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Embassy Suites Jamaican Drive - Do NOT stay at this hotel!!
Complaint
Review by shoegoddess100 on 2013-03-07
Rating: 
ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- Here is a letter I sent to Hilton - not once, not twice, but three times. Three months later, and still no response. Maybe they will see this review and finally get back to me. This hotel will RUIN your vacation easily:
I am writing to express my disappointment with a recent stay at a Hilton family hotel. I sent a message throught the Embassy Suites "Recent Stay Comments" on the website, but have received absolutely no response. I'm not sure if my message was never received, or just ignored.
My husband has been an Hhonors member for quite a few years, and we have been staying at Hilton hotels for quite a bit longer than that. In fact, we stay almost exclusively at Hilton hotels (more specifically Embassy Suites hotels) whenever we can. We have always been more than pleased with the hotel quality as well as service. I have NEVER had a complaint about any of the Embassy Suites we have stayed at in the many years we have been patronizing the hotel chain. In fact, I specifically search out an Embassy Suites when we are beginning our travel plans.
Over the years, I have consistently recommended Embassy Suites - even getting my daughter's entire traveling soccer team to switch from Marriott to Embassy Suites since we had been so pleased with them. This was again the case recently when we were purchasing a hotel package through Universal Studios in Orlando. When given the multitude of hotel options for our package, I found the Embassy Suites on Jamaican Drive, and without hesitation or further research - booked the hotel for four nights.
We arrived at the hotel around 6 pm (two hours after check-in) and were told that that double bed room that we had requested had already been given away, so our family of four (my husband, myself, and our two children - ages 19 and 16) were going to have to share a king suite with a fold-out couch. I asked if we could be moved when a double-queen room was available and was told that there would be nothing available during our stay. So, we went up to the room that was available to get some rest after a long day of traveling. My son immediately folded out the couch, and we went searching in the room for extra linens, but couldn't find any so we called down to request linens for the couch. Two hours later, I called back and finally received the blankets. We went to turn the living room TV on, and it didn't work - a technician was sent up, and fixed it and said that it seems to happen every now and then. So, we unpacked and tried to get some sleep - which turned out to be another feat in itself.
The room had broken furniture, and was so poorly insulated from sound and we were backed up to the freeway, so it felt like we sleeping next to a speedway that night. The ventilation in the room was terrible, and we had condensation all over the windows (which apparently are so infrequently cleaned that there were a number of spider webs in the corners of each window). Throughout the night, young children were running up and down the hall screaming and yelling - which finally subsided around 2 am - and my son's "mattress" on the couch was constantly falling through the framework of the couch.
The next morning, we got up happily left the hotel for the day (not usually the case at Embassy Suites) and went to the theme park. When we returned I checked again to see if we could be moved, as we had never spent that horrible of a night in a hotel. I was told there still weren't any rooms available, but today they could offer us a roll away bed (they had been out the night before) and that we would be put on a "list" to be moved. So - we received a roll away bed and linens - with a blanket that had a large hole in it and was so scratchy I wouldn't put my dog on it. My husband went downstairs to work out, and couldn't get the room key to work in the door. He went to the front desk and was told that he would just have to keep trying, as this happened every now and then (much like the TV). After a second night of sleeplessness, we were considering looking for another hotel if we couldn't be moved.
Finally on the third night - after returning from the park and being told that they "forgot" to hold a room for us - we were moved to a handicap-accessible room with two beds. The room was bigger, but seemed dirty. There was used towel in the bottom drawer of the dresser, and the bathroom seemed unclean. The ventilation seemed to be the same, but it wasn't as noisy as the first room, so finally after two nights we got some sleep. After the fourth night, and for the first time in our history of stays with Embassy Suites we were so happy to leave the hotel.
This stay made me rethink my automatic reflex to stay at Embassy Suites in the future. I feel like I now have to check the hotel recommendations (which after returning - I did, and found that our stay was not that unusual at all for this hotel) - something I never even considered when booking with Embassy. I feel that the $900+ that we spent on the hotel could have easily been cut in half and we could have stayed at a hotel of much lower quality than what I would consider expected from a Hilton-family hotel and received the same type of service and accommodations that we received at the Embassy Suites on Jamaican Drive.
I have pictures documenting our hotel stay, if anyone is interested in seeing them.
I am writing to express my disappointment with a recent stay at a Hilton family hotel. I sent a message throught the Embassy Suites "Recent Stay Comments" on the website, but have received absolutely no response. I'm not sure if my message was never received, or just ignored.
My husband has been an Hhonors member for quite a few years, and we have been staying at Hilton hotels for quite a bit longer than that. In fact, we stay almost exclusively at Hilton hotels (more specifically Embassy Suites hotels) whenever we can. We have always been more than pleased with the hotel quality as well as service. I have NEVER had a complaint about any of the Embassy Suites we have stayed at in the many years we have been patronizing the hotel chain. In fact, I specifically search out an Embassy Suites when we are beginning our travel plans.
Over the years, I have consistently recommended Embassy Suites - even getting my daughter's entire traveling soccer team to switch from Marriott to Embassy Suites since we had been so pleased with them. This was again the case recently when we were purchasing a hotel package through Universal Studios in Orlando. When given the multitude of hotel options for our package, I found the Embassy Suites on Jamaican Drive, and without hesitation or further research - booked the hotel for four nights.
We arrived at the hotel around 6 pm (two hours after check-in) and were told that that double bed room that we had requested had already been given away, so our family of four (my husband, myself, and our two children - ages 19 and 16) were going to have to share a king suite with a fold-out couch. I asked if we could be moved when a double-queen room was available and was told that there would be nothing available during our stay. So, we went up to the room that was available to get some rest after a long day of traveling. My son immediately folded out the couch, and we went searching in the room for extra linens, but couldn't find any so we called down to request linens for the couch. Two hours later, I called back and finally received the blankets. We went to turn the living room TV on, and it didn't work - a technician was sent up, and fixed it and said that it seems to happen every now and then. So, we unpacked and tried to get some sleep - which turned out to be another feat in itself.
The room had broken furniture, and was so poorly insulated from sound and we were backed up to the freeway, so it felt like we sleeping next to a speedway that night. The ventilation in the room was terrible, and we had condensation all over the windows (which apparently are so infrequently cleaned that there were a number of spider webs in the corners of each window). Throughout the night, young children were running up and down the hall screaming and yelling - which finally subsided around 2 am - and my son's "mattress" on the couch was constantly falling through the framework of the couch.
The next morning, we got up happily left the hotel for the day (not usually the case at Embassy Suites) and went to the theme park. When we returned I checked again to see if we could be moved, as we had never spent that horrible of a night in a hotel. I was told there still weren't any rooms available, but today they could offer us a roll away bed (they had been out the night before) and that we would be put on a "list" to be moved. So - we received a roll away bed and linens - with a blanket that had a large hole in it and was so scratchy I wouldn't put my dog on it. My husband went downstairs to work out, and couldn't get the room key to work in the door. He went to the front desk and was told that he would just have to keep trying, as this happened every now and then (much like the TV). After a second night of sleeplessness, we were considering looking for another hotel if we couldn't be moved.
Finally on the third night - after returning from the park and being told that they "forgot" to hold a room for us - we were moved to a handicap-accessible room with two beds. The room was bigger, but seemed dirty. There was used towel in the bottom drawer of the dresser, and the bathroom seemed unclean. The ventilation seemed to be the same, but it wasn't as noisy as the first room, so finally after two nights we got some sleep. After the fourth night, and for the first time in our history of stays with Embassy Suites we were so happy to leave the hotel.
This stay made me rethink my automatic reflex to stay at Embassy Suites in the future. I feel like I now have to check the hotel recommendations (which after returning - I did, and found that our stay was not that unusual at all for this hotel) - something I never even considered when booking with Embassy. I feel that the $900+ that we spent on the hotel could have easily been cut in half and we could have stayed at a hotel of much lower quality than what I would consider expected from a Hilton-family hotel and received the same type of service and accommodations that we received at the Embassy Suites on Jamaican Drive.
I have pictures documenting our hotel stay, if anyone is interested in seeing them.
Comments:
Posted by Anonymous on 2013-03-08:
Did you address any of your issues with the hotel's management and give them the chance to make things right?
Posted by trmn8r on 2013-03-08:
The reviews on TripAdvisor do reflect what you found. It is interesting, because the reviews are mostly positive. However, the negative ones echo your experience.
Posted by Rochelll on 2013-03-08:
From now on, I'm going to log on to 'Trip Advisor' before booking any hotel.
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