We arrived at the African Sands guesthouse in Bloemfontein on Saturday 8 October at about 7.30pm. We were met by the hostess who told us the cost would be R650 per person (on their website, the executive bridal suite is only R549), however the hostess was aware that we were desperate for accommodation and so provided us with two interleading back rooms. My room was small with two single beds. One bed was made. When I asked the hostess if she would mind making up the other bed as I would have difficulty getting out of the made bed as I have a disabled leg, she said “That bed is made so you will have to use it. I have other things to do now” The bed base had no cover and when I pulled back the sheet, the sheets were mouldy, the blanket was smelly and the single pillow on the bed was very flat and it too, had a strange smell. My bedroom had no bedside tables or lamps and the comforter on the bed was old, faded and smelly. My bathroom had a toilet, a basin and a shower. The shower was not clean. There was a handtowel and a bathtowel. Both were cheap quality and also had a strange smell. My small piece of soap looked like it had been used before. There was a cup in the bathroom that was dirty. My colleague’s room had a double bed which squeaked terribly if you even sat on it. Her towel smelled of smoke and she had no soap in her bathroom at all. When we arrived the hostess mentioned that she had no credit card facilities and they did not take cheques, so people would have to carry large amounts of cash around to pay the account. We were asked for the money as we arrived. It gets worse. We were not told about any tea/coffee making facilities for morning tea. The website specifically states that there is a buffet breakfast. Signs all over the guesthouse state that breakfast is from 7 – 10 am. When we mentioned that we wanted breakfast at 7.30 as we had a long road journey ahead, we were told we had to wait until 8 as breakfast on a Sunday was only at 8 am (This was not signposted anywhere). Breakfast consisted of a bowl of yogurt and tinned fruit, tea or coffee (which you have to make yourself), toast with jam and a disgustingly cheap yellow margarine and a plate with a hunk of microwaved bacon, an oily Vienna sausage and a small piece of tomato very obviously microwaved and over done as it had just about disintegrated. (We did request that we did not want eggs but there was no attempt to try and give us something else eg. Mushroom or beans). The hostess was very inflexible and her whole demeanour was one of “I don’t really want to do this but I have to as you’ve paid for it”. Service was at an absolute minimum and quality was bad. As we were desperate for accommodation and this was probably the last bed in Bloemfontein (not surprisingly), I think perhaps that the hostess thought she was doing us a favour and she had obviously thought that it was a perfect opportunity to rip someone off, but even if the room was small and sparsely furnished (acceptable under the circumstances), if you are charging people this much for accommodation, you should at least offer a level of comfort and cleanliness. Everybody had the same awful breakfast. I have seen some of the other rooms on the website and they look impressive, however it was different what we got and the food was definitely not of an acceptable standard, neither was the attitude of the hostess who never made any attempt to make us feel welcome.