The Plaza Resort & Spa — Hotel in Daytona Beach

This was our 6th stay. Decided to treat our kids/grandkids for the 4th of July. They'd never been here. The place was packed. So many kids having a great time! Beach is your backyard. Pool is big and heated. IHOP is across the street. Bandshell is a block down the beach and the party streets are about 2 to 3 blocks. We park the car and that's where it stays. GOOD: Front desk was very friendly and very accommodating. Check in/out was quick. We arrived on Friday and the family arrived on Saturday. They arrived early Saturday so we put their stuff in our room and I went to the front desk and they gave me a parking pass for them. When we checked in Friday, Jordan reserved the room next to ours so even though the family arrived too early to check in, they were able to give us the bracelet keys for the room and called us when the room was ready. Rooms were ready early in each case. For the holiday each reservation had to be 3 nights. The family was going back a day before us so we checked out of our room and moved into theirs for the last of the three days reserved for their room. Grandkids wanted to do the beach before heading home so I went to the front desk and asked if they could stay parked in the garage and they gave us another parking pass that was good for a few more hours. Wish I could remember all the names working the front desk because they were ALL FANTASTIC. My youngest couldn't stay the weekend but came in for Saturday. The front desk said each room can park a car but a second car for the same room would need to be valet parked or park across the street. More than fair. My daughter was nervous because it was her first new car. Mark at the valet desk did a great job making her comfortable. When we first arrived Mark greeted us, gave us a brief rundown and was very professional and friendly. Mark was the first Plaza employee we came in contact with and he really set the perfect tone for the visit. Great job Mark...thx! Can't remember the name of the blond lady working the pool area/towels but she was so bubbly you couldn't help but smile. They had a ice cream sundae event out by the pool and she made it so much fun. We had an ocean front room that was clean, beds were comfortable and there was plenty of hot water. The shower pressure was ok. NOT SO GOOD: The family was assigned room 1004 and whoever had it before them had been smoking tobacco. The smell was bad. Went to the front desk to see if we could get a different room but there were none on the same floor so the front desk suggested they could have someone (ozone?) clear the room. Came back to the room a hour later. The balcony door was left wide open and it still smelled. When we took over the room a couple days later I could smell it in my sleep. Not the Plaza's fault. We've avoided the 1888 restaurant due to past visits but the restaurants near by were too crowded and the 1888 was empty. Dinner and drinks for four adults and two children came to $190 with tip. The oysters and steak were good. The rest of the food wasn't good and the service wasn't either. The 1888 is trying, like many establishments now, to get back on its feet. We didn't complain or ask for the food to be redone because it felt like they were doing the best they could and we wanted to get to the bandshell. Housekeeping is on request which is fine but calling for towels, coffee, etc. isn't working because there was always something missing and sometimes you won't get it at all.

The "good" far outweighs the "not so good" by a large margin and the "not so good" is either not the Plaza's fault or I'm confident it will be made right as covid releases its grip. The 1888 has a lot of potential and even though they didn't execute I could tell they cared enough to get it right in the future. The elevators are a good example...I can't remember a time I was there when all three were working...they were all working this time!

We made some wonderful memories and we can't wait...

I am not even sure how to rate this resort considering the good experiences were amazing and the bad was pretty awful. I love the overall look of the resort, the rooms are dated, so much so that our ocean view room balcony door became stuck, not really a huge problem, so I called the front desk and informed them of the problem. My fiance stayed and waited while I took a quick shower. As I was placing my wash cloth on the soap dish, it completed fell off of the shower wall on to my big toe, which cracked my toenail! The soap dish was made of some kind of granite or stone. I told my fiance what had happened and he went down to speak with management. I was speaking with the engineer as he was fixing the door, he stated that they were installing wheels to all the doors in the resort, and wasn't sure why they had put us in this particular room. He also stated that we should probably leave the door closed so it did not get stuck open again. Kind of a damper considering we paid for an ocean view room with a balcony. Shortly after, a safety manager came to ask some questions about my injury from the soap dish falling on my foot. He asked if I needed medical attention, I declined. He brought us down stairs to speak with the front office manager. I explained the whole situation again and requested to please be moved to another room. The office manager called the engineer down stairs and had him confirm and stand in while he told him (in front of everyone) that he does not possess the credentials or authority to say which rooms should be suitable for guest occupation. I was so uncomfortable knowing that all of these unfortunate incidents were blamed on this man who was simply doing his job and that he was reprimanded in public instead of privately. The front office manager also stated that the since the incident happened in the room we were not going to receive compensation. Ok..... I simply asked to be switched to a room with a functioning door and stable bathroom. After nearly an hour and a half of this a very friendly bellman assisted us to our new room on the 8th floor. The door worked great and so did the shower. The bathroom was quite a bit smaller but I was happy. The front desk agents were very friendly and helpful. We got settled in and headed to the pool, which was heated and amazing! The bartenders at the pool were great and even filled my special request for bacon in my bloody Mary. The DJ was super fun and the food was great, and so we're the drinks. Now I normally am a fairly basic, easy to please person. I did however used to work for a crown plaza in Orlando and at Disney world so I know a few things about guest services. I was very disappointed over all with this resorts guest recovery process, I'm left feeling like there are other hotel or resort managers that would have done a better job to ensure our stay was pleasant for our remaining time spent there. He did not go above and beyond not did he even follow up with us as guest. I wouldn't recommend this resort just based on that. To the other staff, thank you, you were all fabulous and this review is not based on your services to us while...

Resort? Hardly! This place desperately needs help! We stayed in an ocean view room for three nights this past weekend for a conference my husband had to attend for work and it was issue after issue, which is unfortunate because I do have to say that any staff we encountered was always very friendly and helpful (unlike the management, read to end).

Upon arriving to the room, the floor clearly had not been vacuumed, the bed sheets had numerous hairs in them, and the drinking glasses needed a good scrub. The bathroom is the size of a child's closet but beyond that the tub would not drain and filled up with nasty, sandy water quickly during every shower and the shower curtain was moldy and full of hair. There was a very large cockroach (and another large dead one) running around at the elevators and the pool chemicals needed serious attention. A do not disturb sign on the door did not keep staff from still entering my room to empty garbage, collect dirty towels and change out toilet paper. I know that's not a bad thing, but I put the sign up after a friend had a cooler stolen from her room, but they still came in my room anyways. The fried chicken at one night's dinner buffet was freezing cold in the center (which was a replacement for the roast beef they quickly ran out of) and the same restaurant was out of 3 of the 5 meals we tried to order from their menu another night. And forget trying to get a late check out. That's unheard of because they're so "desperate" to get in here and "clean" these rooms. The only reason I requested this was because my husband had to be in his class until early afternoon and I didn't want to have to load my van alone while trying to keep up with 3 young children all by myself in a busy parking garage. Management didn't care, just worried about charging me more money for a 1pm checkout. No way!

More than likely I would've let all of this go and not even bothered writing a review, but the last straw was on the third night when our kids joined us, we went to pull out the mattress on the couch and the matress had black mold all over it!! Unacceptable! Picture below. Worse is that the managers I've tried to speak with do not care to listen. I was quickly dismissed and snapped at by two male managers, and waited on hold for over 15 minutes for an Assistant General Manager before finally giving up. Funny because there's a sign in the room stating "if you think there was any aspect of your stay that was not a 9 or 10, especially the level of service we provide, please let us know about it right away so we can make it right for you." What a joke. I will never be returning. There are plenty of other options on Daytona Beach.

We will also be notifying the events coordinator for the conference my husband attended so they're aware of the issues (and we weren't the only ones with multiple problems) before choosing a hotel to book for this...