Chris von Ulmenstein is a controversial blogger who produces a daily aggregation of tourist news snippets about Cape Town and environs called WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines. This week yielded a comet vintage of negative reviews of her own Whale Cottage Camps Bay guest house on TripAdvisor. Rarely has such a torrent of toxic complaints been levelled against an establishment. Six slaggings in a week surely indicate a suite of serious problems. Perhaps Cape Town Tourism can help Chris out of this mess? It’s certainly doing the international image of Camps Bay and Cape Town no favours.
A Johannesburg friend is something of a Winelands flâneur and offers 50 reasons why the Whale Cottages in Hermanus and Franschhoek should be avoided after visits in November. CvU is doing serious damage to the Cape as a wine tourism destination and needs to be stopped, smartish.
When you have been to a place beforehand, and enjoyed a good stay, you never think of checking Tripadvisor before re-booking it. Ohhhhh how wrong was I!? We stayed in 2009 and although the rooms were small, and there was a water leak from the patio door (which was summarily resolved with extra towels placed on the floor) we had…More
The rudest and most unhelpful owner of the B&B which made us want to avoid going back to relax there. Dirty place, overall a nasty experience. Cockroaches. Worse than poor service- actually nasty behaviour from the I owner Chris is inexcusable for someone in the hospitality industry. Do not stay here EVER! In my view, if you have a chip…More
A disappointing end to our wonderful honeymoon in South Africa. We had booked the Whale Cottage for 6 nights and paid a 50% deposit when we booked. A month before the stay we were prompted to pay the remaining 50% in full by wire transfer which cost us £9. The owner Chris wouldn’t accept a credit card payment. On arrival…More
I booked in here and the sister Whale Cottage in Hermanus on my December 2013 trip to the Cape with my wife and two young children. These were the two worst B&Bs I have stayed at and the only places where we had to pay in full upfront! I now realise that this is because most people would leave after…More
worth experience ever, DO NOT GO THERE, cockroaches, dirty bathroom and bed, EXTREMELY rude german woman, the WHALE is inside ! don’t order a tea a 8.29am , you will be answered “we start at 8.30” in a rude way, she is dirty so is the place, bedding is not done according to guest and booking, DISGUSTING dirty place and…More
There are certain ‘basics’ one expects at a four star guest house like toilet paper and soap for example. My room had neither! When I brought this oversight to the attention of the owner she was rude and dismissive and refused to apologize. The guest house is in a great location but the owner is rude and unhelpful which contributes…More