Crap. I looked at trip advisor

[wendamjb]

Well, I was leaning heavily towards booking Bonnet Creek after wading my way through the we love bonnet creek thread. I even sent for quotes from vs and vu...then I looked at trip advisor. Talk to me about the bugs and the horrible housekeeping issues. I know to take the reviews on there with a grain of salt, and that is Florida and of course ther are going to be bugs, but if I woke up in the middle of the night to cockroaches I think I might die. And I can handle dinged up furniture, but not hair on the salt shaker. What do you think? Does bonnet creek have a bug problem, and will it be clean?

 

[haPevraftr]

Nothing about my experience leads me to believe those photos are common happenings. We loved our stay and are going back this spring. If I remember, most of those photos were from the same person. Most people here report bring given another room if they had problems. I wouldn't let those few photos sway you against WBC. We have stayed many places on and offsite. WBC is our favorite.

 

[kokomos]

It was by far the cleanest and nicest place we've ever stayed. I did pull the sheets and check for any signs of bed bugs before taking luggage in. The mattresses looked brand new. Never saw any type of bugs. Our trip was in May.

 

[aubriee]

We were there this past May in tower 4, then again in Sept in tower 5, and then just got back acouple of weeks ago (Dec 8th-16th) and stayed in tower 6. All three units were spotless and no bugs were seen in any of them. We'll be back in late March. Love the place.

 

[kiki02]

We were there this past May in tower 4, then again in Sept in tower 5, and then just got back acouple of weeks ago (Dec 8th-16th) and stayed in tower 6. All three units were spotless and no bugs were seen in any of them. We'll be back in late March. Love the place.

Very very clean. And our room was gorgeous. Maybe the reviews are fake.

 

[ohionola]

Don't let the reviews scare you. First know that you don't get daily house keeping. Some of the negative reviews are people that were expecting it daily.

As far as bugs, it is Florida. You will occasionally see a palmetto bug. They look like roaches but it is just part of traveling or living in the south.

Every hotel that is in areas with a large amount of international travelers (Orlando, New York, etc) has had beg bugs. It is just something that happens. Just check your bed yourself before you bring your items in.

Keep in mind they have around 1,000 units. If you look at issues, it is one here and one there. That means that 99.8% of people staying aren't having a problem.

 

[scoutie]

There are 1439 "excellent" reviews, and only 23 terrible reviews. Why are you focusing on the 23?

 

[wendamjb]

Thanks. That's the sort of positivity I was hoping for. I know you're right, and the good far outweighs the bad... I think I'll just pull the trigger and hope for the best.

 

[jeff968]

We always stay at name brand resorts (Hilton Marriott). The one time we didn't (Orange lake) we found the resort much worse then what we were used to. It was nowhere near as clean along with other issues. I find that Hilton and marriott work hard to keep up the high standards of their name at all their resorts. Trip advisor brings in a lot of opinions and there will always be outliers but in general, with a large survey number, you are getting a good idea of which resorts are the best.

 

[Southernswthrt]

I have stayed there 6-7 times in the last 6 years and only this past December were we given a room that was unacceptable - bugs on the ground, moldy, banged up, closet door off hinges, painted over and peeling window. Unfortunately, I did have to be forceful to get another room, but they did give me another room in Tower 6 that was immaculate.

We were in a 3 BR unit on the ground floor in Tower 3 originally. It had been refurbished but still had lots of issues. They claimed that the number of 3 BR units at the resort was slim and therefore they didn't have another room available. I insisted that this was not acceptable and I didn't care what they had to do but we weren't accepting the room they gave us. They somehow found another 3 BR unit in Tower 6.

As many times as I've stayed there, this was the only negative experience and I've been back 3 times since then and going back again in March - so I wouldn't let the negative reviews scare you away. The good far outweighs the bad and any hotel/resort will have bad reviews once in a while.

 

[Belle599]

I had a couple fabulous stays several years ago when the resort was newer. At this point, it is showing its age too much for my liking so I'm not staying there anymore. That's just based on my personal experience (no bugs, but not clean/new enough for my picky standards).

That being said, there are plenty of far worse accomodations in Orlando and if you're used to a standard hotel room you will really like the resort.

 

[Robbi]

Bonnet Creek was a fabulous experience for us. The rooms are beautifully done and the staff was great! We're DVC members and I can say that the BC rooms were in better condition and more upscale than any of the Disney DVC properties. We've stayed at all of them except GFV and off sites.

 

[Portugal1000]

You will see from my signature I have stayed 5 times at Bonnet Creek, the most recent being last July/August. I would absolutely not stay anywhere else in Orlando. Even later this year when we might give Disney a miss and just go to the other parks I wont even consider any other resort. I think its fantastic. I have taken two other families with us before, my best friend and my brother. Both times I worried that they wouldn't love it as much as us but they did.
So please dont worry about Trip advisor.
i always book through Vacation Upgrades who are always wonderful.

 

[bearzabout]

It is a big place. Do a bed bug check before you unpack anything. If the unit is not up to your standards, ask nicely to be moved. I find that the nicer and more persistent you are when asking, the more likely they are to move you.

We have had to battle at some other places to get moved to an acceptable unit, but they always have moved me, so I don't worry about it.

 

[2shortpeopleruleme]

We are headed there in 7 days! I will remember to check back in with our experience. We are super excited to stay there!

 

[Rosebud123]

Stayed there in 2012 for the first time (10 nights) and loved it! Going back in April and we can't wait. Our rooms (we stayed in two different units) were very clean, but one of the hallway windows in the first tower we stayed in had a huge, dirty smear it on that wasn't cleaned the entire 5 nights we were there. (I would have cleaned it myself if I had any Windex!) It grossed me out every time I walked by and I couldn't believe housekeeping didn't take care of it.

The grounds were gorgeous and the pools were very clean.

 

[tina.tina]

You have to read reviews on Trip Advisor VERY carefully.

I don't want to offend anyone who loves the place but Jack Huff's Motor Lodge in Gatlinburg should NOT be the #1 rated hotel in Gatlinburg. Our bed was so saggy I could barely sleep. Everything was clean but extremely old. (The tub, sink, etc, in the bathroom were green if that gives you an idea about the age.) None of this adds up to the #1 hotel anywhere. I constantly wonder how certain hotels continue to get amazing ratings and others are very poorly rated on Trip Advisor.

I would trust the DISers who have had positive experiences at BC. After all, there's a whole thread of people who looooooove it!

 

[kathy884]

I love Trip Advisor, but don't think their reviews for condos timeshare resorts mean much. People are overly impressed as they can't believe how much room they are getting compared to a standard hotel (so there are lots of wonderful glowing reviews for some pretty mediocre timeshares) or people are horrified that this is not like a hotel, no daily maid service etc. or they get stuck thinking a information tour is an information tour and sign up for a horrible high pressure timeshare sales presentation, so give a horrible review, really more out of not knowing what they are getting into vs. anything else. It's $15 a year to join, but I belong to TUG2.net (a timeshare users group) and for condo / timeshare places this is where I go for good ratings and unbelievably detailed reviews. The people here stay in condos/timeshares frequently and can do a much better job of rating / commenting on these types of properties. // I don't see any reason to be worried about Bonnet Creek.

 

[redrosesix]

Don't let the reviews scare you. First know that you don't get daily house keeping. Some of the negative reviews are people that were expecting it daily.

As far as bugs, it is Florida. You will occasionally see a palmetto bug. They look like roaches but it is just part of traveling or living in the south.

Every hotel that is in areas with a large amount of international travelers (Orlando, New York, etc) has had beg bugs. It is just something that happens. Just check your bed yourself before you bring your items in.

Keep in mind they have around 1,000 units. If you look at issues, it is one here and one there. That means that 99.8% of people staying aren't having a problem.

This.

There are 1439 "excellent" reviews, and only 23 terrible reviews. Why are you focusing on the 23?

I agree -- it has overwhelmingly great reviews.

I love Trip Advisor, but don't think their reviews for condos timeshare resorts mean much. People are overly impressed as they can't believe how much room they are getting compared to a standard hotel (so there are lots of wonderful glowing reviews for some pretty mediocre timeshares) or people are horrified that this is not like a hotel, no daily maid service etc. or they get stuck thinking a information tour is an information tour and sign up for a horrible high pressure timeshare sales presentation, so give a horrible review, really more out of not knowing what they are getting into vs. anything else. It's $15 a year to join, but I belong to TUG2.net (a timeshare users group) and for condo / timeshare places this is where I go for good ratings and unbelievably detailed reviews. The people here stay in condos/timeshares frequently and can do a much better job of rating / commenting on these types of properties. // I don't see any reason to be worried about Bonnet Creek.

I agree with this. I have written reviews myself on Trip Advisor (since I think a great place deserves to be raved about) but I own at another resort and some of the reviews for that resort are completely wrong. In many cases the posters are talking about a different resort. We've tried to get the erroneous reviews removed unsuccessfully but they're still there. For the most part the negative reviews that are actually about the right resort are by people who expected maid service every day, and you're just not going to get that at any timeshare resort. If there was garbage left on the floor, they were the ones who left it there and expected some maid to pick it up.

Having said that, I have used TA to get our team to stay in a different hotel when the recent reviews for the cheap one they picked showed that the hotel had an issue with security etc. Sometimes you can't judge a place by the hotel website (because of course they want to make it look good) but real travellers' pictures show that it is in actuality a dump.

 

[ckergald]

I stayed in tower 5 in Oct of 2013, had a great trip but did see 1 roach when I opened the silverware drawer in the kitchen. A quick smash the bug and rewash the silverware took care of that issue, didn't see any other bugs in the unit the 5 nights we stayed.

I should point out the unit was on the second floor, many of the trees and bushes outside were right up to our balcony so if someone had the slider opened it could of easily got in that way.

All in all we had a great time there and if I could get a deal even half as good again I'd be back no questions asked.