Cambria Hotel Fort Lauderdale Beach — Hotel in Fort Lauderdale

Let me just start by saying I am 47 and have never left a negative review on any hotel in my life and have traveled the world, however my experience at Cambria in Fort Lauderdale has earned this one.

My stay begin as I arrived early (11:00am) into town and had planned to drop my car off and hit the beach as check in wasn’t until 4:00pm (which begins the frustration bc it’s an hour later than normal 3:00pm hotel check in times). As soon as I arrived I realized the hotel has no self parking, only valet with valet prices. Valet personnel was very helpful though and even went to get me a luggage cart while I unloaded my car.

I made my way to the reception desk to check in and explain I arrived early into town and figured I would see if anything was available. The make receptionist proceeded to take my license and say, “you and everyone else all show up early thinking you can check in well before check in time.” I was taken back by the comment but figured maybe he had a stressful morning and I asked if I could store my bags somewhere, which he stored in a luggage closet. So far customer service as 50/50.

I did not make any waves about not being able to check in bc it was a Saturday and I figured the hotel was at full capacity Friday evening. However he took my number and said he’d call when something became available. At 4:00pm on the dot I get a call saying my room is ready and I can come get the keys at reception. When I arrived there were 5 people on line. So they not only didn’t allow people to check in early even though there were rooms available, they made everyone wait until 4:00pm and called everyone at that time. Tacky and definitely not costumer oriented. I realized then that not only was I experiencing rude attitude, I was also seeing that they are not willing to go even an extra quarter of a mile to accommodate out of town guests.

It simply went downhill from there. I ended up having to stay an extra night and booked online with a 3rd party as the hotel was charging over $60 more going through them and was not willing to price match. The next morning I received a call at 7:30am from a female reception staff member telling me I needed to come down and get new keys for my new reservation and redo the security deposit. No problem. But when I asked if I could have a king balcony room (which I booked) she told me I would have to check out at 11:00am and store my luggage until 4:00pm when they’d allow me to check into my other room. I then asked if my room could be facing the water (due to location there were not waterfront views or even water views from what I saw). I was told no because I didn’t book that style of room. NO options for that location of room were even options on ANY of the sites i looked at, not when Cambria’s. It was clear to me that the staff go above and beyond to be as unhelpful, unaccommodating and rude as possible. I do not know if they are instructed by management to treat costumers this way, but it was universal amongst all if the reception staff I experienced.

Mind you, she called me at 7:30 in the morning and woke me out of a solid asleep. I told her I would just stay in the double room I was in the past two nights because I was not going to be inconvenienced by their lack of help. She then asked if I would require cleaning services at which point I said I didn’t think so but I’d let them know…again, too many decisions at 7:30am after being woken up.

Around 12:00 she called a second time and told me again that I needed to come down and get new keys and resubmit my deposit for the new reservation. What is the rush? Why am I working on the hotels time when you’re clearly not caring about mine? I said I also needed new towels and sheets changed which I was told wouldn’t happen bc she asked me at “10:00am” and I declined housekeeping services. It was 7:30 in the morning!!!! I had NOT requested housekeeping the ENTIRE time I stayed there ip to that point! She said she’d have to check with the housekeeping manager to see if they could “fit me in” since I already declined. I got a call back shortly after saying they’d have someone change the towels and sheets which was ALL they did. They did not empty the two overflowing garbage cans, didn’t take the bags of food from the days prior sitting next to the garbage can, nor did they take and replace any of the used glasses. Unbelievably bad service.

To top off my stay, I had accidentally left favorite pair of black stilettos under the luggage cube and when I called the NEXT DAY I was told they were not in lost and found and there was nothing the my could do. They did not even talk to housekeeping!

Now I am highly educated but it doesn’t take two master’s degree to know fully well if I knew exactly where my shoes were left that they didn’t magically walk off on their own. Someone took them and did NOT turn them in! I called a few days later and got another rude male receptionist which I demanded to speak to a manager. They manager said he’d look into it and get back to me….that was last week and not a single call.

All in all, I am not only unhappy with the horrible and rude service, I am disgusted at how the staff treat their guests and I will never be staying at a Cambria hotel again. I travel often, as do many of my family and friends, and I will not only be telling them about my awful experience I will also be posting this review on as many platforms as I can find. Again, this is my FIRST time ever posting a negative review and it was 100% earned on Cambria’s part. It took effort to be as rude and unhelpful as they were which was completely unnecessary and unwarranted. ...

STAY AWAY!! WORST EXPERIENCE EVER and HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! I called the hotel directly to book a room and was apparently transferred to a call center. I spoke to someone named "John" and was on the phone with him for 15 minutes told him I wanted a King Suite and he gave me a price. I told him the price online was a cheaper and I would just book online, so he said said to let him check something and he said found me a "special promotion rate" and booked the room and promised me multiple times that it was the same exact Suite, NOT a Standard Room, that I requested and confirmed several times on the phone. The call was recorded, so I HOPE the pull the phone call and review it.

Once I got to the hotel I was rudely informed by "Jeffrey" That I was booked in a standard room and said there's no one that works there by the name of John. I told him I called the hotel directly and I must have been transferred to a Call Center and he said that could not have happened and the only other person working that day was Tanisha. He called me a liar for saying I spoke to someone named John and refused to change my room and said I could "pay an extra $100" more than what I already paid, which was more than it would have even cost online or booking directly from the hotel. He was the rudest and most unprofessional person of ever dealt with at a hotel in my life.

I've been a Choice Hotels member for many years and have never been treated like this. It was completely embarrassing and once I got to the room it was dirty and the TV did not even work. I had to call Jeff to get transferred to another room which was even smaller than the one I paid for. It was a horrible experience ruined by Jeff and I don't think I'll ever stay in a choice hotel again.

Jeffrey does NOT belong in a position that deals with the public. The day after I checked out of the hotel, I received an email from Choice Hotels asking me how my experience went with my booking representative named "John" and I have photos.

The tiny rooms also have a strange layout with the bed facing the wall and the TV perpendicular to the bed meaning there are no chairs and no way to watch the TV except for sitting in bed sideways. The "Observation Deck" On the 5th floor is across the street from the Ocean and looks directly at 2 condo buildings that are at least 30 stories high, so you can't see anything but the busy street and the front of 2 massive condo buildings.

Spend and extra $50 bucks and stay at a much...

Booked this hotel because of the modern architecture design of the rooms and the rooms were truly beautiful. You have to call for housekeeping which is annoying but what makes the system worse is you have to do it by 10am that morning. So, if you just found out about that rule the day of past 10, you’ll have to wait till then next morning to have your room cleaned just an annoying thing to have to keep up with. Next, the workers are quite rude Carlos is amazing, but a few other workers were not helpful, empathetic to the confusing ways of the hotel and etc. ( and I know certain complaints and issues with the hotel is common because many workers disclosed that to me so, don’t act surprised when I’m bringing yall main issue to questioning. Next, the WORST issue is the parking fees that are quite an sneaky fee, 35 dollars 40 + tax a night and sorry that’s ridiculous they refer to it as valet when your car is parked in a small garage and you can literally take two steps and go to it, but, your forced to request the car on the phone speak to workers with language barriers and have an 3 minute interaction take up to 10 minutes for a car you can literally SEE and WALK up to within a couple steps, and on top of the phone of valet sometimes they don’t even drive the car two seconds up for you so either way it’s a stupid thing and like what am I paying for? Hidden sneaky fees like this are annoying and maybe I’d respect it if you had to pay that upfront. But coming out of what is obviously SUPPOSED to be a deposit money hungryyyyyy. Then an attempt of gaslighting took place with the manager saying he compared his prices to hotels nearby and they’re the cheaper option, sir no, usually for guest the average hotel isn’t charging no 40 a night unless you’re a big name or a wanna be prestigious hotel like be foreal, and I’ve stayed at the Marriott with a REAL valet and a REAL parking garage with a beautiful front view where the valet pulls up and guess what. ( no hidden 40 dollar parking fees oh I’m sorry 35 dollars and what 5 dollar tax ridiculous. And even they’re system with charging and everything is so annoying everything over charges and then the charges return anything you don’t use like for EVERY CHARGE. Like I’ve stayed at inns with a more organized charging system. Anyways pretty room but I’d be a liar if these little issues didn’t sour my...