The Positives:
Great central location. Very easy to reach various bars, restaurants and shops on foot. Absolutely perfect in that respect.
Basement car park, so excellent security and easy to get parked which I expect cannot be said of many centrally located properties in Stellenbosch.
Clean.
A pleasant hands on owner. We never actually met, but Elana was very happy to help with any questions I had via What's app and endeavoured to address any issues quickly. I can't fault the service.
The Negatives:
The apartment is small. This cannot be helped, but once suitcases are open there is very limited floor-space left to move around and the studio starts to leave one feeling claustrophobic. I certainly wouldn't want to stay here jumping over suitcases if I were any less nimble than I currently am, so maybe this isn't a place to stay if you consider yourself to be on the tail-end of middle aged or older. However, I think this could be fixed reasonably easily with some more thought going into the bedroom furniture. e.g. removal of a large arm chair and inclusion of well designed luggage racks.
Separately, but on the subject of furniture, the apartment has a leather shag rug. I have nothing against these in principle even if they are an outdated relic of the early 2000s, but it's not the sort of thing one would hope to find in a holiday rental. It gives the apartment the feel of being a grubby/unclean, which is probably wholly unjustified given the cleanliness of the rest of the apartment is fine, but this is the first thing that springs to mind when one sees it as a guest. I was left not really wanting to touch it or walk on it with bare feet (which certainly doesn't help the problem!). The rug in combination with the kitchen cabinets (mid-2000s style) and wardrobe in the bedroom area leave the apartment feeling like it could really do with a face lift. I don't think the lack of colour and abundance of grey is doing the place any favours.
The wifi was intermittent. There were long stretches were we has no wifi access whatsoever.
The one thing that really astounded me about my stay here, and the main reason this isn't a 4 star review, is that guests are supplied with only one toilet roll upon arrival. I assumed this was some sort of oversight but the owner confirmed that they "normally only supply guests to start out with, but can ask the girls to bring an extra roll". I understand that this is a self-catering apartment, but I cannot comprehend how anyone could reach the decision that it is preferable to be stingy with toilet roll which costs less than 5 Rand a roll when the obvious consequence is to materially inconvenience one's guests. This is particularly the case in the context of the other things that are supplied in the property... tea, coffee, milk, toiletries etc for several days... but not toilet roll? To Elana's credit, she addressed the issue very quickly after I spoke with her about it, but for the sake of 5 Rand per day it would be nice if I did not have to worry about how I am going to facilitate my bowel movements or indeed, discuss the matter with a stranger!
Summary:
For the price, I'm not convinced the property offers value for money until it makes some of the above very easy changes. The location really cannot be beaten and the parking situation is great, but I would not be willing to recommend the place to anyone in it's current state at this price. A few functional and cosmetic changes, and a change to management's one toilet roll per stay policy, and the situation would be reversed.