Bonne Esperance — Owner Q&A

What makes this hotel — and its surrounding destination — different from anywhere else in Africa?

Stellenbosch is a rare combination: a 17th-century oak-lined town, a lively university, world-class wine farms, food capital of South-Africa and the unique Cape Floral Kingdom, all within a few minutes of one another. You can walk past centuries-old Cape Dutch gables in the morning and be among fynbos on a mountain slope by lunchtime.

Bonne Esperance sits right in the heart of it. We are a Victorian villa with an English garden in front, mountain views behind and the town's restaurants, galleries and historic streets on our doorstep. With 25 rooms we are small enough that every guest is known by name, and looked after by a team that is professional yet genuinely caring and warm — not to mention a fantastic breakfast to start the day.

And our nine fynbos-inspired rooms bring the Cape's unique plant kingdom indoors — you won't find that anywhere else.
What local traditions, ingredients, art or experiences do you incorporate into the guest experience?

Fynbos is our signature. Nine of our rooms are each dedicated to the Cape's indigenous flora — leucadendrons, everlastings, pincushions and helichrysum — using wallpapers from the Hermien van der Merwe x Cara Saven Wall Design collaboration, styled by interior decorator Jill Julies. The inspiration runs close to home: my co-owner Annette Silvis is the author of My Fynbos Year, a book of daily sketches made over a year on a fynbos farm outside Stanford. No two days are the same, 365 individual works of art.

At the table, our newly revamped breakfast celebrates a South African breakfast which incorporates different traditional foods like boerewors (traditional sausage), mieliebrood (corn bread) and Chakalaka (tomato relish). In the afternoons we serve tea or coffee or drinks on the veranda overlooking the English garden, a tradition guests love. We open that garden to the public for Garden Town Stellenbosch, and our team is always happy to point guests to the wine farms, galleries and markets that make this valley what it is.
Can you share a memorable story that captures the spirit of this guesthouse?

Every year we welcome young interns from the PYDA tourism practitioner program for six-week placements — 2026 was our second year. One of them, Avela, arrived shy and unsure of what hospitality really involved. By the end of his placement, he was running the breakfast service.

Watching that confidence grow is one of the most rewarding parts of what we do. It is why giving back to the community, especially to young people, is part of how we run Bonne Esperance — not an add-on. Our guests feel it too: the warmth they experience comes from a team that is invested in, and invests in others.
Which is your favourite room, and what makes it special to you?

Room 19. Its abstract fynbos artwork in bright yellow, red and grey has an energy that lifts you the moment you open the door — it feels like the veld in full spring flower. Walk out on the balcony and the view leads straight to Botmaskop and the mountains. Go into the bathroom and a calm welcome envelope you with modern amenities. It captures exactly what I love about Bonne Esperance: a room that is comfortable, contemporary and calm, but full of the colour and character of this place.
What is one nearby experience visitors often overlook but absolutely shouldn't?

The Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden. Most visitors head straight for the wine farms and miss this quiet gem right in town, an easy walk from our front gate. It is one of the oldest university botanical gardens in the country, with indigenous fynbos, succulents and greenhouses of rare plants from around the world. Spend an hour there, have coffee in the garden café, and you will look at the mountains around town with completely new eyes.
How do you maintain consistently high standards across every part of the guest experience?

It starts and ends with our people. Our staff are our most valuable asset, so we invest in them, mentor them and give them the support to take ownership. Five values guide every decision: kindheartedness, integrity, responsibility, teamwork and effectiveness. When a team truly lives those values, consistency follows naturally.

Our purpose is simple — creating loyal guests. That means getting the fundamentals right every single day, then never standing still. For 2026 alone we have refreshed our rooms with new wallpaper, renovated the studio bathrooms, revamped the breakfast menu and added new staff members. Dor 2027, we will revamp another beautiful Victorian Villa next door and add another 11 room and a spectacular lap pool in the courtyard. We keep the heart of the business the same while constantly adding something new.
What is your ideal day in the area, from morning until evening

• Morning: An early walk or hike in the Jonkershoek valley while the air is still cool, then back for a leisurely breakfast on our veranda overlooking the garden.

• Late morning: A stroll down Dorp Street and through the historic centre — the oak trees, the old Cape Dutch buildings, a gallery or two, buy a dress at one of the boutiques and a stop at the Botanical Garden.

• Lunch: A long, unhurried lunch at a wine farm, with the mountains all around and a view of Table mountain. My favourites are Rust&Vrede and Precious Hidden Valley.

• Afternoon: A swim and a lie-down by the pool.

• Evening: A sundowner as the light turns gold on the mountains, followed by dinner at one of the many
excellent restaurants within walking distance of Bonne Esperance. My favourites are Fat Butcher, Mercia and Post&Pepper.

If you could describe the hotel in just three words, which would you choose — and why?
Warm, rooted, evolving.

• Warm — kindheartedness is the first of our values, and guests feel it from the moment they arrive.

• Rooted — in the heart of historic Stellenbosch and in the fynbos that inspires our rooms.

• Evolving — we keep what guests love and keep adding something new and interesting every year.

What is the most important leadership lesson that working in hospitality has taught you?

Your people are everything. Guests will forget the thread count, but they never forget how they were made to feel — and that feeling comes from a team that feels valued itself. Over more than two decades I have learnt that when you invest in your staff, mentor them and trust them, they in turn look after your guests better than any manual could. Leadership in hospitality is really about creating the conditions for others to shine.
What inspired you to build a career in hospitality?

My studies in Consumer Science at Stellenbosch University were all about how people live — their homes, their food, their comfort. Hospitality felt like the most natural place to bring all of that together. As a teenager, I hosted dinner parties for my parents and attended to everything, from laying the table and arranging the flowers to preparing and serving a 5-course meal. That is where my passion for hospitality started.

More than twenty years later, that passion has only grown. Beyond Bonne Esperance, I serve as a director of Visit Stellenbosch and chair Stay Stellenbosch, because I believe that when our town thrives as a destination, every guest, business and local family benefits. Welcoming people to Stellenbosch is not just my work — it is my way of sharing the place I love.