Desperate fans hunt for a place to sleep as cup fever hits Durban

Some football fans are so desperate for accommodation that they are willing to forego meals just to get a bed to sleep in. 

This is how some B&B and htel owners in eThekwini described the lengths that some fans were willing to go to to be part of the Nedbank Cup finals frenzy that will descend on the city this weekend as Kaizer Chiefs take on Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup Soweto derby at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. The city will host fans from all over SA and beyond. 

“Since Monday this week, we have been getting high volumes of calls from people who are desperate and looking for a place to sleep when they come to Durban,” said Shanice Wilson, a receptionist at Luxe Florida Hotel in Morningside.

“Some say they don’t even care about having breakfast; they just want a place to host them and are willing to pay for food they won’t even eat.”

All seven of their hotels in and around Durban have been fully booked since Monday, but continue to receive requests for accommodation.

“It’s really sad to keep on turning them down, but we don’t have space anymore for the weekend. For our guests, we have put in place adequate security just in case things get out of hand,” Wilson said.

Steven Green, a receptionist at Impala Holiday Flats, in the eThewekini CBD, said their 100 rooms had all been booked.

“We don’t normally ask where the guests are coming from, but we assumed that they are coming here for soccer because we don’t usually get fully booked during this time of the year,” Green said. “These bookings have helped our business, otherwise, it would have been very quiet.”

However, not everyone is happy about the football fever.

Langton Guesthouse receptionist Xoli Mthethwa said that, though they were fully booked, they received calls from 11 clients who demanded a refund after they could not secure tickets for the game. They had paid between R350 and R600 per night. 

“This has affected our business a lot because these people booked a long time ago and we had already used that money for the guest house,” Mthethwa said, adding that they were worried they’d get more cancellations as the week progressed.

“Now we have to refund those who booked for only one day. It has taken a toll on our business. We even asked them to give us seven days to refund them,” she said.

Premier Soccer League acting CEO Mato Madlala said earlier this week that about 10,000 fans who had bought tickets would face disappointment due to a booking glitch that resulted in more tickets being sold than the stadium could accommodate, but that they would be refunded. 

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