Fosters Manor
Accommodation Services in Oudtshoorn

Declared a national monument in 1974. Foster`s Manor is the only ostrich palace established as a luxury guest house.

Mr Foster was a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly and a real high roller. Rumour had it that he maintained a wife and a mistress, both living in style in separate parts of the mansion. When the feather boom collapsed in 1914, Foster went bankrupt. It is rumoured that he hid from his creditors in the cellar, reported himself as dead, and in disguise attended his own funeral, the coffin filled with sandstone fragments. The Standard Bank took over the property and sold it to the educational authorities. The presence of the ostrich, whose feathers turned the farmers into millionaires, takes one back to bygone times. A stay at Foster's Manor is a must and an unforgettable experience. The Manor has two family rooms, two twin rooms, three double rooms and one honeymoon room. Foster’s Manor presently operates only as a Bed and Breakfast establishment and caters for small conferences for which refreshments are provided. Until 2008, for a period of eight years, it served as practical venue for the Hospitality students studying the Granger Bay Hotel School’s Food and Beverage Management Diploma Course at South Cape College Oudtshoorn Campus. The Food and Beverage students received theoretical and practical training at the Manor. Practical training included preparing and serving breakfast, planning and organizing functions, preparing and serving dinners and conference handling. Foster’s Manor was an extension of their theoretical training received both at the Oudtshoorn Campus and at Foster’s Manor. She has obtained her Wine Course certificate from the Cape Wine Academy and is currently busy with her diploma studies in this field. Foster's Manor has excellent potential for serving as a training facility for Hospitality students where they can experience the full spectrum of Hospitality Services (front office, back of house, front of house, kitchen, F&B, conferencing and Housekeeping) provided that all parties concerned focus on achieving this goal. The topic of wine and food paring is nowadays high on conversation lists, largely attributable to the influence of celebrity chefs, great tasting food and good quality wines. Combine this with the lighting speed of the Internet and you have a huge number of amateur wine connoisseurs that have access to information we could only have dreamt about not so many years ago.