Red Carpet Inn Fort Lauderdale — Hotel in Dania Beach

Can't say I'd really recommend it for long stays, but if you need a place to stay for the night, it's not the worst place ever. I had a flight scheduled home that had gotten cancelled last minute as I arrived at the airport. Unfortunately, I had no vehicle to drive and no where to stay. Found this place a few miles from the airport online for $54/night that night. I booked a room online. Took an Uber over to the hotel. I had to wait in line for a solid 20+ minutes at 1AM while I waited for a large group of 10 people to individually have to check into about 5 different rooms after the gentleman who was before them had problems getting a room when he was told they don't accept debit cards. I was tired, frustrated as I was wanted to just be on my plane home to my family, and exhausted. Since no one was behind me, the lady at the desk could have asked the group in front of me if they would have minded waiting to let me check in first at all but she never did. I had the same problem as the guy in front of the large group. I booked online using my debit card. It gave me the booking no problem and didn't tell me my debit card wouldn't be accepted. I get there thinking it was already charged to my debit card and I'm told it declined my card (yet their online system didn't tell me this). Fortunately, I had a credit card with just enough available on it to cover the hotel stay plus the deposit that was also required and had to overdraft the credit card balance to do so. At this point I was so exhausted I didn't even care and just wanted whatever it took to get my room key. Finally, around 30-45 minutes after arriving at the hotel, I was up to my room.

Long story short:

Service? Not great. Beds? Comfy. Room? Inviting/nice. Price? Fair.

The good: My room was great. Clean/tidy, updated, and looked nice and inviting/updated and bathroom was clean Shower had plenty of hot water Large windows that look outside to the walkway. Great in daytime for letting in natural light. Comfy beds and I was able to get a good night's sleep (This may have been due to how exhausted I was though from a long, not-so great day that I was so exhausted I couldn't wake up til late morning).

The bad: They only accept credit cards, NOT debit, even online and their online system won't tell you it declined your debit card until they tell you at check-in that it was declined. Near the airport, so you can hear the planes flying over constantly. This is fine if you're a fairly heavy sleeper. Service is so-so. Not great, not bad. It can be very hard to find your room due to the odd layout of the building. My shower had a poor quality head on it, it had way too much pressure and uneven spray, even with the faucet set close to being all the way off. Felt like needles going into my skin. Large windows (almost as low as the floor) that look right out to the walkway. Even with curtains closed I felt like someone could still see into my room at night so I felt a pretty large lack of privacy there. Need to use additional door latch inside to make sure the door can't/won't open. Restaurant/bar that's just outside the lobby door is terrible. They charged me a mandatory tip without telling me they charge that to all bills, then expect you to pay an additional tip?!!! I always tip accordingly. I left $0 additional because the service was poor, the food wasn't even that good and was overpriced, and they had forced me to tip more than I wanted to leave. I get some places will add a mandatory tip to large groups of say 8+ people or large bills over a certain amount. But my meal wasn't even a $12 meal and I was just ONE person. I was NOT AT ALL impressed by this dining experience and left as a very unhappy customer. I know some people don't tip at all, but to start charging everyone a mandatory tip of like 15-20% I think it was?...

TLDR: Shuttle didn't come for 2+ hours, shuttle driver argued and was rude, conditions were very run down and dirty, not within walking distance of any food besides a taco truck in the parking lot, close to airport so you hear air traffic constantly, wifi didn't work, pool closed at 5pm, bathroom door didn't close, room was not cleaned during the day they just left spare towels on the bed, beds were on wheels and rolled around, stray cats everywhere, and had nonrefundable cancellation policy.

Worst hotel I've ever stayed in in my life, I don't even know where to begin. After arriving at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, my family and several other Red Carpet guests waited for 2+ hours for the shuttle, each time we called Red Carpet to ask when the shuttle would arrive they said it comes every hour, it did not, and they were only 15 minutes from the airport. When the shuttle came, so many of us had waited that we had to sit on other's laps to fit in the shuttle or be left at the airport to wait for another to come, when we complained about the wait to the driver he argued with everyone that he had come several times each hour when he hadn't. The lobby was small and dirty, many people were standing around waiting to be helped by the desk worker, and there are several parts of the building under construction and inaccessible making it very difficult and confusing to get inside to the rooms. The pool was open from dawn until dusk, and at this time sunset was around 4:30-5pm so there was no opportunity to swim. The rooms were dusty, some outlets didn't work, the bed frames were on wheels and rolled when you would sit or lean on it, and the bathroom door wouldn't close as the toilet bowl was in the way. We had to ask the front desk for the wifi and the connection didn't work inside the room. There was no food within walking distance, there was a food truck in the parking lot that we didn't trust to eat from. We had to DoorDash our meals which costed easily $40+ for the distance and 45-60 min wait time, don't even get me started on that because each time we DoorDashed our orders were wrong or missing something, not Red Carpet's fault though. Anyway, while we were away during the day and returned one bed had been made while the other wasn't touched, trash left in the trash cans, new towels and soap were just left in a pile on the cleaned bed. Could also hear the airplanes landing and taking off throughout the day and night since it's close to the airport (about 15 min). All this and the worst part was that we couldn't cancel the remaining days we booked to get a different hotel, their cancellation policy is nonrefundable. DO...

2 stars because it's like 2 separate hotels depending what room you get

The first rooms on the inside facing the pool are like an entirely different hotel from the outside ones. Those are actually nice and somewhat like four star hotel rooms. They were clean They had nice amenities all the appliances were working

everything was working. Also pretty spacious give or take. The ppl on that side seemed good. And there was constant staff running back and forth cleaning things washing sheets etc

But then there's the outside facing the parking lot. Apparently those are like the slummy that they give to people they don't care about or maybe the local hookers and drug dealers.

That was on that side and rooms they were unkept. Paint getting chipped Not nearly as well set up and not sure that really clean . Found an empty toilet paper roll behind the toilet. Also in those rooms they decided to set the heater and air conditioner to have a limit but it won't go up above a certain amount or below a certain amount. It claims it's not going up above 78 but the room was definitely not 78 when it shut off. Plus the setup is just less. nice rooms they have the lights put in more strategic places so that the whole room is lit up and in the outsid ones they don't do that really. They don't even have the same features. The lights in the nice room by the bed have electric outlets so you can plug your phone in at night.

And the bad rooms were absolutely INFESTED with roaches tons of them. All over the floor. In the bathtub. On the ceiling

Those rooms should go for pennies not $100

Those rooms are like one or two stars.

If you can get the inside rooms by the pool then you're getting like a four-star hotel with nice big rooms. But if you get the outside ones It's a slum and not worth at all what they charge.

The inside ones are also more protected from the airplane noise but that's not something they can control

The staff are also 4 star hotel worthy

But that's probably because half the hotel is a four-star hotel while the outside half is a dingy motel

They honestly shouldn't even be charging the same rates or even close to the same rates. Whatever they decide to charge for the inside rooms they should be charging like 50% of that for the outside ones. Or they should just fix them up. Keep them clean

I think it's where mostly crackheads and hookers stay So they don't bother they just write those rooms off...