Hotel is located opposite the beach in the centre of durban. It has an old traditional feel and friendly staff. The rooms are spacious (try to get a sea view) and more than adequate. There is a restaurant / bar area on the ground floor and breakfast is taken here in the morning, in the evening there is often a buffet arrangement for dinner.

This hotel was fine. It must have been "the place to go" years back. The dining room and smoking room/bar are beautiful. Very elegant looking. The rooms are nice, fine. We only stayed over night en route to the Drakensburg Mountains. Unfortunately the Golden Mile is not really that safe anymore to go walking around after dark so we didn't venture out at all. Beautiful views of the ocean though. Staff was friendly enough but not extremely helpful.

My wife and I came to Durban to run the Comrades 2010, and needed a place which would organise the trip to the start and give us a place close to the finish to relax and recover. We thus chose the Edward in Durban (where I had stayed once for the same purpose in 2003).

When we called, we were promised that the trip to the start would be no problem - actually this was one of the very special services the Edward would provide.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be only partially true: we had to contact the manager after asking several times and not getting a reply to get confirmation of the transport... and then they mixed up the wake-upcall and woke us up 1 hour too early thus stealing valuable sleep before a 89km race...

Also, this was in line with the general service: unfriendly reactions, wrong calls for a taxi we requested, charges on the bill we did not have (quickly corrected after complaining, we have to say), no 24hr room service... and all that for >200 Euro a room.
Add to that that Durban center is no longer a place to go to (rather get out to Durban North!) and that the whole place does need renovations ...

We can only sum it up: Avoid at all cost!

We decided to stop over in Durban after a delightful week on the North Coast of the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa.

The hotel reception appeared clean and professional. We stayed in a sea-facing room on the third floor. On arrival at our room, we were unable to open the door as the electronic lock mechanism was jammed. We had to wait about 10 minutes for technical services to sort out the problem.

On entering the room we found it to be exceptionally small with two single beds placed together to make up for a double bed. The bed was comfortable but the linen had a very strong bleach odour. Complimentary chocolates were placed on both pillows.
The bathroom appeared grimy and requires an urgent upgrade.

Three pay-per-view porn channels in the hotel, at a cost of R150 per night, were prominently advertised on the TV screen.

The noise level was unbearable. The sea view from the hotel is partially obstructed by a playground called “Fun World”. A fairly busy road also runs in front of the hotel. There was constant screaming from the playground in front of the hotel. During the night cars hooted in the street and several intoxicated people walked past and shouted loudly up to the early hours of the morning. This culminated in a sleepless night.

Parking is in the basement of the hotel building. There are very few parking bays available and the fee is exorbitant at R60 per night.

The highlight of our stay at the Protea Hotel Edward was when we finally checked out. Even though we only stayed for a single night, we found it to be one night too long. We shall never return.