Holiday Inn & Suites Orlando I-Drive - Theme Parks, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

Check-in was handled by Jacelie and it was quick and efficient. I was recognized as a Spire IHG Rewards member. She told me about all the COVID related protocols, including the restaurant being closed and housekeeping suspended for stayover guests (more on that later).

My first assigned room (which met my preference of being at the end of the hall) was not clean. There were visible crumbs, hair, and other debris on the flooring. The bed was made and towels refreshed, but it was as if the room had not been vacuumed after the previous guest. I returned to the front desk and told Jacelie. She issued a new room (on the same floor, but closer to the elevator) and came to the old one with me while I retrieved my luggage and to see for herself. She was rather apologetic and said the conditions were unacceptable. She was going to report this to the general manager. After that statement, I expected him/her to contact me during my stay with an apology, but I never heard anything more about it.

One of the COVID cutbacks is lack of housekeeping for stayover guests. The front desk provided towels, sheets, toiletries, trash bags, etc on an as-needed basis. Had I known about this lack of service beforehand, I probably would have changed hotels midway and divided my 8-night stay into (2) 4-night stays. They said it was for the protection of their housekeeping staff, but I had a hard time understanding their reasoning, since a sanitized and clean environment should be top priority. This doesn’t apply to stayover guests. It just seemed to me like another way for them to cut services and costs.

The best things about this hotel were the aforementioned Jacelie and Brandon, who work the front desk in the evenings. They were able to accommodate most of my requests in a timely fashion and went out of their ways to provide outstanding guest service! I never really dealt with anyone else. This is a newer hotel, so the there were not any issues with the furniture, TVs, or AC.

I previously stayed at the Home2 next door, and with all the new surrounding development, I really enjoyed the location of this hotel even more! The Vineland Premium Outlet Center is down the street (most stores were reopened mid-July). There is a Publix grocery, Walgreens, and Starbucks within walking distance. The new shopping center across the street has several fast casual dining options (Chipotle, Panda Express, Mod Pizza) and discount shopping (Marshalls, Ross, Burlington). There’s a newer Cheesecake Factory across the main road (on a side note, it was probably the worst CCF I’ve ever been to service-wise). A new Target is also coming soon to the area.

Overall, the location and evening staff are the two best things about this property. However, after my initial housekeeping issue and the lack of service during my stay, I cannot recommend...

Arrived at the hotel on a prepaid HotelTonight booking I made earlier in the day only to be told the key machine hadn't been working since the previous day and the front desk staff (one person) would have to open the doors manually for every person any time they wanted to enter their room. There was a line of people waiting to be escorted up in the elevator. They had no estimate of when the machine would be fixed.

Why would a hotel continue accepting new bookings when they can't even provide the most basic service you expect to receive when you pay for a hotel - to be given a key so you can enter, and reenter, the room you booked at your own convenience and without delay? Totally absurd. I have stayed in hundreds of hotels and never seen anything like it.

It is standard practice for hotels to have failsafe keys available preprogrammed for every room for eventualities like this - failing that, a backup key machine. Not this IHG hotel. Not only is the inability to access rooms a major inconvenience for their guests, it's also a serious safety issue.

As I write this, the hotel is still listed as available for booking. I guess they didn't want the machine outage to cost them any revenue, at the expensive of the customer. No compensation was offered to any of the guests I witnessed checking in for the inconvenience. One guest even asked if he could be given a replacement free bottle of water, and was told no, bottles were only available for purchase.

HotelTonight eventually credited my account, but the front desk person - who was working alone, can you believe it given the situation - refused to close out my credit account. The business card on the desk for the General Manager, Jeff Vandiver, listed a direct number that turned out to be for the front desk, and a cell number that led me to a fax machine, leaving me no recourse at 12:30am.

When I pointed all this out and insisted that the security deposit to be returned to me so I wouldn't be charged the resort fee, since I was already effectively checking out and HotelTonight had credited me for the reservation, the front desk person told me there was nothing he could do and it wasn't possible to refund the deposit until the end of the original stay.

Then he literally threatened to call the cops on me if I wouldn't accept his response and immediately end the conversation and leave.

So for my own safety I started recording with my phone, and then he tried to tell me that it was illegal for me to do so - even though in Florida it is completely legal to record conversations, even if one party does not consent, when the conversation is in a place where there is no expectation of privacy because members of the public can overhear, such as in a public place like a hotel lobby.

What an absolute disgrace to...

We stayed from Wednesday to Wednesday and our bedding was never changed. I requested it with the front desk twice and they never changed it. My kids duvet cover fell off the comforter and they never brought us a new one or changed it. The room has not been vacuumed since we arrived. I requested our room to be vacuumed when I asked for my bedding to be changed. Cups were never replaced even after we used the original ones on day one. We had to stay here due to a cheer competition and we paid for breakfast every day. What we got was cold breakfast “buffet” style and not like the continental breakfast you normally would get. They toast all the bread for you ahead of time and place it on a large platter so the toast is always cold. We stayed for 2 nights after the cheer comp and we were finally “able” to order from the menu and get hot breakfast. Pool towels were NEVER available and we would have to use our towels from the room and we were only given 3 at a time. The elevators are filthy and so our the floors in front. It’s suppose to be non smoking and guests are always smoking out the back door on the patio. The lady working the front desk on Monday morning 12/12 was very helpful and kind. I “checked out” with her since I had to do that because it was a certain rate with the group. I also notified her that the price had gone down and I had already booked 2 extra nights before we even arrived in Florida and she price adjusted that for us. I also find it interesting that this was a group rate but when I looked it up during our stay it went down to 1/3. I don’t understand how that is a deal especially with the breakfast we were forced to take instead of ordering of the menu like we paid for. The housekeeping was the biggest disappointment. I wish we would have stayed at a different hotel and had a more comfortable experience for this week. It’s hard with kids and not having a vacuum or broom to keep the room clean, not having enough towels, no pool towels, and having to get into a dirty bed...