I travel to Johannesburg several times per year, every year and have always stayed at the same hotel, however at the recommendation of friends that live in JoBurg, I took a chance and stayed at The DaVinci, also recommending that my Brother and his Wife who would be on the trip with me, also stay there; by far the biggest mistake I could’ve made. This hotel is nowhere near the standard of a 5-Star property. Upon arrival, I noticed that there was a lot of odd traffic of people in/out of the front of the building and lobby areas. The elevators are open to the public so a lot of the Sandton Mall foot traffic is found in the hotel lobby all times of the day and night, didn’t feel secure. My check-in didn’t meet my expectations as I was not offered a room upgrade nor told if an upgrade was/wasn’t available. After a 16-hour flight, I arrived to my room to find significant amounts of mold on the walls of the shower (see attached pictures). I made the Front Desk Staff aware of the concern and was initially told that I’d need to speak with the Staff in the morning. Upon going to the front desk the next day, I met the Benedict to make him aware of my concerns, he was very smug and simply replied with “Okay, do you want us to clean it?” I advised that YES, while the room/shower needs to be cleaned, I do not want to stay in a room with very visible mold in the shower. Benedict immediately seemed irritated that I was requesting an alternate solution, very unprofessional. He offered me another room which had its bathroom (literally) in the middle of the floor offering no privacy. After walking back/forth to this room (no staff from the hotel was sent to assist with the review of the rooms) I advised that I didn’t want that room either. He then stated “Well, I can offer you an upgraded room which has a balcony”, again I was never offered an upgrade when I checked in and in-essence, the room that was being offered was in fact smaller than the corner executive room (with mold) that I booked. Nevertheless, I had a full day of events planned so I didn’t have the time to engage any further with Benedict’s unprofessional, disregard, lack of empathy, and dismissive behavior. I was forced to repack all of my belongings, move them from the 7th floor (room with mold) to the 6th floor (new room). The bed in the room was horrible and terribly uncomfortable! The bed is a spring mattress which is relatively thin. The sheets, duvet and pillow case all had stains on them, I requested that the bed linens be changed. Also as the days went on during my 4-day stay, I could smell heavy cigarette smoke coming through the vents in my room as the HVAC was on. In addition, the Housekeeping staff used so much furniture polish on all of the wood, that 2 of my shirts got stained when sitting at the desk as I didn’t realize the polish was so heavy. Finally, the breakfast that the hotel offered was terrible. It is not a buffet, as bowls of fruit, plates of meat, cheese,
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