Beautiful Hotel, But the Customer Service Needs Significant Improvement
My husband and I have now been staying at the Protea Hotel by Marriott Johannesburg Wanderers for five days, and unfortunately, our experience has been a real mix of positives and disappointments.
Let me start by saying that the hotel itself is beautiful. When you walk into the lobby, the entrance is warm, attractive, and inviting. It gives you that feeling of being welcomed into a beautiful home. The rooms are also nicely decorated, extremely clean, and well maintained. I have to give credit where it is due—the housekeeping staff has been excellent.
Unfortunately, the customer service has been a completely different experience.
My husband and I have traveled to many countries and stayed in hotels around the world, and one thing that has always stood out to us is the simple courtesy of being acknowledged. When you have been staying at a hotel for several days, it is customary to hear something as simple as, “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” or “Welcome back.”
That has not been our experience here.
Every time we walk through the front entrance, the staff at the front desk and lobby will make eye contact with us, but no one says anything. We have repeatedly been the ones to initiate a greeting. After several days of this, we eventually stopped. Now we simply walk through the lobby, and even when staff clearly see us, there is no acknowledgment whatsoever.
As I preparing this review, I was actually sitting in the lobby waiting for an Uber. Two gentlemen who were at the front when I came into the lobby were having a conversation with each other. As I was seated on the sofa for several minutes neither one of employees acknowledged me or even offered a simple greeting.
To me, hospitality is about more than having a beautiful building. It is about making your guests feel seen, welcomed, and appreciated. Those small interactions matter, particularly when guests are staying for multiple days.
The food was another area where we felt there was room for improvement. We ordered the tomahawk steak, which unfortunately came out quite dry. We understand that if a restaurant does not specialize in steaks, there is always a possibility that the preparation may not meet expectations, so we don’t necessarily hold that against the hotel. However, even something as simple as the French fries was disappointing. They were extremely greasy—greasy enough that picking them up with a fork left oil all over it.
Overall, the physical hotel is beautiful, the rooms are clean and comfortable, and the housekeeping service has been great. However, the food quality needs improvement, and most importantly, the customer service needs significant attention.
The complimentary shuttle is a perfect touch that adds safety and as well as value .
A beautiful hotel should be complemented by beautiful hospitality. Unfortunately, during our seven -day stay, we have not felt genuinely welcomed by the front-of-house staff.
I hope management takes this feedback seriously, because with better customer service and improvements to the food, this property has the potential to provide a much better guest experience.
