happened to me. I wrote a grim review on TripAdvisor about this “luxury” campsite that we stayed at in Citrusdal and in return I got a message from someone about how her and her husband have never been camping but would like to. She asked if I could give them some recommendations.
Years ago I had an idea for an app or blog of some sort that would split South Africa (or anywhere in the world really) into provinces or areas and list the best to worst campsites or luxury campsites and give detail on bathrooms, self catering kitchens etc. Now, many years later, I’m starting to think it wasn’t such a bad idea.
Yes, there are a whole bunch of websites that give you reviews on accommodation, but how many are there with a ranking system and all the details that you could possibly want. I mean, I spend most of my days reading Getaway articles on stunning places to stay around South Africa, but by the time I get around to visiting them; some aren’t really all they were cracked up to be.
There is nothing I hate more than being lied to. It is especially bad when it comes to accommodation. If your photos on the internet don’t match what I see when I arrive, then already that is a bad sign. When there are no photos of the inside of a room or bathroom online; then that says to me “we aren’t going to take photos of them because then you won’t want to stay because they are awful”.
Also, when you get a survey to fill out after a disappointing stay and you fill it out with everything that made you sad/mad and no one gets back to you afterwards to apologize. That is when I tad to get even angrier and then I’ll generally write a bad review on TripAdvisor.
With this particular property (Wolfkop Camping Villages), I received a mail from them discussing their upcoming specials and in it was a whole list of all the improvements they had recently done to the property. I read the improvements and went “What? That is a complete lie”. I had just stayed at the property and there was only one toilet and one shower in the ladies and the same in the men’s. Apparently, there were four new toilets? They must have been invisible toilets or hiding from me. Not only that, but supposedly there was a microwave and fridge at every campsite. Nope, there was definitely no microwave and certainly no fridge. As it later turned out, there was one freezer which was perfect for us since we were only staying 2 days. Not!
We actually ended up sticking our whole cooler box inside the freezer, which helped our cooler box then to act as a fridge itself. We get incredibly creative when we have to be! I just hate having to be. I love camping, but don’t lie and say it is luxury camping when it most certainly is not. I think in this day and age, there is still too much of this going on. People being disappointed in their accommodation when they get there and not being able to do much, because generally you’ve already paid and really what will it help to complain, because most of the time nothing is done.
What if we could all get together as a network and make sure that not one more person has to go through the disappointment of booking an amazing place online and getting there to find it isn’t anything special? Just think about it! Wouldn’t it be amazing?
Maybe I should start that app after all . . .