SkiAdcock

With kcaluwae's permission, I'm posting his short review in this, the property thread, as it's a recent stay. He has silver status. Am creating the property thread to make it easier for FTers to find info when using search.

"Protea Hotel Franschoek : We were a bit reluctant about booking this hotel as we found a lot of negative reviews. No reasons to be reluctant however, this hotel is really having a huge makeover for the better. Rooms have become really colorful. Loved the wallpapers. First impression of the room is 'wow'. Works are still in progress but at this point all rooms that are offered to guests are renovated.

The restaurant in the hotel is now the 'Husslar Grill'. Had a very good dinner here. Bfast offered is a small buffet with cold options (the usual) and you can order your hot options from the waiter. Staff in the restaurant are uber-friendly. The restaurant was open for 3 days when we were there.

We had a little chat with the manager of the hotel as well and she was really friendly as well. The hotel is located in the main street of Franschoek, albeit at the outskirts of the town but you can easily walk across town and back in more or less 1 hour. It's really not that big :-). No recognition of elite status. Paid stay."

Zorak

Did a 2-night points stay here last week.



Welcome choices. The local beer was two bottles of Carling Black Label, and the fruit plate was a fairly substantial array of sliced canteloupe, strawberries, oranges, kiwi fruit, and pineapple.

In addition to these, when I entered my room they had already placed a gift of a split of local white wine and a hand-written note card.

Breakfast was also included -- it was adequate and not particularly noteworthy (I skipped it the 2nd morning to eat elsewhere). Did not otherwise eat at the restaurant, so can't comment.



I had booked whatever basic room was available on points. At check-in they said all the rooms in the property were the same, but they had honored my preferences of a "high floor" (there are only two ) and given me a pool view. The friend I was traveling with had a separate reservation (no Marriott elite status) and was coincidentally assigned the room (26) next to mine (25) -- this room was noticeably smaller and did not have tub.

(Friend had booked one night on points and one night cash, which were combined, but note that non-status booked on points does NOT get breakfast)











Rooms 25/26/27 share a semi-private balcony:



View of the pool (unheated)

mikelat

Any more recent stays here? Or anyone with pics of the 2 bedroom units there?

maisondubonheur

Did stay in a one bedroom not that long ago. They are in a separate building on the other side of the building. These are basically brand new self-catering units with private terrace on the main street. Beautifully done, but no window in the bedroom. The rooms of the main building lack some privacy, so I'm very happy in those one bedroom place...specially when it's an upgrade. Top restaurants in the street where you can walk even at night, and La Cote must be the best wine shop in the country next door!

Intl359Widget

I recently had an one night stay last week at the Protea Hotel in Franschhoek. I was proactively upgraded into one of the self-catering apartments across the street and received the Pinotage apartment which was quite nice but I was hoping for a 2nd floor room overlooking the pool.

The location of the hotel is superb as you can walk to most of the restaurants and to the Wine Tram station where you can enjoy most of what Franschhoek has to offer. I'd highly recommend this hotel as long as everyone kept their expectations low on the breakfast buffet (it was rather disappointing compared to the other Protea hotels that I've been to in South Africa).

Radiation Station

I stayed here for five nights in November. Was upgraded on a points stay without asking to a lovely two bedroom apartment called Prosecco. Location was exceptional. Staff were lovely. Really good quality apartment with all the facilities for cooking and washing. Housekeeping even pro actively washed our clothes! Breakfast wasn’t great and our key card stopped working a couple of times, but these were minor niggles. The hotel doesn’t have a gym but they gave us free passes to a local health club which was very decent for a small town in this neck of the woods. I would highly recommend this hotel for a stay in the region.

GalaxyChris

I'm staying here actually and to say the least, I am not so positive about this place.
​​​​​​
Got fire alarm multiple time in the middle of the night + morning,

they tried to denied me breakfast as titanium pretending that the unit is self catering (Studio), got no upgrade.

key cards de-activated multiples times,

bugs flying and standing in the food at breakfast (lowest quality bf I saw in the last 2-3 years around the world),

staff is nice but not really concerned, asked to fix the non-working phone in the room, or to get a corkscrew... And I'm still waiting something happen.

Radiation Station

Sorry to hear that, sounds very different to my experience. We were given vouchers for breakfast for all the days of our trip when we checked in (five night stay). We only ate it once and it wasn’t particularly great. Key cards stopped working a couple of times. We were upgraded many categories though.

GalaxyChris

We got the breakfast who was denied first by email before arriving, I even sent them a blogger video who get appartment with the breakfast... Maybe the reason of the change ?
Anyway after trying the subpar breakfast one time we skipped it for doing our own in the studio.

We are doing a 6 days stay here.

Also during the loadshedding (2 times per day 2,5hours/each time), no TV, no AC, no electric plug work in the annex rooms.

Start to be annoying badly when it's 35 degrees celsius outside at day time (like now) or during the night (opening the windows right on the street is not advised).

Boddingtons

Anyone know why no dates are showing available into 2024 for this property?

Last available date for check in is 31 December

seat1C

It's still unbookable - there are no rooms available on the Marriott site from now right into 2024 (I'm trying to book in January, having had previous good stays here). It's the same story at the Protea in Stellenbosch (the one in town, not the "Techopark" one). Are they closed or leaving Marriott?

seat1C

Quick update - Marriott central bookings can't book it; Protea bookings in SA can't book it; and the hotel has ignored several emails I've sent to them directly. It still isn't marked as leaving Marriott (or closing) so no idea what's going on!

coltonatx

I am also having issues booking rooms. Idk what’s going on. It’s very annoying and it’s priced very competitively.

escapefromphl

This town was recently affected by some serious floods, give it a while.

NoY

Just completed 4 nights here. For the cost...it's pretty unbeatable. Location is stellar. Booked (& received) 1 Bedroom King Apartment. It's not luxury (we already knew that) but it's pretty immaculate & is very well equipped.

Breakfast (Bonvoy Platinum) was complimentary & was fine. Decent fruit/granola/yogurt & a la carte egg dishes cooked to order along with speciality barista coffees included. Of course it's not a massive 5* Asian style buffet but we were perfectly content especially as we needed room for the superb local dining options at lunch & dinner.

Excellent friendly service too. Would stay again.