SAM’S GIARDINO

Don’t bother. Save your money! Not toilet door and extremely basic.

Very relaxing hotel close to the city center with a nice garden including warm pool. Staff very friendly, good breakfast.

We just finished a one night stay at Giardino.

The room was very clean and the mattress firm which we liked, wifi is also good. There is however no door to separate the bathroom/toilet from the rest of the room and the unfortunate placement of a mirror allowed full view of everything that was going on in the bathroom - it is a test of how close you are willing to get to your partner/family/friends.

There is also limited channels available on the TV and no air-conditioning/fans. The room got very stuffy at night, we had to leave the external door open to get to bed. No privacy and a security issue.

On the afternoon of our arrival we did not have hot water (lukewarm). This was fixed by staff about 8pm.

We woke the next morning to the same issue and had to ask for staff to power the hot water up for us which took about 30mins. Was nice and hot afterwards.

There are a lot of reviews stating breakfast is amazing but we would say it is average. We got a board of ham and salami circles, some cucumber, slices of tomato and a bowl of grated cheese. This was accompanied by hotdog buns and slices of bread. Breakfast also included fruit salad and yoghurt or musili and yoghurt followed by a choice of eggs/bacon/sausages.

For the same price we paid for our stay at Giardino, we had previously booked a hotel that served full buffet breakfast in the centre of Swakopmund that included air conditioning.

We took a gamble assuming that sacrificing location would mean a higher quality hotel. Unfortunately we had a lower quality hotel, worse breakfast and worse location for the same cost.

Staff were lovely but almost too attentive. It's nice to have a bit of personal space.

Check out is strictly adhered to. We got a knock at the door at 9.56am from an apologetic staff member at the request of the manager reminding us 10am was the check out time. We were in the process of collecting our luggage when we had the knock.

The photos displayed on the hotel website are generous.

Overall the stay was the only disappointing experience we had in Namibia, which is one of the most beautiful countries we have visited.

I would strongly recommend that you not stay at this hotel. We booked a room with two full size beds. I was uncomfortable the entire trip because there is no door to the bathroom from the bedroom (just a wide opening) and to my knowledge that is not advertised on the website. We would have never booked this hotel if we knew that.

I immediately asked if I could change rooms or even book an additional room (and pay for it in full). It took until the next morning for the manager to get back to me. She said our only choice was for me and my friend to both change rooms and I didn’t want to inconvenience my friend after our long travel and already unpacking in our current room. I felt the most uncomfortable with the bathroom situation and spent the entire trip going downstairs to use the public lobby bathroom.

Furthermore, the hotel manager Roswitha was incredibly rude to me on the last day. She had granted us late checkout. We planned on leaving our luggage for 90 minutes to walk around to pass time since our flight was later. All of which is standard at every hotel I’ve ever been to (I travel a ton, 32 countries so far.) I was waiting quietly for my friend in the lobby when asked me what time the taxi was coming - when I said 2pm, she literally started yelling at me. She started to complain about how the owner was upset with her for letting us check out late and that we should know that when one travels internationally you just have to leave at check out time, cannot leave your bag longer etc. It was very condescending and her fussing was overwhelming. I tried to interject to find out what the bottom line was because her rambling was confusing and frankly if she didn’t want us to leave our bags then fine, I’m a resourceful traveler, I’ll take my stuff and find somewhere else to hold them for an hour. No big deal. But the minute I attempted to speak she interrupted me (over and over) yelling that I was being rude and she was doing us a favor. I’ve stayed in hotels (1 star to 5 stars) all over the world and I have never been yelled at by hotel staff. Ever. Also, in every country I’ve been to holding travelers bags before they head to the airport is standard. Especially if the check out is super early (10am) which is highly unusual and inconvenient. I would have preferred that she just tell us no (or tell us to pay to keep the room longer) than ruin my vacation with her yelling. Luckily the rest of the staff were kind gracious polite and warm. But I would never stay here again.

Zeer aangenaam verblijf gehad. Locatie was goed genoeg, de kamers zeer proper, zwembad aangenaam warm zodat we ondanks het koude weer toch gezwommen hebben. Complimenten aan het personeel. Professionele service en zeer vriendelijk.