We stayed here for one night only, thank goodness. We were greeted with "Hello I'm Ian, sign here, this is your room, here's your key". He was very offhand. We never met or were introduced to his wife. It was Boxing Day and everything seemed too much trouble. Maybe this is his usual manner or maybe he took an instant dislike to us. Maybe because I asked if there was safe parking in town for when we went for our evening meal? Maybe he took offence at this, but this is South Africa and Durban has a high crime record. He said they had lived there for 8 years without a problem but there are electric fences and alarms everywhere you go! We asked him to book a restaurant for us which he dutifully did after telling us most restaurants would be closed, but we had to ask. Nothing was forthcoming. I received an email telling me that someone had hacked into my PayPal account so I needed to sort a few things out. He was just so unhelpful! The Internet struggled at such a slow speed, I asked if there was an internet cafe locally. He did actually offer the use of his computer but the speed would have been just the same. We arrived at breakfast and no one welcomed us. When I asked if we could have a cup of tea he just pointed to the kettle. So we just helped ourselves. No introduction as to the fact it was self service or a cooked breakfast could be ordered. The house alarm went off in the early hours with us too. We were fast asleep and we didn't know what to do. Nobody came to reassure us it was a false alarm (caused by a plant apparently). No apologies in the morning either. But not a pleasant stay. When we left Ian stood at the door, glared at me and just asked for the key (which I had left in the door). Very strange behaviour for a host! He didn't even say enjoy the rest of your trip or safe journey. Pleasantness costs nothing and makes such a difference to ones holiday experience. They certainly didn't deserve our custom.

I mislaid my Gortex jacket and had to email Saffron House when I got home to see if I had left it there and Ian was actually very prompt in responding that he had looked in our room etc but not found it. So for that I thank him.

I hope this is a balanced review and a one off. Other guests seem to have experienced a much more pleasant stay. I always give people the benefit of the doubt so for us maybe this was a case of wrong time wrong place!

We stayed 2 nights at The Saffron House which was a mistake. We received a surly short welcome, given very little information and told if we didn't use the complimentary map of the area to give it back on our departure. The owner's attitude left us in no doubt they are not warm hosts. She was clipped and short with our questions and we had the impression she wanted to get back to what she was doing as soon as possible. It was clear that she doesn’t like to mix with her customers and we never saw her again during our stay.

During both nights the husband's car alarm went off at 1am in the morning, waking us up. The air con in the room was temperamental and the remote for it barely worked. You have to press the button 8-10 times before it gets lucky and understands what you want. If you go out and leave the air con in your room on, hoping to come back to a lovely cool room you’ll be disappointed. They come into your room while you’re out and turn the air con off. We didn’t like the fact that they even came into our room. You come back and the room is boiling. The air con takes 2-3 hours to cool it down after that. You can’t alter the fan direction and it blows constantly on the sofa making it impossible to sit on the only chair in the room.

We also weren’t told how to open the electric gate so we had to knock on their door to ask. The husband opened the door and treated us like children.

They lock the front door at 9.30pm but don't give you a key for it. You have to go around the back to your room's patio doors and use that to get in. The first night the front door was open so no problem. On our 2nd night we come home and it was shut so we had to try the patio doors. We had already had trouble with these during the day from the inside of the room but from the outside it was impossible. The key and the lock would not align at all. 10 minutes later we were left with no option but to go and knock on the owner's door and ask for help. Out comes the husband in a temper, stomps off to the room snatching the keys from my wife as he goes, struggles with the lock himself, hands back the keys without a word and stomps away with not a word spoken. It was then that we decided to write a review of this place.

Did I mention that the curtains are so thin and cheap that the light comes through them at 5am when the sun rises? Both mornings we were woken up early and couldn't get back to sleep. I am writing this at 7am having resigned myself to not being able to get back to sleep again. The bed is so short my wife’s feet touch the end of it, so mine overhang the wooden end. The internet is grindingly slow, loading pages at 5Kbs/second.

Most people stay for a night whilst passing through. Don't bother. Have a good night's sleep somewhere else; somewhere that actually wants your custom.

I stayed in this hotel for just a few days whilst attending the Climate change Conference in Durban.

Although it was some distance away from Durban, it was an excellent choice!

It is a small property and feels like you are in a home with a family. The room I was in was nice, cozy and clean. The hosts/owners were great and I appreciated their attention to the small details and the fact they made me feel comfortable there. I would highly recommend this property. It was just unfortunate i did not get to spend more time and see the surrounding area.

We were booked here for 2 nights in November 2011 by our tour organiser "Selftours". We had specified Ballito but was placed at Salt Rock. We still do not know why we were booked here as the owners claim this was their first booking from Selftours and we certainly did not specify it.
The room was cluttered with furniture and what cupboards there were was filled with the guesthouses own items. As it was a 2 night stop on a 4 week tour we like to totally unpack our suitcases but in this case we could not. It may have been because we had asked for twin beds that the ammount of space was to say the least tight.
There was 2 chairs outside our room by the pool. No table and it was not covered so when it rained you could not use this facility.
We have stayed in better 3 star establishments