Holiday Inn and Suites Across from Universal Orlando

jose Cortes

I’ve never review a hotel while staying there but I think it’s worth saying this is very much the most frustrating first day at an IHG hotel. $148 dollars to park next to construction suppplies and rental cars for 5 days is diabolical. Already key card deactivated twice so stuck outside with our hands full until someone came by Hotel is SIGNIFICANTLY under construction. We booked way earlier in year and didn’t know this. Making hotel daily fee another $90 spent. The hotel room is 22 feet long. Very roomy which is good. But the bathroom is 3 feet wide so I can literally touch both walls while on toilet. Room is nice enough, as this one is decently renovated. But no full length mirror and very little closet space. Hallway has old thick carpet making it extremely hard to roll suitcases down hall. Carlos was very friendly at check in. Although very hard to hear and have conversation with the drilling behind him. 5 days here….here we go…. Day 2- all treadmills in gym under maintenance.had to drive around a construction side and through actual actual spots to get to our side of parking Day 3- ice machine on floor 4 broken

Reece Pugh

This hotel is a mixed bag for me. For the positives I could list, it is very close to the Universal parks, and this is a huge benefit. the hotel also had mostly clean rooms and the accommodations were comfortable enough. The prices were also very decent for the area if you booked early, and the staff was kind and courteous. However, there are also some negatives. For one thing, the hotel is under EXTENSIVE renovation and construction. As others have said, this was not made clear to us before or after booking but we found out when we arrived, though they did disclose that certain amenities like the pool would be closed. But many other rooms were empty or were under renovation. For example there is no men's restroom in the lobby at all, but there are two women's restrooms. Much of the lobby, first floor guest areas, hallways, and even elevators are under renovation. There is exposed wiring, missing wall and ceiling tiles, construction paper, tools, boxes, and numerous other things strewn about even in the "finished" areas. The construction workers were nice but the work was almost constant it seemed. In addition to this, some of the hallways smelled as if there was a sewage leak. On top of all this, the walls were very thin, so much that you could easily hear pipes through the walls and hear nearby guests doing "activities" in their rooms next to yours or even across the hallways. The rooms also had some small issues, like scuff marks on furniture and spots on the carpets. My room in particular had a dirty towel with black spots on it on our first night, while my friend's was missing a microwave. It is also worth mentioning the big parking issue. The hotel uses a paid parking system that charges $30 a day and it is NOT included with the price you already pay for staying there. It uses a very inconvenient app and a tollbooth style gate that charges you for an entire day's worth of parking even if you just left for an hour and came back. So expect to pay top dollar just to park at the hotel you already paid for. I understand they want to keep non-guests from parking there and that there is a premium for being within walking distance of the Universal Parks, but there has to be a better and fairer way to treat hotel guests than this. Maybe introduce a pass or voucher system for guests or something because $30 a day on top of everything else is extreme. I understand that hotels have to stay open even during construction to continue to make money and stay afloat, but this is definitely an unfortunately case, and there are some clear measures they could have taken to improve.

Grayson Trogdon

If you’re coming here for the theme parks, I wouldn’t waste your time. Stay somewhere else. The hotel is undergoing HEAVY construction, which in no way was disclosed to me when I booked our stay. The main entrance is bombarded with scaffolding and heavy machinery making the front of the hotel extremely inaccessible. Once you park (paid parking is 30$ a night) we had to walk around the entire perimeter of the building with our bags to get back to the front entrance. Once you enter the lobby, it smells like construction and dirty mop water. There is cardboard, plastic sheeting and other construction materials laying around, and crews working non stop. Once we got to the rooms we found that none of the lamp lights, charging stations in the tables were plugged in. The bathroom was missing all of the “complementary” hotel soap, including hand soap. On the floor we were on, the ice vending did not work, there were no vending machines in the entire building, and when we went looking for vending machines that existed or did work, the other floors were torn apart for construction, with mattresses and boxes all over the halls. For the one room service we did receive, the housekeeper threw away a bag of my fiances bathroom products, lotions, soap, razors, etc…. When we asked the front desk if there was a way we could check with the housekeeper to see if these items were picked up by accident, they told us to check back with security between the hours of 9-5. Understandable that security can only provide access during these hours due to their work day - however we booked this reservation to attend the theme parks from 9-5… overall the experience was far from relaxing and made our experience unenjoyable. After this I’m considering building my points with another hotel chain which is more consistent with their execution.

Gracie West

We stayed here 4 nights for Universal. The staff was very friendly, however, it took us reading the reviews to find out they are going under extensive remodeling. We would’ve appreciated staff telling us this as we were booking. The lobby, elevators, and hallways are in a sorry state with exposed wires, debris on the floor, and equipment everywhere. That said, the room was very clean. A little outdated, but as a place to lay your head and relax, it did the trick. There are 5 elevators, one does not work, and one did not go to third floor where we were staying. Our final day, we were recovering from a long night at HHN and construction work was underway above our heads. It sounded like drilling, and it was not pleasant. Other than this, it was by far not the worst hotel experience we had. The cleaning staff was very kind as well. Parking is steep but cheaper than the parking at Universal and the hotel has a free shuttle so it balances out.

lora lynn

The only thing good about this property was it's proximity to Universal Studios. We booked this hotel 3 months in advance (June) and a couple of weeks before going we were notified the lobby was under construction. I didn't think that would be a big deal but looked for other hotels anyways. Because we were so close to our travel date at that point the prices were astronomical so we didn't have a choice. When we got to the hotel the lobby was actually the nicest cleanest part of the hotel despite it being under construction. Our room was so humid the floor and bedding were damp our whole stay. The bathroom door didn't work properly due to the humidity in the hotel. You could get stuck in there if alone. The door to the room was missing a screw on the mechanism so you had to jiggle it to close the door. It smelled very poorly in the hallways and the elevator. The only elevator that opened was the service elevator which was in very poor condition. We stay at a lot of Holiday Inns and this one does not meet their normal standards. My recommendation would be to stay somewhere else until they've renovated. We attempted to get a refund due to the conditions and was advised our "booking was nonrefundable and doesn't allow any exceptions and they're sticking with their policy and won't issue any refund, not even a partial." Zero flexibility and no apology, which is disappointing. We will think twice before booking at another Holiday Inn. Stay somewhere else.