The Maslow Hotel Sandton - A Review

The Maslow Hotel Sandton isn't your typical corporate hotel In Joburg's bustling business district. While it caters largely to business travellers with generous facilities and all the trimmings, there's a healthy dose of leisure in the mix – creating a well-rounded experience with on-site restaurants, spa treatments, and versatile rooms. Keep reading for our review. 

Visiting The Maslow Hotel Sandton

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We were invited to stay the night to experience and indulge at the award-winning The Maslow Hotel Sandton. 

On Sat, Feb 15, we arrived at The Maslow Hotel Sandton, which sits on the corner of Grayston and Rivonia Drive. The area in which the hotel is located is set in Joburg’s busy financial district, known for its luxury shopping, fine dining, and corporate energy. The area offers a cosmopolitan mix of business and leisure – with the iconic Sandton City Mall, Nelson Mandela Square and fast-track Gautrain, just minutes away. 

We arrived in the afternoon, overnight bag in tow – far too small to warrant the army of porters eagerly waiting to assist. Reception is compact and cosy, but the formal atmosphere serves as a reminder that this hotel's main clientele is businesspeople. The lobby is predominantly black and white marble, accented with hints of lighter tones of blue, brown and orange throughout the furniture. The result is a sense of intimate exclusivity. 

While waiting for our key, we scoped out the essentials: Lacuna Bistro for our upcoming meals, Lacuna Bar for a cheeky lunch, the Wayfarer Lounge, an exclusive, stylish lounge offering a quiet retreat with premium amenities for business and leisure visitors. Room card in hand (which, by the way, doubles as your elevator pass as you need to scan your card on the keypad before selecting your room floor), we were all set for our stay.

The business of travel

If you’ve noticed business hotels looking more like holiday retreats, that’s because comfort and indulgence are now just as essential as WiFi and meeting rooms. Gone are the days of stiff suits and sad room-service dinners – today’s business travellers are all about ‘bleisure’ and squeezing in some downtime between meetings. Back in the day, only holiday hotels splurged on spas and fancy décor, while business hotels felt more like satellite offices than a place you'd want to stay. This is no longer the case, says Latoya Mahlo, Marketing Operations Manager and self-proclaimed 'fairy godmother' of The Maslow Hotel Sandton. And as we came to see from our overnight stay, the hotel is indeed a successful 'merger' of work and play. 

The suite

We headed up to our suite on level 2 – the spacious, 32msq Luxury Queen room with a balcony, one of 281 rooms, and perfectly suited for an overnight stay.

Upon entering the room, you’re greeted by a quirky little bathroom that feels like a guest powder room – ideal if you’re sharing with more than two people. Stepping into the plush lounging space, an added area for relaxation, socialising, or work, it makes for a comfortable and versatile retreat. It is fully equipped with all the home-away-from-home essentials: a coffee machine, bar fridge, and even a workspace. The balcony treats you to views of Sandton Tower. 

The bedroom is so beautiful, just looking at it made us eager to drift off to sleep. The room has an extra-length queen-sized bed, storage cupboards that light up when opened, and a safe to store your valuables. And as if one TV is not enough, there’s one in the bedroom too. The bathroom almost negates the need to head to the Spa downstairs. Here the stand-alone bathtub, double basin and rain shower with customisable shower jets made getting ready for bed and waking up for a shower the next morning, quite enticing. Oh, and for your convenience, there’s a hair dryer, two bathrobes and two pairs of slippers in the cupboard. However, take heed: the blackout curtains in the room are so effective, you just might sleep through your alarm.

The Amenities and touches of luxury

After settling in, we headed to the award-winning Africology Spa to see what is on offer. Even just browsing the treatments in the reception was a treat – scents of peace and tranquility lingered around us. The spa offers the usual treatments you’d expect from the franchise, but also offers many other products that you can purchase. We skipped the spa, but did pop into the 24-hour gym that’s located next door. The gym will do the job – you’ll get your daily steps in, maybe break a little sweat. But you won’t be training for the Olympics here. This is a hotel, not a high-performance sports centre, so we appreciated the fact that there was a gym at all. Now, lunch was in order.

The food and drinks

We stopped by the gorgeous Lacuna Bar for a quick bite. This space with its poolside deck, offers a tapas- style menu and drinks, including South African wine and speciality cocktails. The bar area invites one to take a breath during the day or to unwind over drinks after work. The decor is stylish (the bar is exquisite) and the staff are attentive. But it's the view of the sprawling gardens that gets our attention. 
 
The lush, serene gardens completely hush the city’s noise, designed as they are for peak relaxation. As the only hotel in the area with a private garden, it offers a rare slice of peaceful greenery, complete with towering trees and manicured lawns in Sandton's concrete jungle,

We grabbed a spot at a comfy two-seater table outside and got to ordering. Our waitress informed us that the Pornstar Martini is the most ordered cocktail on their drinks menu – and the club sandwich at a whopping R175, is a favourite among the guests. We opted for a casual beef burger instead – one of the best we’ve tasted. The cocktail would wait till supper. 
 
Here, the environment perfectly captures what The Maslow Hotel Sandton largely stands for – ‘bleisure’. This is the idea of fusing business and leisure to offer the standard businessman a distinct holiday feeling, all while putting out work fires. The pool, just a stone's throw away, is so inviting that your managers are far more likely to send emails, feet up at the pool. It’s separated into two parts; one for those likely to take a lap swim and a smaller part, reserved for those needing a bit more relaxation after a hectic meeting. The pool heats up after 14:00. 

Fast forward to our evening. The spot for dinner was Lacuna Bistro, the hotel’s in-house restaurant. “Casual upmarket dining experience where the food and drinks are familiar but prepared and presented in a unique way to ensure bold flavour, it's a place where you will always feel at home.” says Ofentse Morake, Executive Chef of Lacuna Bistro, who is currently also overseeing the F&B department. Morake became part of The Maslow Hotel Sandton in August 2023, following his tenure as Cluster Executive Chef for two four-star hotels in Joburg and a three-year role as Consulting Head Chef at a five-star luxury lodge in Tanzania.

The a la carte menu items reflect what he says: forget the bleak choices business travellers used to be offered at glum, sparsely-attended hotel restaurants. On this Mediterranean-inspired menu, there’s a selection of dishes you’ll be talking about to all your colleagues back at home. In fact, Lacuna Bistro is not just the usual business hotel restaurant, it's become a popular destination for locals to enjoy romantic dinners, celebrate special occasions like baby showers and weddings, and treat themselves. 

The bistro seats 110 people, which includes the private dining room that can be hired out for a maximum of 12 people at R2,000, and has outside seating on the terrace, which overlooks the pool. 

We took our waitress' advice – requesting to try Lacuna’s most ordered drinks and meals. For drinks, we tried the highly favoured pornstar martini – quite standard, fruity and fresh. To not ruin our appetite, we skipped entrees and went straight for the suggested mains: the Durban-style chicken and prawn curry and a T-bone steak with sides.
 
The curry, served with sambals, yoghurt sauce, basmati rice, and naan, was a flavour bomb – hearty, spicy and satisfying. The T-bone, paired with seasonal veggies, mash, and a rich red-wine jus, turned comfort food into a classy dinner. And if you're eyeing the mash but worried about the carb overload, give your waitress a heads-up when ordering – trust us, they don’t do small portions.

The meal ended on a sweet note with a chocolate opera gateaux. A little on the sweet side, but works well with a scoop of ice cream. We didn’t specify what flavour of scoop we’d like but were happy to find that a scoop of ginger shortbread pairs excellently. 

The next morning, the buffet breakfast spread at Lacuna Bistro was sensational. With everything from Continental breakfast favourites (cereals, fresh fruit, pastries, nuts, yoghurt) to full English breakfast essentials (like fried eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, mushrooms, baked beans) available fresh at the hot breakfast station – you can also ask one of the friendly chefs to assist with egg orders. There’s also a barista churning out coffees to order, and a drinks station stocked with teas and juices. Our favourite was the Sir Juice vitamin shots. 
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Grab a table overlooking the pool and water feature or choose a garden-view seat for an early morning peak at the beautiful garden outside. If you are interested in just doing the breakfast buffet or a cute date night, non-guests are allowed at Lacuna Bistro and Lacuna Bar. 

Hotel facilities and experiences

The 4-star The Maslow Hotel Sandton (launched in January 2013), offers professional amenities such as the Wayfarer Lounge – a complimentary transit lounge for business travellers to work from, take a shower or have a snack. It's ideal for early check-ins or late departures. There are 11 individual meeting rooms, a conference centre which offers a ballroom, auditorium and conference rooms and an on-site travel desk for all travel needs, ranging from airport transfers to day excursions with a tour guide. If you book a suite, you’ll be thrilled to find a pillow menu, allowing you to choose a pillow that suits your comfort – a gesture that adds to that home away from home feeling. 

The Wayfarer lounge must be particularly popular as during our check-in we noticed flight crews flock towards it. Mahlo tells us that three airlines are currently contracted with The Maslow Hotel Sandton, and stay here during layovers. These include Air China, Lufthansa, and Qantas. 

GET THERE FAST 
For those navigating tight schedules, the hotel’s complimentary scheduled return transfer service runs approximately every 30 minutes within a 3km radius of the hotel, ensuring commutes between the Gautrain, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton City and nearby meetings are effortless – a stress-free way for travellers to move around Sandton. 

The Gautrain is a fast-track to O.R. Tambo International Airport,  Rosebank, Pretoria, Hatfield, Centurion, Midrand and Marlboro. 

PICNIC DELIGHTS
With Joburg being the business capital of South Africa, and professionals visiting the city for more than just the plain-old work trips, The Maslow Hotel Sandton has done an excellent job of blending an impeccable location in Sandton’s business hub with resort-level comfort, top-notch business perks, and service so seamless it spoils you for good.

Speaking of resort-level comfort, Mahlo highlights that real leisure starts from Friday, with Monday to Thursday being predominant ‘work days’ amongst the guests. On respective Sundays, the two lawns close to the pool team up to host The Maslow's monthly-themed Sunday Society Picnics from 13:00 – 18:00. 

On arrival, guests receive a complimentary welcome drink and are then ushered to their spot on the lawn, which comes with a picnic basket that's filled with snacks like popcorn, home-made potato crisps, fruit kebabs, and cinnamon sugar churros. To wash it all down, guests can choose between a bottle of bubbly Graham Beck Brut or Bliss Nectar as their drink of choice. Non-alcoholic beverages are available too. 

Live entertainment usually kicks off at 13:30, and from 14:00, the harvest food table and hot fresh food station open. At the hot food section, indulge in beef kebabs with chimichurri sauce, panko prawns and coconut aioli, seared lasagne, and other options, all served with delicious accompaniments. Meanwhile, the harvest table features a selection of breads, hummus, tsatziki, salads, and a well-curated cheeseboard with crackers and preserves. 

It's an afternoon of pure bliss, we hear. This event has become quite popular, with experiences made special by gestures from the Hotel and some of its partners. For last year's Valentine's day picnic, guests each received roses. It's so popular, that requests have been made to host the picnic outside of the premises to allow for a larger number of guests. This was turned down, with the emphasis that it is the hotel’s lawn that lends to its fame. "We want to keep it niche and exclusive," adds Mahlo. 

Due to the weather during the weekend of our stay, the picnic was postponed; but are happy to confirm that there are dates and themes (see below) for upcoming picnics. Book here.

Sun, Mar 16, 2025: Denim textures and styles
Sun, Apr 6,  2025: Colour blocking, bold colours
Sun, May 11, 2025: Floral shades for the Mother’s Day edition

Book your stay

Remote working from home getting a bit dreary? Book your stay at The Maslow Hotel Sandton here: The Maslow
Address: Rivonia Rd, Grayston Dr, Gauteng, Sandton, 2146