Bugs Found in Tea - Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff, Johannesburg Gauteng

67 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, 2132 Gauteng, South Africa

I signed up for an account to share my story about my stay at this hotel. I am a global business traveler and am fortunate to have stayed in many very nice hotels. In the nearly 300 hotel nights that I have spent over the past two years, my stay at the Four Seasons Johannesburg was by far the worst.

I ordered tea up to my room after checking in at around 10pm on a Sunday night. I had it served on my balcony, which wasn’t well lit. While it tasted terrible, I figured it was to blame on the tea bags so had two full cups to help me sleep. After feeling a bit queasy, I decided to pour the water from pot (without tea bags) into an empty cup in the light; what I found was horrifying and so continued to pour the water into a few additional cups: There were literally over a dozen full sized bugs in a yellowish/green water with strange residue floating around it. Given that I was in Africa, I naturally panicked. I called down to the front desk and asked for the manager on duty. Looking back on the experience, the manager on duty that night was the only honest and helpful person I dealt with at the hotel. He showed up and when he saw the water he gasped “Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God.” He helpfully put me in touch with the hotel doctor whose only advice to me and to the hotel was to get the water tested at a lab, as things like parasites don’t show up sometimes for months in human tests. An hour passed and I started to feel worse so I decided to call my own doctor back in New York; his advice was to force myself to throw up and start the emergency antibiotics that he gave me for my travels. That night, I woke up three times to vomit but luckily the antibiotics kicked in and I started to feel better after a day or so.

As I was leaving the hotel (after two hours of sleep, forced vomiting and a dose of strong antibiotics), I confirmed at least three times with the hotel management that the water sample was being sent to a lab. I even followed up two days later and they assured me the sample was with a lab. I finally got in touch with the General Manager four days after the incident. I asked him for the name of the lab so I could be reassured my sample was being tested. He refused to provide me with this information (even after exchanging a few emails in which he said “you can be assured the samples have been sent.”)

I believe that something malicious went on. The water was too dirty for this to be an accident. In my estimation, someone in the kitchen served pond water or something worse. When I spoke to the manager that was on duty that night (a few days later) he told me that there were certain things about what they had learned that they could not share externally…. Very very sketchy!

3 weeks after the incident, the hotel still won't provide me with the lab results thought they verbally confirmed that there was "high microbe activity in the sample." They offered me 2 free nights at this hotel as remuneration. DO NOT STAY HERE. I urge you to email fourseasons.com, and let them know that guests take food and water quality/safety seriously. Stay elsewhere.  | Symptoms: Diarrhea, Nausea, Vomiting