Reviews of Olive Grove
(88%) From 269 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Olive Grove review
A great little guest house. It was a shame we only had one night there.
The staff were all very friendly and the food was really good.
Olive Grove review
Our room on arrival was not a luxury room, with hugh puddles outside the door, with no way of wiping our feet till we put a towel down, having asked for some method of drying many times.
The last visit on our return 5/2/11, we were then given a luxury room, without having to go outside to enter, good as it was raining very heavily, but we had a incident as we were leaving, all our luggage was taken down stairs and left on the terrace, I left in the room my makeup, hairbrush and tooth brush and toothpaste, so after breakfast I could freshen up in rediness for our flight. Returning half and hour later, the expensive makeup and hair brush had gone, BUT toothbrush was left!! We sat in full view of all the staff when have our breakfast with the luggage still in view. Complaining to the manager he went to the staff quarters and found my missing items, he was full of apologies, but I was very cross by this incident.
Expert Africa comments
We’ve found the Olive Grove to be one of Windhoek’s best guest houses, so we were concerned by this report. However, Lindy van den Bosch, one of the Olive Grove’s owners, swiftly apologised that these travellers experienced problems during their stay.
Namibia has experienced phenomenal rain this year. Lindy apologises that there was a puddle outside the room, and that it took so long for the guests to been given towels/mats for their feet, but explained that it had been difficult to keep up with all the rain.
On both visits these travellers were allocated upstairs luxury rooms: room 5 and then room 8. As all the rooms are different at the Olive Grove, it may not have been obvious that they were the same category of room.
Regarding the toiletries – Lindy explained that she believes this to be an honest mistake; that the housekeepers thought the room had been vacated, as there was no luggage left behind, so had began to clear/clean the room. Often guests leave behind unwanted things at the end of their holiday; the housekeepers assumed this and (as is the procedure here) they took these items to the laundry – from where they were retrieved by the manager. These would have been kept for 3 months and then donated to charity if not claimed. In this case, Lindy is sure that the items were moved to the laundry by mistake, and was pleased that they could be speedily returned to the travellers.
Most of their housekeepers have been with them for a number of years; Lindy is sure that this wasn’t a case of theft.
Lindy also comments that they are “back of house” staff, and so may not have known that the travellers at breakfast had been staying in Room 8.
The Olive Grove have lots of early arrivals from the airport, even though their normal check-in time is 14h00. Such guests usually appreciate getting to their rooms swiftly, and the guesthouse tries hard to accommodate this. The housekeepers all know the drill: if a room is empty, they get it ready as quickly as possible. Unfortunately in this instance they started to clear it a bit too early.
The team there sincerely apologises for the upset caused – and we’re pleased that they’re now looking into a system whereby housekeepers check to see if guests have left before clearing anything from their room.
restful stopover to recover from the flight
This was an ideal spot to rest and recover. Helpful regarding ideas of where to eat etc.
Read more about the whole tripOlive Grove review
A lovely small hotel and a very practical place to stay for our final night in Namibia. We were well looked after and well fed.
Useful to find internet access available for checking onward travel arrangements and the like.
Olive Grove review
Very welcoming so early in the morning. Great bath!
Read more about the whole tripOlive Grove review
Within walking distance of town centre. Once you are inside the gates you feel that you are in a good quality lodge.
Staff were helpful when we arrived early from our flight.
Olive Grove review
Ideal spot for an overnight stay, but our room was all dark kharki concrete!
Read more about the whole tripperfect for a first night stay.
perfect place for a first and last night stay. Directions on the flyer not brilliant, but spot on in the Bradt guide book. Excellent breakfast. Surprised they charge for the internet - very few places around the world now are charging even in Namibia eg Sam's Giardino.
The stone wall at the end of the bed was easy to stub your toe against when the covers were hanging over and hiding it but not sure how you could avoid this!
A reasonable overnight stay
We arrived late, about 21:30, as my (Brian) luggage did not arrive with me and Wilderness Safaris spent some time with me sorting out the paperwork, however the staff at the guest house very kindly provided some sandwiches as we hadn't eaten since lunch time.
We had 2 problems at Olive Grove. Firstly we had several insects in the beds, which we had to remove before settling down. Secondly, we had no hot water in the morning. I contacted reception and was told to let the water run for 10 to 15 minutes, which I was unhappy about, knowing how short of water Namibia is. I let it run for a couple of minutes but then rang reception again and spoke to the manager who told me that we shared the hot water tank with the next room. Apparently they had had a shower and bath and taken all the hot water. As the hot water is solar powered and there was no sun she said she would switch on the immersion heater and we would have to wait. We eventually showered at about 07:45 having got up at 06:30. Coupled with the fact that I did not have a change of clothes this was not a good start to our trip.
Expert Africa comments
Lindy Van den Bosch, the owner of Olive Grove Guesthouse, wrote to us regarding these travellers feedback as she was sorry to hear that they had a couple of problems during their stay. Her response was:
Thank you for taking the time to pass this feedback on to us.
We would like to apologise to these guests for the lack of hot water in the morning. We are in the process of converting our geysers from electrical to solar, in an effort to be more environmentally friendly, and this incident has shown us that we need to monitor this process a lot more closely and carefully. We generally have 1 geyser for 2 rooms, and past experience has shown this to be adequate. We are alarmed to hear that the advice given by our Reception was to "let the water run for 10 to 15 minutes". We can only assume that there was some misunderstanding or miscommunication on our part - we have discussed this with all our Reception staff again, to ensure that such incorrect information is not passed on again.
As regards the insects in the beds, we usually leave the bedrooms windows open for arriving guests, but as these guests arrived late at night, the insects may have been attracted into the room by the lights - once again, we apologise for this inconvenience.
We are pleased that we were able to assist with a later check-out, and hope that this went a small way to relieving the inconveniences caused, including the added frustration of luggage not arriving.
We strive to be a good first impression of Namibia, and to be an oasis for weary travelers arriving off a long flight, or back from a long drive around the country. We are truly sorry that this was not these guests’ experience and sincerely hope that this did not distract from the rest of their Namibian holiday.
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
