Rand Club Suites

My husband and I recently booked and prepaid for a 5 night stay at The Rand Club Johannesburg as Reciprocal Members. Having stayed at several reciprocal clubs worldwide, we did not anticipate needing to check reviews due to consistently high standards of Reciprocal Clubs. However, upon our arrival after sunset, we were immediately concerned by the unsafe policed neighbourhood with dim or no lighting on surrounding streets. Admittedly, this oversight was our own, as we did not research the area beforehand so it is no fault of the Rand Club that the neighbourhood is not the best. That said, the property itself is architecturally stunning! To make matters worse for us, our check-in experience was just atrocious. Despite advising them in advance that we would arrive around 6:00pm, there was no help-desk or reception desk, with absolutely no one to assist us; a security guard escorted us to our room and handed us the key. We booked the Superior Suite, which promised amenities such as a HD TV with NETFLIX, luxury linen, bespoke toiletries and more. Unfortunately, the room did not meet even basic expectations. There was NO telephone in the room despite a directory of service numbers, the bed linen had large holes, there was NO Air-Conditioning which made the room uncomfortably warm and resulted in a very restless night after a 10 hour flight and the TV was not working as advertised. The once white towels were dis-coloured, stiff and abrasive! Further compounding our dissatisfaction, we were advised by the guard to stay on the premises for dinner due to safety concerns in the area; so we went down to the inhouse restaurant for a meal. After dinner, the elevator was stuck on an upper floor because someone had not shut the gate and again we had to find the security guard outside to assist us. The next morning, after learning from a few reliable sources that the neighborhood was unsafe beyond one block from the club, we decided to move to a property in a nicer neighbourhood which would offer at least the basics like air-conditioning, a working television, a telephone, decent bed-linen & towels and someplace nice enough for us to be able to step out of the property and go for a walk or a meal. Not an unreasonable expectation and certainly not too much to ask in consideration that we paid 5 star rates for 5 nights in their Superior Suite (the best accommodation the Club had to offer). We made our decision to relocate after just one night and informed The Rand Club of our early departure. We booked a place at Melrose Arch and paid no more than what we paid at the Rand Club. Although we did not request a refund for the 4 unused nights, the lack of courtesy and understanding of our dissatisfaction, particularly considering the absence of basic amenities was disappointing. An “offer of a partial refund” would have been a nice gesture rather than contacting us after 6 days saying we had their room key and they would like to have it back!! Unbelievable