Between August 13th-22nd, 2007, I stayed in the Zulu Room at 164 Boutique Guesthouse in Durban, South Africa. The five star guest house is in the Edwardian era Musgrave district of Durban, which is green, historiic, and lively (without being loud or ihn any way uncomfortable). In terms of sheer pampering, this hotel is a remarkable opportunity to enjoy the best at very low cost.

The hotel itself is a charming and beautifully designed 1920s structure with high ceilings, deep porches, a secluded and leafy pravate yard with pool, and many, many amenities. Looking a bit like an Agatha Christie movie set with attractive furniture, huge windows, regional antiques, and charming dining areas, the hotel is a dream offering outstanding breakfasts, a tasteful private bar, a huge array of books, CDs, DVDs for enjoyment, and the most attentive hosts imaginable. You receive a large skelaton key to your room, plus beepers and keys to the external doors.

The well-kept rooms are light filled, elegant, and uncrowded, featuring excellent beds with imposing headboards, attractive African art and photographs, televisions, attached baths, big closets with wooden hangers. Some rooms boast attached sitting rooms. Each room comes with it's own reading lights, ceiling fan, Venetian blinds, tea/coffee service with packets of fresh African coffee, free drinking water, and lovely views of the area. The bathrooms are large, well lit, comfortably outfitted, and spotless. The hosts even provide plush terry cloth bath robes for use in the hotel. While there are no in-room phones, however, the innkeepers shared their cell phones as needed when guests needed to make calls..

Early mornings and dusks at the guest house are superb with an array of frogs and birds singing, friendly small dogs to greet you, generous offerings of fresh juice and french-press African coffee or tea, and an array of local wines to try out. It is delightful simply to sit and enjoy the scene as an interesting array of guests sit down to breakfast at small tables under umbrellas in the leafy shade. Breakfasts are complex affairs with fresh juice, yougurt, many cereal offerings, plus daily hot "cooked breakfast" specials some of which are regional egg or meat dishes with a wealth of toast and jams on the side. The hosts generously cook to order as needed for the less adventurous.

On Saturday mornings, do go to the nearby Essenwood market, where you will find an amazing array of local crafts, antiques, produce, local musicians and recording artists, and other offerings to explores at very reasonable prices. Also try out the Bat Center (downtown at the Marina) and the African Art Center (on Florida Road) for crafts at slightly more elevated prices.

If you are going to the conference center as we were, you will find the cabs to and from the downtown to be inexpensive (30-40 Rand) and good. You will learn a lot about life in Durban from talking with your cabby. Several nearby restaurants are good (prawns at Jimmys, Indian food, and local take aways) with even better nearby restaurants on Florida Avenue (particularly an outstanding Italian restaurant). The innkeepers know all the best restaurants nearby and are very generous with their time to resolve all manner of issues from confirmations of reservations, bookings, taxis, logistics, to allowing guests to use their computers for catching up on your email.

In summary, the rooms are excellent, the service is outstanding, and the food is highly recommended. This hotel offers a sense of being taken back to an earlier era while enjoying all the pleasures of the present--thus placing it at the very top of the heap. When I compared it to the generic and slightly grubby hotels many of my colleagues stayed at, I felt very very fortunate to be at the 164 Boutique Guesthouse.

Just returned from a 2 night stay at this property and had a wonderful experience. Our room faced the garden and pool and was very comfortable and nicely decorated. The main house was also well decorated and very comfortable. The guesthouse is situated in a quiet and safe neighborhood in Durban with the most friendly dogs you'll ever meet! And the owners, were just as charming and helpful. We hope we will be able visit there again soon. For the amount we paid, roughly $110 a night, we recieved great service and found it to be a great value. Breakfast is also included and was delicious and different every morning, breakfasting on the front veranda was the perfect way to start off our day.

164 is truly an outstanding guesthouse, located in a very nice residential area of Durban. We spent 7 days there in December 2006 and already have plans to return in 2008. The house is warm and inviting and the bedrooms are beautifully decorated with all amenties. Colin Farrell, the movie star, had been a previous guest and had stayed in our room. Breakfast is served in the garden or on the terrace and there is plenty to eat. Nothing was too much trouble for Mike the owner.

Downtown Durban is a virtually a NO GO area and we found it very intimidating and unfriendly and not a place to venture at night.

164 is in an area called Musgrave which is very safe and pleasant to walk round in the evening. There is a shopping centre nearby and plenty of restaurants offering a wide variety of dishes. There is even a fish and chip shop!!!

Mike, the owner, and his business partner Shaun very kindly took us on a tour of Durban city centre and the waterfront and pointed out the redevelopment taking place in preparation for the world cup.

The staff at 164 are exceptionally helpful and friendly and seem to take pride in their work. They were always willing to help if Mike was not around.

164 is a professional establishment, well run but with a very friendly atmosphere and exceptionally good value for money.

If you are thinking of visiting Durban this place is a must. We will definitely be back.

There were so many problems with this hotel i don't know were to begin.

- We went in the winter, and the rooms were very cold of a night time. the owner thought that this was redicules that customers dared to be cold, and actually argued with us that we were not in fact cold! He did go and buy a heater for 2 of us, but not for the other room, as she was staying the shortest amount of nights. So she froze.

- Breakfast consisted of whatever the owner decided you would have. There was no choice, no questions asked about what you might like, and if were for example allergic to something. My mother in law, who had not eaten breakfast all week, asked for a piece of toast, which wasn't on the agenda - he refused.

- Despite what is says on his website, you cannot have dinner in your room. In fact you cannot have dinner anywhere other than were he says you can.

- He locks up the communal areas when he leaves the house, as he wont pay for staff. So if he goes out for the evening, there is no way of getting so much as a drink of water, let alone any help in an emergency.

- The television is controlled via the living room, so most of the channels are at the discreation of the owner. As he locks this living room whenever he goes out, the television may be left on the most awful channel, and you have no choice in it.

-I had his clothes stored in my closet, amongst other things, and staff would walk in and out without knocking to retrieve items.

- He balled a customer out for requesting soap. He was having friends over, he and they were drunk, and he told the customer to "Fxxx off' and leave if if you don't like it"

- Worst of all, because he got the bookings mixed up, when I got home I found that he had fruadulently charged my credit card after I left the hotel. A charge which was refunded to me after months of arguement.

I think the problem is that this is his house, he lives there. He is a control freak, and you(the customer) are invading his space. Do not stay here, for longer than 1 night, as any more than that and you risk getting on the wrong side of him.