Hotels To Stay Away From?

[phippszone]

Could you please tell me what moderate prices hotels to stay away from? I've heard some horror stories and am scared to book sight unseen. Thanks.

[Lewisc]

The hotels you can reserve through this site have been inspected/approved by the person running this board. Anything under $50/ night is suspect. Obvious that excludes deals through Priceline, employee discounts or other deep discounts you may be entitled to.

[Chris2597]

I would stay away from the Days inn maingate. We had booked it several years ago and it was so dirty and run down and from the posts on this site it doesn't sound like it has improved in the following years. We also stayed at the Fairfield by Marriott by the airport and it was awful. We loved staying at the Courtyard Downtown Disney. Some posters have said they have gotten great priceline deals there.

[tinaluis]

The Best Inn on 192 (although I understand that it isn't even a Best Inn anymore because it doesn't meet their quality standards.) We got this place thru Priceline, and I should have been wary bidding on a 2*, but I got carried away and we ended up here. We had the biggest cockroach in our room - I was so freaked out. I know there are bugs in Florida and I'm no princess, I've killed many a bug in my life, but this sucker was almost as big as my hand. We ended up checking out early and when I told the manager why he didn't even flinch. Stay away from this place at all costs!

[christineann]

The Days Inn suite hotel (near the maingate). It was filthy and rundown.

[6_Time_Momma]

I totally agree on that one!! I could go on and on about that place!! Dirty, run down, loud! Ughh!!

Kristy-

August 1989-Ramada-Honeymoon
August 1992-Swan-International Down Syndrome Conference
February 1997-Wilson World (now Diplomat Resort)-Family vacation
September 2000-Days Suites-Family Vacation
**May 2002--HIFS--Family vacation

[WebmasterBarry]

I stayed at the Days Inn on I-Drive near the world's biggest McDonald's. I paid way too much for the place -- $65! It was kind of rundown and the room smelled! I vowed never to set foot in it again.

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Barry Hom
Moderator, Universal and Sea World Boards

Click HERE (http://wdwinfo.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=40009993&f=56409977&m=6640997431) for interesting Universal Orlando information!

[Ecdubfan]

I hear just about all Days inns in Orlando are pretty bad. We made the mistake of taking a too good to be true price for a room at the Days Inn Florida Mall. We wanted to add a couple of days on to our vacation...what a mistake. The place was terrible, the courtyard, stairways, and elevators stunk to high heaven. The area itself seemed seedy and run down. A definite place to avoid! :mad:

Christmas 1979
July 1989 offsite
July 1996 Offsite
August 1999 Offsite
March 2000 Offsite (Fairfield Cypress Palms - new owners)
Feb 2001 - All Star Sports

[MelodyTime]

The Ramada Inn Maingate was awful too. Run down, dirty, just made for an awful stay.

[desianne]

The first time we went we stayed at Days Suites next to Old Town. It was not very nice and definitly not worth the money. Never again. We bought a time-share that trip at Orange Lake and it's great. Part of what convinced us to buy the time-share was the problems staying at Days Suites.
Friends of mine stayed at Comfort Suites and said it was nice.

[TinkTink]

Stay away from Econolodge Maingate Hawaiian! It's a D-U-M-P.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/sites/fimentman/tink08.gif

Judie B

[calvin]

Looking into the Holiday Inn Maingate for a stay in October. Anyone have any comments? We have never been to WDW. I have been reading that there are some good deals at the ALL STAR, however not at the times we will be going. The Holiday Inn reports it has free shuttle and kids under 12 eat free. Is this worth something? I think we will probably rent a car.

[Margie J]

My no go vote is for the Silverleaf Suites near Universal Studios.

I got placed here after the Delta Orlando had "overbooked" and asked if I'd mind staying at Silverleaf. The pitch was that it was a full unit with kitchen. Much better than just a hotel room.

Well, the first unit I got smelled awful. I describe it as a combo of pee and vomit. A lamp in the living room had no bulb. The sheets were dirty, filth on the bathroom floor. I had to sleep (or try to) with the windows open ... on a freezing February night. My room was also on the ground floor so I worried that someone might break in during the night. To top it off, it sounded like the kids next door were being abused.

I couldn't change rooms until the next morning because there was no one at the front desk after 10pm (I had gone to Universal for the day). The next unit was a bit better but I couldn't wait to go home.

[jjjm2001]

We stayed there in March. I thought it was very nice and clean. The 2 pools were very clean and large. It was nice having a micorwave and frig in each room. The 2 room suites looked nice, but we just had a regular room. We did not use the shuttle service nor did we eat there. I would definitly recommend it. :cool:

[Chris2597]

We stayed there several years ago and found it to be very nice. Actually, we originally were booked in the Days Inn next door and it was so terrible we left after looking at the room and grounds and went directly to the Holiday Inn Maingate East. The rooms were clean and the staff very nice. Last year we stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott in Downtown Disney and loved it. Several threads have said that people are getting priceline bids there for as low as $29 per night. I am not sure what * they bid.

[Mickey's sunshine]

The only hotel that I really had a problem with so far was the Delta Orlando. Stayed there last December and it was awful!!

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<font size=4 color=violet>~Christine~</font>
<font size=2 color=violet>Mickeys_sunshine@yahoo.com</font>

[KTex]

TinkTink: can you give me any additional info on the Econolodge Hawaiin Resort?

[glo]

We stayed at the knights in about 10 years ago and it was seedy, but acceptable. A freinds college aged son stayed there two weeks ago and he said that he was disgusted with the place. It sounded like everything was the same as when we stayed there last time!

[tink2dw]

The All Star Jazz,was our nighrmare! It wins the Award for "Creepiest Bathroom in Orlando" there are MEN all over the wall paper,but one had an evil eye that watched you do all your business in the bathroom!!! Gave me goosebumps!!:( :( :(

[mainey-mouse]

We stayed at two on our vacation - one in Buffalo the night before our flight to Orlando - and one on St. Pete's beach. Neither was exactly dirty or smelly - they just weren't, you know - nice. The double beds were an interesting size - kind of like wide twins, and really short. The matress quality was poor - saggy in the middle. My husband got them for free because he uses them on business travel (he said the ones he's encountered have all been hotel rather than motel style, and nicer) so I can't complain - for free - sure. If they were really gross I'd have switched at least the one in St. Pete and paid. We didn't try the ones in Orlando, but we spotted at least one around Disney (192 area, maybe?) and it looked alot like the other two. I wouldn't want to pay to stay in one - unless it meant the difference between going on vacation and not going. I should note - my kids however loved the Travelodge in St. Petes. They had Nintendo, and we got the Sleepy Bear Den room - with kid thememd comforters, drapes and lamp shades etc. The preferred it to PO-RS. Oh well.

[CindyVK]

Stay away from Howard Johnson Suites on Lake Cecile located on
Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. We stayed there about 2 years ago.
The rooms were old and "scary", we had a maid just walk in on
us without knocking, the pool area was filthy for a good 24 hours and
other grievances too numerous too mention....just an
all around bad experience. We wrote a letter and complained, which corporate
forwarded to the actual hotel. They replied with a poorly executed letter
which didn't even address our concerns. They obviously do not care
about customer satisfaction! Hope you find a good one!!

- CindyVK

[SnowWitch]

DAYS INN LAKESIDE We stayed there many years ago but I have seen recent posts that indicate it has not changed. It is old, nasty, and disgusting. We stayed there 1 night before checking into our Disney resort , we were suppose to stay there our last night before driving home, when we arrived at 10 PM our room was dirty and I do me DIRTY. I went to the front desk and got my money back and headed home to GA. I was in no mood to hotel hunt at that hour. Our lesson learned, we spend the extra bucks for our Disney accomodations . If I were staying off site I would use a hotel that is sponsered on this site. I believe I've seen post that says if Pete won't let his mom stay there he will not let them sponsor on his boards!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Saffron]

The Ramada closest to Universal Studios on I-Drive! YIKES!! It is the worst hotel we ever stayed in in our lives! It costs more to stay there than at any of the All Stars on Disney Property, we just wanted to be close to US for a few days. Filthy, **** roaches - not the infamous Florida super roach - but good, old, dirty, creeping **** roaches crawling behind our head boards. Dirty bedspreads - red sticky stuff on the underside of them when we tuned them down the first night! Spit on the walls. I didn't even want to walk in the rooms with my shoes on, forget about taking them off and walking around! Rats eating garbage on the sidewalk. The first room we had smelled of urine, the second room had a broken door lock! Very, very seedy people walking around all night long! Eeeeewwwwwww!!!!!! I wrote a letter to the hotel itself and to the corporate office. No one cared. We got a form letter implying, "sorry but oh well, too bad." Run, run as fast as you can away from there. The thought of that hotel makes me sick! :rolleyes: :( :rolleyes: :( :rolleyes: :( :mad:

[zurgswife]

Stayed here in March '00....it was dirty and my son left with lots of bug bits....I wrote Days Inn twice and asked for my money back....well a few months later I go my refund....I only stayed for one night so it wasn't a huge refund..but none the less they refunded the money.

[HHGhost]

Has anybody stayed here recently? We are staying here for Three nights before moving onsite. I know that it doesn't really mean anything, but the pictures on their website looked good. :( We made the reservations through a travel agent (another reason that makes me think that it can't be that bad). If it really is that bad, what could we do?


HHghost

14 Days!!!

[mousefan]

KTex
Email me and I will give you our experiences at econolodge Maingate hawaiian.....you don't have email option listed...

[GoldenOldie]

NEVER choose a hotel by looking at pictures. Websites and brouchures are designed to make everything look magical when that is usually far from the case. Some of the photos they use in those things were taken when the hotel first opened and everything was new and beautiful.

Travel agents are usually innocent victims just like you. They usually have not stayed in the place and would have no way of knowing whether it's a dump or not.

Ask to see a room before you decide. If you find you can't stand the place you can always refuse it and move to another hotel. There are always rooms to be had in the 192 or I-Drive area. The only thing is you may not get a great room price as a walk-up but (imho) that's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

[HHGhost]

Thanks GoldenOldie for your advice.

NEVER judge a book by it's cover, NEVER judge a hotel by it's pictures!!! Words to Remember!! :smooth:

We already have vouchers for the hotel, would getting a refund be a problem (or even a possibility)?

Thanks again,

HHGhost

13 Days!!!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[WebmasterBarry]

BTW, if a hotel refuses to let you look at a room, run away to another hotel. There are plenty of other hotels in Orlando that will gladly let you look at a room before checking in.

[PigSoldier]

We stayed at the hotel who's parking lot connected to that big McDonald's near International Drive, I think at the time it was a Quality - far from quality-dirty, smelly...

Uuuuuhh, we've booked the Quality Inn International, next to the big McDonalds.
Please tell me we're talking aout different hotels.........

[TracyK]

Pig Soldier
We stayed at the Quality Inn International over Easter 2000. I'm quite fussy and did not find this hotel to be dirty or smelly. Our room was fairly basic but always clean. We also found the pool areas to be clean. here's alink to a current thread about this hotel which is on the UK DIS at the moment.
http://216.247.178.123/ubb/Forum1/HTML/005308.html
It's all positive.

[GoldenOldie]

HHGhost:

It can't hurt to ask for a refund or credit for the hotel vouchers. Different packages have different rules about things like that. Some let you substitute other places, some don't. Go for it!

[buckylarue]

Here in Minneapolis, the Radisson downtown is one of the nicest hotels in town, so we figured we couldn't go wrong with the one in LBV, right? WRONG!!! The hotel was run down, dirty, the 'breakfast buffet' was ok but the 'dining room' for dinner consisted of 3 tables in the bar where they would go to a restaurant in the Crossroads and bring you back a meal...
We were on the 5th floor, and one of the 2 elevators didn't work, and the other one took about 90 seconds per floor when it wasn't stopping for each floor, which wasn't too often since it was the only one working...
The 'convenient complementary shuttle bus service' consisted of 3 trips to the parks in the morning and 2 trips back in the late afternoon, so no staying til closing unless you wanted to cab back, and the bus we took to the MK had been cleaned with some combination of ingredients that left some toxic gas in it that was so bad we were still coughing 2 days later...
The one good thing about this hotel is it convinced us NEVER to stay offsite again, and we finally bought into DVC!

[PigSoldier]

Thanyou TracyK, that's a huge relief! :D