staySky Suites – I Drive Orlando — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

On Friday June 27th at around 6pm, I arrived at Stay Sky Suites to check in to my reservation that I made through Hotels.com that same day due to a mix-up with a previous reservation for that day. ||||I had the most unpleasant experience with one of the front desk staff when I was informed at check-in that my room would not be available for the entire stay and that I would need to change rooms with 3 young children in between my stay. Since this was a birthday trip, and there were plans to decorate the room, it would have been incredibly inconvenient to uproot my party in that manner - especially because my reservation was made earlier that day long before check in or before reservations closed, it would have made better sense to inform either myself or Hotels.com that this would be my only option. ||||Upon check - In, after being informed of the inconvenience, I asked the agent if there would be any additional accommodations that can be made. I was then informed that "my poor planning is not the hotels responsibility since I arrived so late after check-in begins" ||||Please note: Check-in is documented on both hotels.com site as well as stay sky suites site to begin at 4pm and I arrived for check-in at 6pm after driving through  thunderstorms  and traffic for 3 hours. I was only informed to contact the property if I was arriving after 10pm. ||||I asked for the agent's name and he let me know that he is the night auditor and his name is "Blue Balls." He then informed me that I am no longer able to check - in as he deleted my reservation. I asked him to let me know what the reason for cancellation was and if I violated any policy (I will admit I did get agitated and raised my voice once I was blamed for 'poor planning' and 'arriving too late' at 6pm) I then ask for the legal information to contact, with my lawyer on the phone, he tells him he can't give him any number he "knows nothing." ||||After much kerfuffle and confusion, I called Hotels.com and let them know what was happening. When they tried to contact the agent I was working with, I watched him pick up the phone and then hang up without answering. They called a second time and when asking the agent what was the reason for cancellation, he chose not to cooperate or provide any information. Thankfully, Hotels.com switched our reservation to a nearby and comparable property at no extra charge. The gentlemen, realizing I was sharing the incident with legal as well as Expedia, suddenly had a room available for me to "check out and see if I like it" but it will take him up to 4 hours to reinstate since he canceled it and Hotels.com has to update it. They never received any notification of a cancellation, so it was revealed he was simply flexing and chose NOT to service me simply because he was annoyed at my balking at the change of rooms in the middle of my stay with 3 small children. ||||Once he found I was being relocated, he took the key back and shrugged and said "I tried to help you" This was at about 7:30pm...an hour and a half after I arrived and asked for his help to adjust this issue that I did not put myself in from the beginning. I attached his photo so that you will be able to recognize who Mr. Balls is. ||||As someone with over 10 years in hospitality, including the night audit, I am certain, not being at the desk when guests arrive, not wearing any identification on your person, lying about your name, hanging up on guests as well as the OTA's the property works with, and blaming guests for the hotels own missteps, are ALL considered unacceptable forms of behavior by their staff. ||||||I also noticed there was water leaking from the light fixtures in the lobby without any 'wet floor' signage present. Several guests arrived after and also were not able to check in to their rooms due to similar issues. I don't know if there was something with rooms control or availability, but it is clear this hotel needs a refresher on proper communication and check in procedures. ||||I am sending this review to the front office manager, Cindy Gonzalez as well, whom I was informed by a front desk agent named Ricardo...

I am writing this review in part due to the hotel's performance, and in part due to their sketchy practices.

The hotel seems fine in general, particularly when you arrive. I have nothing to say either good or bad about their amenities because I could not make use of them, which introduces my issues with their sketchy practices: WE DID NOT BOOK A HOTEL. We found a "condo suite" on AirBNB to rent out as an alternative to a hotel. Had we looked closer at the reviews for this place on AirBNB's listing, we would have learned that it was in fact a hotel. Since we did not, we ended up being what we jokingly described to our Lyft drivers all week as "undocumented hotel guests." Since we did not formally book anything with the hotel, we could not use the pool, the shuttle services to the local theme parks, or even feel comfortable attempting to have the breakfasts the hotel provides every morning. Further research on AirBNB showed that this room has been rented out on their site through multiple people, which has led us to the conclusion that this is not only known by the hotel, but very likely both condoned and encouraged / enforced by them, which is in direct violation of AirBNB's terms of use. We will be reporting this violation to them to attempt to get the practice shut down as a result.

On to the performance issues (and a little more sketchiness): We lost water to the entire suite twice during an 9-night booking. Upon contacting the AirBNB host - note we did not dare notify the hotel directly - they responded back about 24 hours later that "sometimes the hotel just loses water, it'll come back". My girlfriend had to brush her teeth at a local restaurant the first time we lost water. The second time, I had to find and use hand sanitizer after using the restroom because I hadn't realized yet the water was out.

The other main issue is that we didn't even feel safe. When we arrived we were instructed to pull keycards to the room from a dresser in the hallway on our floor. There turned out to be 2 sets of keys to the room, which we discovered when the first set we found did not work. When we confirmed the second set would let us in, we returned the first set to the furniture drawer and forgot about it until around the 4th night....when around 11pm our door was randomly unlocked, opened, and then quickly closed. Shortly after that, we found the second set in the dresser and confirmed it still did not work, which just creeped us out more. We ended up taking the 2nd set anyways and keeping in the room, and felt unsafe enough to switch over the metal barrier to prevent the door from opening more than a crack whenever we were in the room; we didn't want a repeat of the first incident.

Needless to say, our experience is a bit abnormal, and this hotel may offer things in amenities to help outweigh some of these issues. However, even in a normal hotel, the loss of water - twice - would have been cause for complaint and redress, but our "undocumented" status turned it from a mere irritation to something closer to fear and disgust. If you wish to book a room at this hotel, just know what kind of management and aging infrastructure you are...

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid! If there was an overall rating below 1 star, I would have given it & I'll tell you why:

I had booked for 3 nights thru booking.com. The property in which the flat was in, is at a very good location. 12-15 min walk to ICON Park, many shops & reataurants nearby. Having said that, I've finished all the positives. So now for the problem issues:

The outside corridor (3rd floor) had a stink all 3 days. Dont know what it was, maybe disinfectant, but unpleasant as hell. The magnetic access card would stop working after 2-3 uses. I know well the common excuse - keep it away from your mobile - I kept it miles away from my mobile. But no use. I think the lock itself might be the problem, was damaging the mag stripe. No tea/coffee/salt/sugar etc provided...maybe i was expecting too much. Totally inflexible on late check outs. Check out time is 10.00 a.m, check in at 4.00 p.m. I had requested check out at 12, flatly refused. Apparently, 4 hours is not enough for the housekeeping to clean a small 1bedroom flat! The young lady receptionist - oh man, she was something else. Her grim, sullen, unsmiling face was the exact antithesis of what a receptionist's demeanour should be. Uncooperative to the extreme - would not look you in the eyes while talking - a "sorry, not possible" reply ready almost before I could finish my question. From the very beginning she was hostile & uncooperative, I've no idea why. Maybe she doesnt like Indians... Anyway, since I didnt get late checkout & there was time before my flight, I requested her to store my luggage for a couple of hours. While checking in, the then receptionist (a jolly, helpful guy) had told me that would not be a problem. But this lady point blank refused, since the flat I was in was owned by a 'private owner'. So they would not take responsibility for stored luggage. Only when I offered to pay, she went in for 5 seconds to "talk to her manager" and then said ok, and the charge would be $30. Since I had no other option, I had to agree. Grumpily, she opened the storage area & told me curtly to close the door after I finished!! What a lady! She alone would have been enough reason to rate the flat 1 star, let alone all the other...