On a whim, and because there was an opening special, I booked us in for a night at Hotel Sky. This would be the night that there was a storm coming through the Cape. Rain and wind was the order of the day.
Checking in was daunting as there was so many people, we still aren’t comfortable in crowds. A slow cup of coffee while people and robot watching kept us away from the crowds.
Automation and high tech are the staple of Hotel Sky. There is an app you can download to do just about anything. The problem is that the app did not work on any of our devices which proved to be problematic throughout our stay, more about that below.
After checking in, we fought our way up to our room. The problem with not staggering the check-in times, is that the four lifts can’t efficiently transport guest to the 19 floors of rooms. The pandemic did compound this further, with social distancing being paramount.
Hotel Sky is a converted office block and they have spared no expense in the conversion.. It is too loud and bright for our tastes, and strangely a lot of gold all over. Our room is long and thin, yet boasts a queen sized bed with a view over Cape Town Harbour.
And this is when we encountered how reliant the hotel is on its app. With no room telephone, all communication is to be done via the app. This seriously limited our ability to obtain food. Also some confusion on which restaurant is open, and in the end we decided to exit the hotel to get food.
The decision to leave led to some hilarity, as we wanted to avoid the lift chaos, so we tried the stairs. Our room key card allowed us in the stairwell, we just couldn’t get out of the stairwell. After walking up and down and trying a few floors, we were able to exit the stairwell to gratefully enter the lift.
After all the excitement on our quest for food, we had a bit of a lie down. And started the whole quest again for dinner. The rain and wind didn’t let up which meant we couldn’t take full advantage of the facilities, the pool areas were closed. And unfortunately the rooftop ride was not yet open.
We didn’t have a good night’s sleep and missed our mattress at home. When I woke up, my husband was trying to get some sleep on the floor. We were the first at the gorgeous buffet breakfast, and probably the first to check out.
There were tears of frustration, and laughter at absurdity. An experience that we will remember but sadly probably not repeat.
I still want to go do the rooftop ride, so I will wait for summer for that adventure!