South Africa has thousands of independently owned guesthouses, lodges and B&Bs, and there is no central directory of their telephone numbers. Each is its own small business, most are not part of a chain, and many publish contact details only on their own site or through a booking platform. This page explains how to reach one safely, how to check it exists before you pay, and what to do when a booking goes wrong.
ContactDetails.co.za is an independent directory. We are not an accommodation provider or a booking agent, and we cannot make, change or refund a booking. Everything here is a routing aid.
Who actually holds your booking
- If you booked on a platform such as an online travel agent, the platform holds the booking and is usually the only party that can change or cancel it. The property often cannot see a platform booking in its own system beyond a name and a date.
- If you booked directly with the property, the property holds it, and it sets its own deposit and cancellation terms.
- If you booked through a travel agent, the agent holds it, and going around them to the property usually creates two conflicting records rather than a solution.
- A chain hotel has a central reservations line as well as the hotel’s own number. Central reservations handles the booking; the hotel handles what happens on arrival.
Work out which of these applies before you dial. The single most common wasted call in accommodation is a guest phoning a property about a booking the property cannot see.
Checking a property exists before you pay
Small accommodation businesses are a favoured target for booking fraud, because a deposit is normal, the guest is usually far away, and the loss is only discovered on arrival. These checks cost minutes.
- Look at the domain character by character. Fake listings use lookalike domains that append the property’s name to an unrelated host, so the real name appears at the start and the actual domain is something else entirely. Read the part immediately before the first single slash: that is the real domain.
- Check that the bank account name matches the business name. A deposit requested into a personal account is the clearest single warning sign there is.
- Phone the property on a number you found yourself, not one supplied in the booking message, and ask them to confirm the reservation and the account details out loud.
- Cross-check the property on a map and look at the street view. A guesthouse that does not exist at the address given is visible in seconds.
- Prefer a payment method you can dispute. A card payment can be charged back through your bank; an instant EFT generally cannot be recovered.
- Be suspicious of a price well below comparable properties, particularly in peak season. That is the bait.
Verified routes for the larger groups
Most South African accommodation is independently owned, but a few groups publish central contact routes. These were verified on the groups’ own sites on 21 August 2026.
| What it is for | Contact |
|---|---|
| City Lodge Hotel Group, head office | +27 11 557 2600 |
| City Lodge Hotel Group, toll free | 0800 000 036 |
| Southern Sun, head office | +27 11 461 9700 |
| Southern Sun, alternate | +27 11 461 9744 |
| Premier Hotels, general email | [email protected] |
| Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, unresolved consumer complaints | 0860 000 272 |
| Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, WhatsApp | 081 335 3005 |
Individual hotels within a group run their own switchboards and reservations addresses, and the group does not answer for them. For a booking at one property, that property is the contact.
Finding one property’s own number
- Use the property’s own website, reached by typing the address yourself rather than following a link from a message or an advert.
- Check your booking confirmation. It normally carries the property’s number and the booking reference, which is what any query works from.
- Use the platform’s messaging if you booked through one. It reaches the property and leaves a record inside the booking.
- Treat directory listings and review sites as unverified. Numbers on them are frequently out of date, and we do not republish them for that reason.
What to have ready
- Your booking reference, and the name the booking is under.
- The dates and the platform or agent you booked through.
- Proof of payment, including the account the money went to.
- Any correspondence, particularly if the terms are disputed.
If a booking goes wrong
- Raise it with whoever holds the booking, which is the platform if you booked on one. Get a reference number.
- Put it in writing. Cancellation and refund disputes turn on the terms you accepted and what was said, and a written record is what decides them.
- If you paid by card and the property does not exist or never delivered, ask your bank about a chargeback promptly. There are time limits.
- Report a fraudulent listing to the platform that carried it, and to the police for a case number if money was lost.
- Escalate an unresolved consumer complaint to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, which is free to consumers and expects the supplier’s own process to have been used first.
Related contact pages
- Hospitality and leisure contact pages
- Transport contact pages
- Complaints and escalation contact pages
- How to verify a contact number before you use it
Frequently asked questions
Is there a national number for guesthouses in South Africa?
No. Almost all are independently owned small businesses, each with its own contact details, and there is no central directory of their numbers.
I booked on a platform. Who do I contact?
The platform. It holds the booking and is usually the only party that can change or cancel it. The property often cannot see a platform booking in its own system.
Is it normal to pay a deposit?
Yes, deposits are standard in South African accommodation. What is not normal is paying into a personal account rather than one in the business’s name.
How do I know a listing is genuine?
Check the domain carefully, confirm the bank account name matches the business, phone a number you found yourself, and look at the address on a map. A price well below comparable properties is the usual bait.
What if the property does not exist when I arrive?
Contact your bank immediately about a chargeback if you paid by card, report it to the platform that carried the listing, and get a police case number. Speed matters for recovery.
Why does this page not list individual guesthouse numbers?
Because we could not verify them on official sources. Most small properties publish contact details only on their own site or a booking platform, and numbers on third-party directories are frequently out of date.
Routes on this page were checked against official sources on 21 August 2026.