Gweta Lodge

Terrible experience with Gweta Lodge. We love the southern African region and decided to search for new experiences here, so found a possibility to sleep in salt pans and started to look around where we could accomplish it. We chose to use Gweta Lodge, they had to pick us up from one of Maun hotels. Communication was extremely rough with them, but we agreed on pick-up time and details eventually. Worst was pick-up day, we waited for 2 hours with no communication with us, when Gweta lodge “manager” called to the hotel where we are staying and said that the driver isn’t reachable, that's why no one picked us up. Worst thing is that I was calling them multiple times and they were not picking up the phone. Eventually, they said they will arrange another pick-up, which looked sketchy as we wouldn’t be able to reach the lodge till the salt pan expedition start time. The driver came and he was so weird, he wasn’t even talking with us and trying to force us to get to his car, we couldn’t trust this person. It felt like he was planning to rob us. We contacted the lodge and said that we won’t go. They agreed to pay a refund, but this was the last thing we heard, they didn't refund and we are still waiting for about a month. So I think this lodge is just a scam, my recommendation is never go here. Stay safe and pick another lodge which will be a little bit more expensive, don’t make our mistake!

The staff were super friendly and extremely helpful with helping us plan our onward travel through botswanna. This included discussing buses and helping us book the okange delta for straight after new year. The tour they run to the meerkats was an amazing experience.

We didn't stay at Gweta Lodge but stopped in to do the village tour which was excellent and a good price. Our guide was very friendly and we learned a lot about the Botswanan way of life. He also managed to track down some Mopani worms to try...

It smells disgusting in there, the place is dirty and actually isn’t by the Makgadikgadi area. The staff doesn’t know what is happening , they just don’t do anything at all . There wasn’t hot water in our room

On arriving at Gweta lodge it is hard to imagine it is only 1 Star. We were met warmly by Una and another lady who didn’t tell us her name or seam interested in smiling. They showed us to our room and carried our bags in for us. The room was only a stone throw from the bar/lounge lapa which was on the opposite side of the swimming pool to the fire pit and brai/ bar-b-que and restaurant area. Our guide for the next day, Chief, met us before lunch to discuss our following days excursion to Ntwetwe pans and the Meerkats. We had a pleasant supper of cauliflower soup, braii and salad and a chocolate dessert. The next morning we set of at 6.am for our full day adventure. We found Chief a fantastic guide. On returning just before 3 pm we found our room hadn’t been made up. Other guests whom we chatted to at supper had found the same. Luckily we had brought our own toilet rolls, coffee, shampoo and body wash (both the later were solid in their containers) etc. The next day I went to reception and found Una ( the lady who had greeted us warmly on arrival) and Rebecca, the bookings manager. I had several complaints which I wanted rectifying….The room was dirty, a photo of the bars of the bedside table proved it hadn’t been properly cleaned for a long time, the sheet on one of the twin beds was so thin it was transparent and you could see the mattress straight through it, the mosquito nets barely met the top of the mattress so once in you couldn’t move and stay under it, the one on my husbands bed touched his head….there was only one hand towel, the place was absolutely full of mosquitos and I had the bites to prove it, the room hadn’t been cleaned or made up the day before, neither had consumables been replenished. I think both ladies knew I was not amused by this shoddy room, I also pointed out that even if we wanted to swim we couldn’t because the water was green and the bottom of the pool hadn’t been cleaned. Both ladies apologised. They said rooms didn’t get made up unless we left the key, they were not allowed in guests rooms to replenish consumables unless the key was left. I pointed out that no one had told us that, the quiet unsmiling lady who had checked us in hadn’t mentioned it and there was no notice either at reception or in the room telling us this….as this isn’t normal practice how we’re we supposed to know…Una instantly apologised and said she would go and clean the room herself and get it all put right. She was as good as her word..she emerged along time later very hot but the room was a delight. It smelt nice, looked nice, it was clean, she’d adjusted the mosquito nets, replenished the consumables and put out 4 towels which she had dressed with burgonvillia, she had also sprayed for mosquitos…what a difference a bit of effort makes. When Una brought me the key back she thanked me for helping them keep the standards up…she really was passionate about wanting the lodge to become as grand as it could and highly successful. It was lovely t

There was one positive thing about Gweta Lodge - the staff were friendly if undertrained. All other aspects of this lodge were awful. The grounds were littered with construction debris other areas were nearly as bad. The pool was green and dirty. No lighting between room and main area. Shower water randomly and mostly off. Forget hot! AC unit spit droplets on the bed. Breakfast good, evening meal fair. Ceiling fan to noisy to use. Rooms aren’t cleaned unless u leave the key before going out! Stay down the road a bit at Planet Boabab.