7th Street Guesthouse, Melville, Johannesburg

The 7th Street Guesthouse is situated about 5 minutes from this buzzing street. When we pulled up to the place, I was quite surprised to see that there was no buzzer which meant my colleague had to phone the owners to be let in. The owner didn’t seem particularly friendly on the phone, as she demanded to know who was calling and under what reservation it was. About five minutes later, she appeared and manually opened the gate (no automated gate! Gasp!).

She was actually quite nice and apologised at once for coming off as rude but explained that due to chancers, she does not let anyone in unless they have a booking. She also explained that the manual gate was so that no one could try to clone the signal or force their way in.

Woah! That was a bit scary to hear but as I had no plans to walk outside, I wasn’t too bothered.

The room was really pretty. It has some sort of Moroccan theme going on with leather furniture and wooden floors. The bathroom was modern with a bath and a shower. I’ve stayed in so many guesthouses where I felt I was living in the owner’s old room but this place definitely doesn’t feel that way.

Oh and of course, I love wooden floors…..

As an added bonus, there was a chocolate on the bed and you know you can’t go wrong with chocolate…. Also, there was a little fridge with a coffee stand. Although I consider that to be standard, often I find that rooms lack that. I didn’t even have to request a hairdryer so that’s a thumbs up too.

All in all, so far, so good.

In the morning, I woke up at about 5.30am (habit) and I could hear a noise sounding like someone was showering –  sigh, guesthouses…. The water pressure in the shower felt too hard. Sometimes I prefer bathing when I’m away as it can be so difficult to find your ‘perfect shower’ (I guess you tend to like what you’re accustomed to!).

I took a walk around the property which was much bigger than I initially realised. It has a bar area with a pool. The pool was nice enough but it could do with some maintenance.

All in all, a pretty nice place that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

– Rif