doro

The North Wharf is showing sold out every day between now and the rate increase on the 7th (technically, they're showing sold out every day but one until 13 March). After which, every single day for months is available. (I have a back-up reservation at Victoria Junction, but prefer the full kitchen as we're there a week, and although i love CPT food, we get sick of eating out).

I assume that they've pulled their award availability until after the rate increase. Has anyone ever had any luck convincing Protea (via Marriott) to release award rooms?

I'm SPG Gold, but nothing with Protea/Marriott, so I have no juice.

Thanks.

Happy

Do you need the stay between Now and March 7th? Or your stay is beyond March 7?

There might be some events going on in the area. In 2015 about the same time of the year, everything was sold out in the first week of March - we tried to add one day to our existing booking at Radisson Waterfront because we finished driving Garden Route one day early but was told impossible - the whole vicinity was sold out because there was a Art Fortnights or some festivities going on during the first 2 weeks of March. We ended up had to go all the way to the Strand for the extra night we needed.

May be this is the case here.

doro

We need to stay there (or at least in Cape Town) starting on 24 Feb.

Oddly, after whinging here (and after I have been looking for space for weeks), they released a ton of rooms in the last hour or so. I now have what I need.

I'll work on making sure that this doesn't incentivize me to whine in the future.......

Happy

You would notice many many road signs at UK starting from the ferry to remind you now you are driving on the right!

We had a Corolla stickshift on both trips. First trip was one rental PLZ-CPT. Second trip had 2 rentals - JNB-JNB, CPT-CPT. All 3 were Corolla stickshift from Avis. The Honors AWD works very well on international rentals. Hon Circle also good but it is only a tad better than the public Honors so we stick with the Honors AWD.

It normally takes 1 to 2 days for my husband to stop making mistakes on the turn signal / windshield wiper when he switches from driving on the left to driving on the right, and vice versa.
So when we return to countries such as in EU or US, after a prolong driving trip in UK, Australia, South Africa etc, it takes him 1 to 2 days to return to "normal".

Happy

When we were thru Mossel Bay in 2015 Protea was not redeemable yet. We stayed at a local B&B nearby. Parking was also a problem at the B&B which had only 3 parking spaces in front of it but they had like 7 or 8 rooms (multi-levels). We passed the Protea a few times and thought about that if it could be a redemption that would be nice...

So at the end where you parked?

We had a great dinner at one of the restaurants at the "restaurant row" across street from the Dias Museum Complex, near the "Postal Tree". We did give the guy "watching the cars" parked at the parking lot of the museum a few Rands when we left as a custom. Very little money to make someone happy.

Xeno

I will be north of CPT in Stellenbosch, would that make a difference in favoring one of these properties over the other? I am M&SPH gold.

ajnaro

The Port Elizabeth Marine was my first visit to a Marriott property as an SPG Platinum member. Well, really a Protea Hotel, recently acquired by Marriott and not quite integrated yet. This hotel is far superior to most other Protea Hotels I have visited. This one is on the level of a good Four Points. The staff are friendly and attentive and the rooms are clean, but the furniture is old and battered. Our sofa was stained, the surface of the wooden furniture had buckled, and the carpet needed an urgent cleaning (or replacement). The location is right on the beach, close to the CBD. This stay was on points. When I first arrived, the front desk agent thanked me for my loyalty and offered an ‘Platinum upgrade’ to a partial sea view room. I requested the Platinum breakfast amenity, but it was denied. They provided a small bottle of sparkling water and some nuts. I negotiated a paid upgrade to a duplex sea view room, but upon check-out the agreed upgrade fee had been waived. All in all, I would recommend this hotel, but not with Marriott level expectations.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

KRS

Just back from 6 nights at Protea Sea Point (on Arthur's Road) and 2 nights at Protea Franschhoek.

Protea Sea Point:
Was a bit sceptical about this hotel but got a rate I couldn't pass up.
Booked the Standard Guest room, 1 Queen, Limited view.

Inquired at check-in about upgrades (expecting nothing as this was the only room type they had been selling for weeks prior to our arrival), but was told it would be difficult due to the hotel being full for our last 3 days. In the end we received the room we had booked and a promise they would see what they could do. Front desk staff were very helpful and full of smiles.

This room was on the 1st floor with no view, and very limited space. Shower was basically a metal cubicle within the room and the sink was in the room proper. Only room for one suitcase to be opened on the floor.
I am glad we did not end up staying in this room

Within one hour we were told they had arranged an upgraded room for us on the 2nd floor. Based on pictures on the website this was a Deluxe Guest room, 1 King, Partial sea view. It was a much nicer room, with 2 balconies - one facing Arthur's road, and one facing west down Arthur's Road towards the sea. Looking at the floor plan indicated this was the largest room on the floor.

The wifi worked well, and there is free street parking, and also gated underground parking for ZAR50/night.

As first time visitors to Cape Town we were unsure of the location but as we ended up taking an Uber or rental car almost everywhere it didn't really matter. We did not try breakfast at the hotel, but normally went to a Bootleggers nearby. Hotel is ideally situated for access to the Sea Point Promenade for walking or running. This stretch appeared to be fairly populated early and late and we had no qualms walking or running there.

I would recommend the hotel if the price is right and the location suits you, but would not stay there in a Standard room.


Protea Franschhoek:
Booked and received Junior Suite (I think there is nothing to upgrade to) which is actually a proper suite with separate bedroom and living room/kitchen.

Received Platinum arrival gift options after requesting them (and a "Thanks for reminding us!" )

Free, though non-shaded and non-gated parking

Breakfast was pretty good and I believe is included for all.
We saw some people being served omelettes and ordered the same though no told us about this option nor did we see any info about it. Muffins were excellent!

Hotel is centrally located for Franschhoek town, close to shops and restaurants. Now that Uber works in the area getting around the vineyards was not a problem either (caveat: we did not venture far by Uber, only to La Petite Ferme and Haute Cabriere).

The hotel definitely needs some refurbishment (and I think it is planned for this winter) though it was fine for our 2 night stay. There are proper keys and not key cards for the rooms. Our front door was a bit wobbly and with fairly strong winds I had to jam it with a magazine to keep it from slamming all night.
The shower had disappointing water pressure, and hot and cold water adjusted separately.

Annoyingly the internet was capped at 300MB/day and front desk had to reset if you exceeded the limit.

We are able to borrow an electrical adapter, though later discovered one behind the bedside table also.

For visiting Franschhoek this hotels fits the bill nicely, unless one is looking for something more luxurious of which there are certainly many nearby.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the trip report. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

Roger

I'd previously made a mini-review of the Arthur's Road Sea point property - 'mini' as it summarized a TA review which I guessed shouldn't be quoted wholesale: I broadly agree with KRS's comments but would say that the breakfast service was great.

My comment was in the Protea & African Pride hotels thread, which leads me to a question.

As some locations in this thread, nominally about Cape Town, are NOT in Cape Town - I'm thinking about Port Elizabeth, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Mossel Bay and JNB off the cuff - and given that Protea Hotels are now bedded into the Marriott system isn't it time to have a Protea Hotels sub-forum, along the lines of Ritz-Carlton? As a semi-regular Africa visitor I would find this useful.

KRS

I agree, and I should have put my Franschhoek review elsewhere...

SkiAdcock

IMO, no. Unless you want sub-forums for all Marriott brands (and Hilton, SPG, etc).

However, what would work is for people who are staying at Protea properties to create threads w/ their trip reports on those properties, vs. just posting in the 'family' thread. That would then keep property reports in a specific property thread & make it easier to come up on search.

Usually the family threads are for comparison posts - I'm think of staying at X or Y, which do FTers recommend, vs. here's my trip report on X property. However, in some cities w/ very few properties (Santiago Chile comes to mind), it's not hard to follow them in a family thread.

Perhaps we can get the mod to move some of the Protea trip report threads to individual threads, or if that's not possible, then FTers can start new property threads w/ their trip reports.

Cheers.

Roger

No worries! It was good to compare the two hotels side by side.

Thanks, Sharon. Useful advice.

I admit to being partial about Protea hotels. For a long time, there was no serious opportunity for international brand recognition in (South) Africa, especially since most Holiday Inn brands disappeared. I want Protea to work and am hoping that Marriott will knock them into shape. IMO they still have a way to go. Again IMO, redemptions are generally good value.

sdsearch

There's a general thread about Protea Hotels (not location specific):
where those mentions might seem to have been much more appropriate, but the problem is that Protea is so new to the Marriott family that extremely few people had experience with Cape Town Proteas, and so to make up for that they used some experience at other Proteas to illustrate the overall variation vs consistency between different Proteas (as a suggestion that the same kind of variation would likely exist among different Cape Town area Proteas). And meanwhile there was too little about specific Proteas in that other thread, so it was too early to answer simply with "see that other thread for examples".

This is not a problem that afflicts threads about places where there are Courtyards and Fairfields and FS Marriotts, because in those threads it's assumed that people know in general what Courtyards or Fairfields or FS Marriotts tend to be like. But no one in this thread who was asking about Cape Town Proteas seemed to know what Proteas in general are like, and thus the discussion veered toward explaining more about Proteas in general by giving examples of Proteas (not near Cape Town) that people had been to.

A few years from now, presumably, various FTers will have stayed at various Cape Town Proteas, and will be able to give better feedback to questions about them. But that's going to take time, given how new Protea is to the Mariott program and how far Proteas are from where most Marriott members (at least in this forum) are. Also, so far at least, people in this forum tend to be using Proteas on vacations (which are typically planned far ahead), more than for business travel (which is often booked close in), and so it's taking longer to get feedback than it might for a brand / location used by a lot of business travelers in this forum.