Southern Sun Pretoria – Stay on Friday, 13 February 2026
I recently stayed at Southern Sun Pretoria on Friday, 13 February 2026, and unfortunately, the experience s disappointing — especially for a four-star hotel.
The biggest issue s the lack of proper air conditioning. Instead of an aircon, the room had a noisy, fluffy standing fan that barely made a difference. In Pretoria’s heat, that simply isn’t acceptable for a hotel of this standard.
I also find it extremely frustrating when booking a family room for two adults and two children, and the room is not stocked accordingly. There s only one small bottle of ter in the fridge for four people. Only two coffee mugs were provided. No additional bath amenities to accommodate a family of four. These are small details, but they matter — especially when you are paying for a family room.
Cleanliness s another concern. Before checking out, I asked my kids to make sure nothing had fallen under the beds. What we found s honestly shocking — a noticeable amount of dust, dirt, and even dried spaghetti/noodles under the bed in Room 105. That should never happen in a properly serviced room.
The bathroom also felt very outdated. It had a bath with a shower curtain instead of a proper shower door — something that feels far behind modern expectations. For a four-star hotel in 2026, this feels very tired and overdue for an upgrade.
Breakfast s also not quite up to the usual Southern Sun standard. We started breakfast at 6:30am, and the variety s very limited compared to other Southern Sun hotels we’ve stayed at. There were no crumpets or pancakes available, which are normally a standard offering. The croissants only arrived when we were almost finished eating. Overall, the selection felt sparse and underwhelming.
Southern Sun, you really can do better. At this price point and star rating, guests should expect proper climate control, adequate amenities for the number of guests booked, high standards of cleanliness, and a breakfast offering that matches the brand’s usual reputation.
Disappointing overall.
From where you park your car there is no convenient lift or porter to help with your luggage to reception. Reception at check in is very professional, polite and friendly. 5 stars for the front desk team! Rooms are ok. Compared to other southern suns i expected a lot more for a 4 star branch. Breakfast s ok. Nothing exciting and standard fair. Attentive staff and helpful so that s a plus for me. Inconsistencies with whether you need to pay for parking or not. Dependant on whom you speak to.
Very Poor Experience – Not Recommended (Especially for Business Travelers)
I stayed at Southern Sun Pretoria for four nights, and unfortunately this has been one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve had in South Africa — and even across Africa during my travels.
Cleanliness s extremely poor. The bathroom s not properly cleaned, and the bathtub did not drain correctly.
What made it even worse is that this is advertised as a business hotel, yet the Wi-Fi is unusable. The speed does not go beyond 2 Mbps, and it disconnects constantly. It is impossible to attend even one online meeting, which is unacceptable for business travelers. Even after making multiple complaints, the issue remained unresolved throughout my stay.
Additionally, the staff were unhelpful and impolite, and the complaint-handling process s shockingly slow. It took them four days just to register the complaint, and even then nothing s fixed. A basic service response would have been to change the room, but that s never even considered.
Overall, if you only nt a place to sleep with no expectations of comfort or service, this hotel might work. But for anyone traveling for business or expecting a decent standard of hospitality, I strongly recommend avoiding this hotel.
This hotel has good bones, you can l that its an up market hotel.
The good: service is excellent, rooms neat and tidy. Limited menu but food good quality, compliments to the chef.
The ok:
There is wifi but a bit slow. The TV has enough channels to keep you busy although smart TV with steaming services would be better.
The rooms could do with an upgrade by adding plugs that have USB. There is only one 2 point plug, the room could do with more.
The bad:
The room has a bath shower combo with a curtain. This is something out of the 80's. Time to upgrade. To a better setup.
No plugs next to the bed. It would be nice to have it there for or laptop use.
Now the really irritating bit, no fault of the hotel but the incessant taxi hooting, if you are in a room on the west side, good luck. I'd suggest the hotel invest in sound proof windows on that side. Or get a metro cop to fine the taxis. (I know that will never happen)
I am a frequent guest of Southern Sun, Arcadia. Rooms, food, and the fact that as a guest you're charged if you request hot ter with lemon. This is unbelievable. My colleague jokingly asked if the hotel s in financial trouble, for them to charge for ter with 🍋. Yho!
The food is horrible.
The room that s allocated to me, had a dysfunctional extraction. Bath is so dirty with scum. Please return the standard of the Southern Sun before Covid 19.
I nted to update my previous review to express my gratitude to Southern Sun Pretoria for their excellent response to my complaint. I s contacted by the General Manager, Farana Moosa, on Monday, 08 December, who apologised for the noise issue I experienced on my first night. She assured me that the matter has been addressed internally and offered a complimentary 1-night stay for 2 with bed and breakfast as a gesture of goodwill. The voucher s promptly ed to me today, 09 December.||I appreciate the effort made by Farana to personally reach out and make things right. It is clear that Southern Sun values their guests' comfort and satisfaction. I must note that the noise s only an issue on the first night and the hotel s peaceful for the remainder of my stay. I enjoyed my time at the hotel except for that one night. Thank you, Farana, for putting your guests first and providing excellent customer service. I look forward to returning and enjoying my complimentary stay.
Pool s not available but they so not disclose that when you book. Entrance is easily accessible from parking. You have to lk out of the parking. Booking confirmation mentioned "Free parking" but we had to pay for the packing when we were checking out of which is such an inconveniency. Why do we have to pay for the room and parking separately?
Overall it is a nice place.
Everything s fine right up until night time, the horns from the taxi service goes on until midnight. I would not recommend to anyone who is seeking tranquility at night. It is very noisy.
The room s dirty, very bad stains on the floor and chairs, bathroom s even worse, had marks everywhere, didn't look like it s cleaned.
Asked for ironing board and iron, I got dressed without ironing as reception kept saying its on the y
The staff are extremely friendly and good the extra mile for guests. The only negative is the location. The hotel rooms are situated on a busy corner with hooting taxis which last from 5.30am to about 10pm. The hooting is non-stop, multiple times a minute, the rooms are not soundproof so everything can be heard. The hotel is currently undergoing a refurbishment so I hope soundproofing rooms are part of the upgrade.
