Acacia Guest House

This was a very disappointing stay on a recent visit to SA. I got bad vibes from the start when we arrived at the location in a suburban neighborhood where the compound was surrounded by high walls with barbwire. The (owner?) staff seemed stunned and unprepared by the arrival of our 13-person party. The check-in process was extremely slow as they struggled to assign names to room. There was no explanation or orientation about the place/grounds/amenities, etc. They keys were old-school with comically large plastic tags attached that were impossible to fit in a pocket without removing the tag. The rooms themselves were adequate and appeared clean, but many problems existed throughout our parties' rooms including: heat not working, leaking plumbing, one room with no curtain or blind which required the use of a blanket to cover the window, TV screens smaller than a laptop, burned out light bulbs; in one case 3/4 bulbs not working in the bathroom. Meals were of decent quality, but again the staff seemed disoriented by our party and struggled to keep up. WiFi was ok but the host was confused about how to access it. Some people asked if there was laundry service available, which, to be fair, was not a service offered. They tried to accommodate the request anyway, but one family in our party found that there laundry had been returned to there room WET and then the wet laundry was laid on the bed, which of course soaked the bedding! Another family's laundry was apparently taken to a laundromat and they were charged a huge amount. Honestly the lodge should have just said no laundry service available. On our second night, the staff prepared a traditional African Braai. While the food was decent, members of our party reported seeing the man working the grill while smoking a cigarette with a very long ash hanging from his mouth directly over the grill. My nephew ordered a beer and when he received it, he quickly opened it and took a sip. Then he realized the beer tasted flat and there was no fizz. He checked the bottle carefully and noticed it was only about 2/3 full despite him having taken only a small slip. We asked about leaving the premises to explore and were told it was unsafe and that we should not leave the compound. I personally asked the host about the lack of heat in my room. She accompanied me to my room and tried the remote control herself, then told me, "some of the heat doesn't work. I'll have "him" (presumably the staff maintenance guy/barbecuer/cook) look at it". "He" never did! Despite being fairly cold weather with no heat available, windows were left open by the cleaning staff. In at least one case the window mechanism was broken and the window couldn't be closed all the way. The only way I could get warm after returning to my chilly room was to take a hot shower, though there was a sign in the bathroom requesting no long showers be taken. One of our party noticed the pipe in the ceiling above their shower was leaking through the c