Americas Best Value Inn Historic Clewiston Inn — Hotel in Clewiston

Seemed like a reasonably priced hotel. Not so much, after spending a night there.

There is no elevator, so we had to carry our luggage upstairs to the second floor. Not a deal-breaker in a "Historic" building, just an annoyance.

Our first room smelled a little odd. The air conditioner was a stand-alone unit in the middle of the floor, which was vented by hose, into the wall. We turned it on and left for a couple of hours, but returned to find the room nearly as warm as when we left. That's when we noticed that all of the louvers had been broken off the face of the unit, and it was blowing out air at knee level, apparently without enough strength to reach an average person's height. The space where the air came out also was lined with a black, grimy substance.

I went to the front desk, where I had to wait a while before I could find an employee. I explained that the air conditioner was not sufficient, and we were moved to another room. This one had a stronger smell. It may have been a disinfectant, but I couldn't quite place it.

The bathroom was very small, and the door opened in toward the tub, passing within a few inches of the front of the toilet. It actually was pretty comical, having to back up while straddling the toilet in order to swing the door to get out of the room, or to get to the tub.

Amenities in the room included two towels, one hotel bottle of shampoo and one hotel bar of soap. There were no cups or ice bucket, which did not matter, because the ice machine was out of order. I now see in other reviews that it has been broken for a while.

It was after dinner time when we had come back and switched rooms so, although we were not impressed, we decided to settle in for the night. At that point we learned that the TV did not work. We did later discover that there were two remotes, one for the TV and one for the cable. The TV remote was behind a lamp on a nightstand, in a different location from the cable remote, and we did not find it until we were packing to leave.

I should mention that we also had noticed that the doors stuck, in both this room and the previous room, and they had to be slammed in order to be closed. As we went on to discover during the night, this apparently was true of every door in the building. People came and went at all hours of the night, and we were awakened by doors slamming during the hours of midnight, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00. We also heard slamming doors in the 5:00 hour, but we were up to go fishing by that time.

We did not see any employees on the way out, and we had a scheduled meeting with a fishing guide. We both agreed that we could not do a second night, so we booked another hotel while driving to the boat ramp. When we got back after a day of fishing, we loaded the car, passing by the front desk multiple times, again not seeing any employees. Once the car was packed, I had to walk around until I found a maintenance man, who was able to go and get one of the front-desk employees so we could check out.

Under considerable pressure to accept another room, even a suite, I made it clear that we were leaving. The clerk did agree to refund our second night, but then realized that we had booked through Expedia, and we would have to request the refund through them. When we called Expedia they were amenable, but said that they would have to confirm with the hotel that we had complained and checked out. When they put my wife on hold to call the hotel, I joked that nobody would be at the front desk to answer the phone. A few minutes later, the woman from Expedia came back on and said that she had called several times, but that nobody had answered. She also sent an email, but did not receive a reply.

It is now three weeks later, and after multiple calls to the hotel during these weeks, Expedia did finally get somebody on the phone today. The hotel denied that we had a legitimate complaint, and refused to authorize the refund.

Needless to say, we will not be visiting this...

The town of Clewiston is located on the southwest bank of Lake Okeechobee, the largest freshwater lake in Florida. It was named for Tampa banker A.C. Clewis, who financed the extension of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad through the area in 1922. In 1932 Clewiston was incorporated and laid out according to the plans of the Southern Sugar Corp who wanted a showcase city to serve as its headquarters. The town has the nickname "America's Sweetest Town" because of the U.S. Sugar Corporation headquarters here.

The Clewiston Inn is the oldest hotel near Lake Okeechobee. The Inn was first built in 1926 by architects L. Phillips and Edgar S. Wortman in a two story Classical Revival style along the waterfront of Lake Okeechobee. The hotel was constructed by the Clewiston Company, the community and real estate development arm of Bror Dahlberg's Southern Sugar Company. Southern Sugar went into bankruptcy during the Great Depression and sold their assets to United States Sugar Corporation which was founded by three former General Motors executives. The hotel survived the 1926 Hurricane and the 1928 hurricane that killed over 4,000 people when Lake Okeechobee flooded causing many people to drown. The hotel was destroyed by a fire in 1937 but rebuilt in 1938 by U.S. Sugar Corp. with thick concrete walls braced with extra thick steel reinforcing rods the could withstand any future hurricanes. U.S. Sugar Corp used the inn to house company executives, customers. and visiting dignitaries. President Herbert Hoover stayed at the inn when he dedicated the Hoover Dike built around the lake, to provide flood control after the devastation of the Hurricane of 1928.

One of the most stunning features of the hotel is the the Everglades Lounge and Bar which has a 360-degree wildlife mural covering all four walls of bar. The mural was made in 1945 by artist J. Clinton Shepherd who recreated the animals and plants of the Everglades. He stayed at the Inn for many months and made daily trips into the Everglades to sketch the flora and fauna. The historic mural alone makes this a 5 star visit.

I love a good ghost story and the Clewiston Inn has it's share. There have been a number of paranormal investigations here and it's believed there are four spirits who never checked out. They include Anita Conklin who lived at the Clewiston Inn in room 225 and died in 1994. People have reported having their hair pulled outside the room. Other guests mention room 118 where there have been reports of a woman in the window.

In 2007 the U.S. Sugar Corporation sold the Inn to Big Lake Hotels. In 2011 the Big Lake Hotels Corporation sold the Inn to Clewiston Hospitality LLC. It is an Americas Best Value Inn. On February 21, 1991, the hotel was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The five stars is for the historic value of the hotel as I have never stayed or eaten here. The manager caught me peeking in the window and even though the inn was closed he graciously allowed me inside to look around. I got a brief glimpse of the famed Everglades room and even though the light wasn't on I was suitably awed. Returning for a drink at the bar is now high on my list of post...

BEWARE! This hotel is a historic building you would think the owners would take pride in such a place. That couldn't be further from the truth! The photos you see online are from previous ownership back when they took pride in such a property.

I booked an accessible room with a kitchenette. I was NOT given the room I booked. Infact I was told the only room with two beds available was upstairs. There is no elevator in this building.

First room 217 had no trash can, no phone, refrigerator that smelled of rotting fish, no towel rack in the bathroom a night stand with drawers that were broken, no towels, a bathroom that was so small you had to wedge yourself in between the toilet and wall to close the door, tv remote that didn't work, no blanket on the beds, stains all over the carpet that appeared to never been shampooed, and a small desk with chair that was so broke down had anyone sit in it they would have fell to the ground.

I went to the front desk to ask for a trash can and to see if they had a larger room available as that was the first of many concerns. They did move me across the hall to room 216.

That room was the same layout with a very tiny bathroom that doesn't even have a hand sink in the bathroom. The bathroom door would not close and once again no blankets on the bed. I decided to just go ahead and stay the first night because we had been on the road and really just wanted to relax and get some rest.

This room the carpet had a wide variety of stains throughout the carpet and stains all over the banquet style chair in the room. When we went to take a shower there is NOT hot water. It gets warm but definitely not hot at all! The door doesn't seal and you can see the hallway lights around the entire door frame. You can hear other guest full conversations all hours of the day/night and get to enjoy the wonderful smell of Marijuana throughout the second floor.

At this point I didn't feel safe, clean, or rested as we were unable to sleep due to the sounds of others throughout the entire night.

I went to the front desk after spending one of six booked nights and told them I can not stay at this facility and wanted to cancel and refund the remaining days of our reservation. The clerk at the desk stated they will charge for the one night we did stay and I agreed that to be fair and understandable as we did remain in the room for one night. I called Expedia to let them know the clerk was aware of the situation and we were checking out early and Expedia would be calling to issue the refund for the five remaining days.

After we left I got an email from Expedia stating the hotle is charging a cancelation fee and refunded less than the five remaining days. This was NEVER disclosed in any conversation! This place is a complete scam and absolutely deplorable condition of hotel!

I highly recommend DO NOT STAY THERE!!!

They will take your money, not give you what you book and not blink an eye about...