Wendy on what to do when renting a holiday home

The experience which Laura Ghirao of Johannesburg and her family had with the holiday home they booked in Ramgate in December is a fairly typical example. 

It fell to Laura to find a suitable KZN south coast house to let for her family and those of her three sisters - one visiting from the US, another based in Durban and the fourth in Jo’burg, along with their elderly mother - 20 of them in all.

Laura's holiday home rental gone wrong 

Around July last year, she went online and found a lovely looking place on the website of south coast holiday accommodation letting agency Beds At Sea. She made the booking, paid the deposit but was then told the house had been turned into a B&B, so she agreed to another house on their books, which looked lovely on the site, complete with sparkling pool.

But when they arrived on the day after Christmas, they were immediately disappointed.

“When I walked into the house, there was broken windows, the house was dirty, some of the doors did not lock, the pool was so filthy, the braai area was filthy,” Laura says. "The one fridge in the kitchen was constantly defrosting, so the whole area in that kitchen was full of water, no many how many times we mopped."

Laura starting sending Whatsapp messages to Ronelle - her contact person at Beds at Sea - at shortly before 2pm that day, reporting the broken windows, a lack of security, broken door locks, the dirty pool, the defrosting fridge and more, and asking for a night watchman, an optional extra mentioned on the agency’s website.

Ten messages, one email and six and a half hours later, she finally got a response, to say Ronelle wasn’t available.

Laura heard nothing more until shortly before noon the following day, when Beds At Sea manager Theuns Maritz texted to say that a security guard would be at the house that evening.

In the end, the family was forced to stay in that house because, being peak season and there being 20 of them, they couldn’t find anywhere else to stay.

They left a day earlier than planned, after four nights in the house, two with the protection of a security guard, and two without. 

Laura had paid Beds at Sea R24 000 upfront, and she then asked for the refund of the R1500 breakage deposit, which the agency undertakes, on its website, to refund within three days of departure, plus a refund of that last night’s accommodation.

When that didn’t happen, she contacted Consumerwatch and Ugu South Coast Tourism.

The agency refunded Laura her R1500 breakage deposit this week, but refused to refund the last night’s accommodation, saying it’s not their policy.


That would be legitimate, if a family departed early for personal reasons, but not if the accommodation was lacking a key respect, or was misrepresented. In other words, a blanket “no refunds” policy is not acceptable.

And so began the ‘he said, she said”: Maritz denied that the house was in a bad condition - the pool was cleaned daily, he said, windows were not broken, only one was cracked, the doors did lock, and the fridge was old when defrosted when opened a lot.

Then he said he told Ronelle to ignore Laura’s texts “due to the fact that I had taken enough harassment from these guests.. We are not a five star establishment and we do not false advertise…”


Laura’s photo of the pool, it has to be said, does back up her claim that pool was dirty when they arrived. It was only cleaned on the day they left, she says.

“If I stood on the step, I left a footprint there, that’s how dirty it was,” she says. "And it wasn’t just a few leaves blown in because because of the wind.”

Maritz conceded that others had complained about the house - I’d mentioned HelloPeter posts - but said that’s because it had been renovated “over the last few months”.

He added that Maxwell Mhlongo of Ugu South Coast Tourism had “inspected the property and he has seen for himself that the house is not anywhere near the state that Mrs Ghirao claims…”

I spoke to Maxwell, and he told a different story. He says he went to inspect the house and found it in the midst of a massive spring cleaning exercise, leaving most of the rooms empty. He was able to see that there were no security gates, and he noted several other points as well, including the dirty pool, in an email to Beds at Sea of January 20, to which he has received no response.

Ugu South Coast Tourism weighs in 

CEO of Ugu South Coast Tourism, Justin Mackrory, told Consumerwatch that letting agencies on the KZN South Coast are not legally required to be members of his organisation or any other.

Those that do join have to have the necessary Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) registration. 

Any “fly by nights” brought to the South Coast Tourism’s attention were blacklisted by the organisation and reported to the EAAB, he said.

Beds at Sea is registered with the tourism organisation, but as a single property accommodation establishment, not a multiple one, which is what they are.

“We are, through our investigation, bringing this to the attention of the EAAB and considering their status as a member of standing,” he said. The organiation received another complaint about Beds at Sea last week, he said.

What to do 

Here is Mackrory’s advice to consumers looking to rent holiday accommodation:

* Check out the credentials of a letting agency via the local tourism organisation, and get their option on the quality and conditions of the property on offer. Don’t trust the photos on the website.

* Use only letting agencies recognised by the local tourism organisation. They are usually advertised on their website and in promotional publications, for example, with respect to the KZN South Coast: www.tourismsouthcoast.co.za and its official publication  www.southernexplorer.co.za 

* Ask letting agencies for their EAAB certification if you are unsure of their credentials.

* Do not use booking websites which are not universally recognised or linked to membership of a local tourism organisation.

* Read the small print of your booking contracts and check whether they are compliant with the Consumer Protection Act.* 

* And after all that, if your chosen accommodation still proves to be a disaster, and completely different from what was displayed/promised on the letting website, take good quality photographs of all the problem areas, and use them to prove your case. Always report your experience to tourism/grading organisations.