Name: Molenvliet Oosthuizen Family Vineyards
Address: Hellshoogte Pass Stellenbosch 7612,Hellshoogte Pass, Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa
Rating: 9

Winery

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Garden

Television in lobby

Terrace

Outdoor furniture

Reception desk

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Minibar

Shower/Bathtub

Bathrobe

Linens

Slippers

Safe (in room)

Toiletries

Rooms

Accessibility features

Accessibility

Iron and board

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Concierge services

Luggage storage

Deposit boxes

Services and amenities

Coffee/tea for guests

Breakfast

Restaurant

Bottled water

Kettle

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Free internet

Internet

Sun Deck

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Outdoor pool

Pool facilities

Pool and beach

Event facilities

Business

Massage

Beauty and wellness

Location

At the guest house

Room amenities

Cape Town International Airport

Molenvliet Oosthuizen Family Vineyards

Stellenbosch

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

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6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

A beautiful wine estate with stunning views. Booked a few days retreat in the Stellenbosch wine lands. MolenVliet gave the impression of top class. Upon arrival we were given very little information about the facilities, food options etc. A very basic info leaflet in the room. No phones so you couldn't simply call reception. Seemed very poorly organised which obviously affects our rating.
The room we stayed in was beautiful with wonderful views. Super clean. Just watch out as they charge even for water.
Overall a beautiful estate with friendly (although poorly informed) staff. 

Beautiful place. Below average service.

You can have the most beautiful spot the world, which this is, with heavenly views that literally take your breath away, a magnificent room with every comfort - great bed, AC, amazing shower, temperature control, sublime heated plunge pool-- but if you cannot train your staff to care a stitch about hospitality or guests, it won't matter because the general memory of the place is marred.  I can't say enough about how beautiful the mountain view suites are, inside, and especially out- looking at the mountain. Or how wonderful the pool is for relaxing.  I'd have given the place six stars, were it not for every interaction with staff or service being abysmal.   Our arrival was a clear sign of things to come, but we didn't hold it against them.  The Uber brings you through the gate, you have no idea where to go - you find a desk person at the top of the hill office (manor house) who says 'go down the hill, follow signs, each location has its own reception'- you get to where it must clearly be one of three very much separated structures,  not knowing which is yours- you circle with the car up and down the hillside a few times, looking for a human, an entry, around the central circle, each time seeing a young woman staring out a window who never comes out to help, greet or guide you- you don't know if its housekeeping, or another guest or if these are even your rooms.  Eventually you trek on foot to each side of the structure you guess may be the suites, as the car waits, until you find a path leading up into what may or may not be an entry, and she finally appears to 'welcome you.'  No matter, maybe she was busy--but it seems odd that she was OK to watch you circle again and again, or walk around trying to find a way in, and never came out to help.  You don't mind, you are excited to finally be found. She checks you in, gets her massive tip (no change), and gives you a Whatsapp number, for service 'anytime'- just 'contact us with anything you need.'  This is a very big lie.  The number is never, ever picked up.  Not in the afternoon, when you have a query, not in the evening, and certainly not in the morning, when you call eight times to figure out check out- till you finally call security.  Security ALSO cannot reach the desk.  Even worse, three other staff hovering about at checkout time try it, to no avail.  When it comes time to checkout, you imagined you have prepaid and can leave, or they can manage the checkout remotely, but there is noone to come and help you with the luggage, and the same security number you are forced to call for any human to be found informs you that you MUST go to the central manor house, in person, up the big hill.  You explain mobility issues,  bags-you call, and call, they call, a gardner calls, the same hapless girl from day one finally shows up, and calls- the manor house and front desk cannot be bothered to answer.  Someone from security comes and says there is no cart, but maybe they can take your bags up the hills.  You ask, and how do we get there?  You walk, they say.
 The cart they claimed to have has disappeared.   You call an Uber to come get the bags and pay them to sit and wait while you go to this manor house. When you get there, two half-asleep staff who could care less, robot-like in responses, are sitting there, clearly ignoring calls.  Only one person talking to them, no big line, noone is busy, yet they were ignoring all the calls, even two min prior, five min prior, in fact- all morning, even from three members of their own staff who frantically called a few times.  How are guests with mobility issues to get up the hill to that 'check out' location from across the compound?  Why is there no procedure in place at each structure, and what about luggage help?    They said 'we station someone at each of the buildings for ease of check-in' - well, they certainly have not thought of ease-of-check out, or emergencies, or hospitality.   If we were to have any life endangering event, we would have noone in this establishment helping us.  They would not answer.  The glass in the hallway outside the room was fully shattered, who knows when or how, but what if that had impacted a guest?  Where were these people?   The young man at the desk said 'maybe we were busy with other guests' with the most incredible lack of caring tone I've ever heard, even after I listed all the times we and tried to reach them- followed by "we don't answer in the evening".  He said 'this is our check out procedure, everyone has to get themselves to the manor house' - no apologies.  Just "what did you take from the minibar" so he could charge for a water.  Incredible lack of any concept of what is the norm for any establishment housing guests.

The only other experience with staff was breakfast, which was as bad as it gets.  This place has zero capability to handle their number of guests when fully booked for their breakfast time window -maybe if you go right when they start, you are lucky - but from number of tables, to staff and even food, which was almost all gone and never replenished for the last 45 min of breakfast- all a horror.  Every single table was piled sky high with dirty dishes, spills on the floor, food debris and people were standing by hoping something would be cleared so they could sit.  This happens at alot of busy hotels, so it is generally acceptable, but here staff that looked angry, went out of their way to ignore their boss and seemed to have no interest in service, or helping out guests.  The female manager who kept asking them to do this, or that, one by one calling people by name to assign task, or yelling things in the kitchen like 'I said over-easy' five times in an authoritative voice- seemed to end up doing half the jobs in the dining space herself. She was clearing dishes, cleaning tables, serving, trying to manage ten tasks, while the mayhem was conveyed to all guests.   We stood by a dirty table, as she instructed a young woman to clean it, and the woman literaly took a dirty rag and wiped exactly one fourth of the table with one motion-- leaving all the sticky spills and filth for us to wipe.  She was so angry and simply could not be bothered.  Then she was instructed by the woman to bring missing silverware.  When the manager was gone and thus not looking, and my spouse had given up on getting coffee- going to seek it-- the young girl came back and THREW, literally THREW the silverware on our table from a distance.  I've seen everything, but I've actually never seen this before.  In fact, I'm quite capable of complaining but the shock of the whole situation and this act of defiance before we even got any food just lulled me into a semi-frozen state- do I want to start a scene with the manager on the manner of silverware delivery?  No.  In the end, we didn't get half of our food, and the rest came out cold, awful-- and every request, even for toast, was greeted with such resentment, such a clear communication that we were a burden-- it felt like meal time at a prison --where you are inconveniencing your warden.   They should not bother with breakfast, with the staff they have, who clearly hate working at this place, or maybe are so overworked and underpaid and sick of serving all-white guests.... I don't know.   Just put a muffin with the coffee maker in the rooms and it will be better than this type of experience.  The breakfast alone ruins a lovely stay.

It is a pity.  In a country of magnificent beaty and hospitality, this place had all of one and none of the other.  Someday soon a guest will fall ill, or have an emergency, they won't help, and there will be consequences.  Until then, I still recommend going for the beauty of the place, and being prepared for no service- taking your own breakfast, and pre-planning your checkout well in advance, if you cannot drag bags up a hill for a very long treck across the campus.  

Six of five for views, zero of five for service and staff

Heavenly magnificent grounds/horrible hospitality and staff

Luxury sanctuary in the beautiful wine region. Stayed here for 3 nights in the Manor House as part of my 40th celebration and Molenvilet did not disappoint. The property is stunning; everywhere you look is so idyllic - it's like you're in heaven. Special shout out to Mimi on reception and Ranga who looks after the Manor House - such amazing people who looked after us.

The only negative feedback I have is the restaurant. We booked the half board package via booking.com only to learn upon check-out that dinner is included for one night only. This is not the definition of half board. Mimi kindly sorted this out for us, but if this is the hotel's policy they should make guests aware of this in advance of them arriving as we would have opted out of half board. Furthermore, the restaurant menu is the same every night - we ate there 2 out of 3 nights and was quite surprised by this, so something to be aware of if you plan to stay longer. 

Apart from this, Molenvilet is superb and we would definitely stay here again - incredible staff, amazing scenery, pure bliss. 


Heaven in the vineyards

We attended a family wedding and were hosted fully. Everything was just perfect with very helpful staff. Great place to stay for a relaxing holiday as well. Just loved the property for it's scenic vista.. Unfortunately I cannot comment on the value or cost of the property as we were guests attending a wedding here.

Amazing Wedding Venue & Fantastic Accomodation

Had the most amazing time attending a friend’s wedding at MolenVliet. There was nothing we could fault. Accommodation was wonderful with super comfortable beds. Staff were attentive and friendly, with nothing being too much trouble. The location was incredible, tucked right into a beautiful valley. Would not hesitate visiting here again. 

What an incredible place!

A beautiful property with incredible views! It is definitely worth booking the mountain view executive suite, so that you have your own private pool, which turns a bedroom into a villa.  The breakfast is exceptional, so go hungry! We loved our honeymoon and felt very relaxed after our stay.  The staff were very helpful and made our stay so comfortable.  

Tranquil and Picturesque

The rooms were lovely and the view was amazing. Although we had very heavy luggage and they only had female housekeepers to take the luggage up which didn’t help so my partner had to carry our bags. Otherwise was a lovely stay!

Miss

Beautiful property, lovely rooms, but service could have been better.
Breakfast was delicious. The floors in the rooms were very slippery so be careful! But otherwise I would stay here again. Mountain View room was the best

Lovely Views

Great place to stay, stunning views from the mountain suite which is a great room as well. We loved the private plunge pool and the breakfast, served in a beautiful garden. We will definitely come back! 

Stunning views

This is without a doubt a stunning hotel and the Mountain View suite in which we stayed was absolutely beautiful, with a view I will never forget. The breakfast is great and set in a beautiful location.

Depending on your preference, if you like a visible presence from staff with a personal touch I feel this is definitely an area the venue could improve but we were very grateful for Jack who was very attentive at the poolside. Offering snacks there too would definitely be a welcome addition as besides from just Pringles in the room, there aren’t any snacks available on the site.

I would also agree with other reviews that volume of emails before arrival and then daily to chase for a review afterwards did somewhat go against their intention of making things feel stress-free, given we were staying at multiple locations throughout our trip to SA. Sadly a no-doubt genuine error initially (where I was asked in a pre-arrival email if I wanted a romantic turndown for 350RAN, something I didn’t want, so just didn’t reply) but was added to the bill. This lead to an awkward questioning as to whether we had had MCC (SA equivalent to bubbly), which we didn’t (not that it matters but it never was even put in our room), but having to reconfirm that we definitely didn’t three or four times did leave a somewhat sour taste in our mouth after an otherwise solid experience.

NB for those travelling without a car, Ubers were really hard to come by so to enjoy the full wine regions experience, we wish we had sorted our own transport as there’s so many amazing places to visit nearby.

Molenvliet Oosthuizen Family Vineyards

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