Bird Haven Guesthouse

Wonderful Lodge in Lesotho..The best friendly, hard working staff ever. We were booked in here as part of a 3 day tour of Lesotho. The room was lovely and in a traditional round hut. We had requested traditional food and the lodge did an amazing spread for us with multiple dishes. We couldn’t recommend more highly the hospitality and cleanliness of Bird Haven. Thank you for having us.

We arrived during the afternoon to an indifferent welcome. We asked for tea or coffee and were told that there was none available due to loadshedding. A hotel should have a solution to this, especially because in Lesotho there are no coffee shops or restaurants for westerners. There was a menu chalk board at the entrance, but 3 of the 5 items were not available. The room was clean and comfortable.

My work colleagues and I ended up at Bird Haven because there was an issue with our booking at their sister property, Naleli Guesthouse. To be fair, we were there during the October elections and most properties in town were booked up by election observers. As Naleli though we had only booked for one person and we had four, the owner/manager of both properties stepped in to find a solution. She kindly offered us free drinks while we waited. Ultimately she found four rooms for us at Bird Haven. It's a lovely property with a pleasant garden surrounded by a range of different rooms including in rondavels. My colleagues were relatively happy with their rooms but, unfortunately, I got the room in the back of the main house across from the kitchen. Avoid it or you will be disappointed with your stay. While the room is reasonably big with a small fridge and a couch, I didn't realize until after I had moved in that there was not a private bathroom. Instead, I had to use the bathroom in the hallway. Furthermore, there was no way for me to lock the bathroom door so I showered in fear that someone would walk in on me. To be fair, there is a partial door (it is not floor to ceiling so more like a shutter) between the kitchen and hallway and the bathroom that can be pulled shut which made me feel a bit better. There is no shower so you have to "shower" by squatting in the bathtub and using the handheld shower head. Also, you get all of the noise from the kitchen from breakfast through dinner which was a distraction. The restaurant has a very limited menu with no vegetarian options. The cook was able to make me a vegetarian pasta which was reasonably good. I want to emphasize that staff were accommodating despite the challenges with our reservations. I would still recommend Naleli over Bird Haven. If not, be sure to know which room you are booking as the quality of your experience will depend on it.