Hotels Near Vink's Arboretum in Cape Town

I had a January 2024 conference at Stellenbosch Business School, and our Association gave a great rate at this hotel (only 1230 ZAR, including all taxes). At the current USD exchange rate, that was only $65. Because I didn't want to spend a lot of time commuting back and forth for those conference days, and because our conference also paid for the shuttle bus between the conference hotels and the conference venue, I decided to book this hotel for two nights. There are only a handful of written/detailed reviews in the past 4 years here on TA, and so I want to add mine here. (A note to Bonvoy members: Do note that you only get one ENC per 2 nights stayed. If in doubt, feel free to google ”Protea and ENC”...) Here are the pros: (1) The price is indeed cheap. (2) The staff is very kind. (3) The breakfast is good enough, with a few different kinds of sausages, a few different kinds of cereal, a few different kinds of bread/pastry, a few different kinds of fruit; and a couple different kinds of juice. (Bonvoy members: Platinum and above gets you free breakfast buffet.) (4) The on-site restaurant's 'a la carte' is OK enough if you're hungry, but I wouldn't have two dinners in a row there. The menu is not extensive, and also my pasta was a bit overcooked. (5) The room does have a small safe. Here are the cons: (1) Half of the hotel's rooms are just 15m from the highway. On a Sunday night, you're gonna hear a lot of road noise. It was the kind of noise that my earplugs couldn't block very well. If you scroll through the pictures here on TA, you'll see some pictures of that traffic. Those pictures are basically taken *from the room's window*. The cars are really that close! So if you are a light sleeper, and you care about sleep, this hotel is basically not for you. (2) Exactly half of the rooms are on the ground floor... meaning that just about any hoodlum could readily break the glass window of your room and enter if they wanted to. If that thought gives you anxiety, then I'd think twice before booking this hotel. (3) In the evening and late night (after ~9pm), I couldn't reach any front desk staff via the room's phone. (4) In the pictures, it looks like the room is carpeted. I don't think most of the room's are carpeted; my room #145 had a wood laminate floor, and it was pretty filthy. I mean, housekeeping doesn't appear to mop the floors very well, if at all. There are no slippers provided, so on Night #2, I put one of the bathroom towels on the floor and waddled/shimmied around on top of the towel to keep my feet clean. (5) I have Titanium Marriott status, and on Tuesday morning, they wouldn't grant me any kind of late check-out. I had to check out by 11am. They told me that there would be a 300 ZAR penalty per hour, if I checked out after that. (6) There's really nothing within walking distance; go ahead and take a look at the neighborhood in Google Maps, there's nothing to do or see if you have no car. (7) There are

I truely enjoy the homely welcome feeling. Auriol and her staff made us feel at home. I almost forgot im staying at a guest house. After a long flight it was so nice to be fedge on time by Auriol and then walked into a crisp clean room. Exellent service indeed. Will remommend the guest house to anyone

The hotel was perfectly located in the heart of Cape Town, easily accessible, clean and the staff were all very friendly and accomodating for all our requests. The rooms are of good size, we ended up not eating purely cause we rested so well. Quiet area. Outside the hotel we took some beautiful pics and had dinner at some of the restaurants and watched the rugby.I will definitely stay here again

The apartment is spacious, clean and luxurious. Lovvvvvve the bathrooms. I had a very relaxing stay at the Residences at Crystal Hotel. The staff are friendly and helpful. The breakfast buffet was refreshing and had a wide selection of foods. The location is convenient, close to Canal Walk which we walked to often to buy whatever we needed to make our stay more enjoyable and visiting Hillsong Church opposite the road was an amazing experience.

Perfect location! Table Mountain and sea views plus sunsets looked so dreamy. The views were refreshing. The only thing I was disappointed with was the inefficiency. They took too long to let us into our room, TV wasn’t working and some shelves in the closet were broken and was placed perfectly as of it was ok, only when I touched it fell of. It could have hurt me.

The location is excellent, the beach is opposite, although the beaches in Cape Town are really average, but the sea is still very pleasant to see the balcony. Hotel decoration is not new but very quiet, health is also OK, service staff attitude is also good, direct recommendation.

One thing to say, the advantage is that the environment is good, Table Mountain can be seen from the balcony, and it has its own private beach, although there is some garbage on it. There are two main disadvantages. The first is that it is not safe. Opening the window is a walkway, and a person can easily cross it, which means that the window must be locked to sleep. But there is no air conditioning. How is the air circulated? I went to the hotel front desk and wanted to change rooms, but the answer was that there was no option to change, and cancellations and hotel changes were not allowed. What kind of overbearing clause was this? Second, there is a charge for WiFi? ! And it's not fast either.