Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Four Corners

Personally i would rate the hotel itself a 3.5 out of 5, but the whole timeshare presentation ruined it for me and i had to give it a 1 out of 5 for that reason. With respect to the hotel I arrived on a Sunday, when I called they said I would get early check in; I got there at 12pm, they said I will get my room soon. They did not give me my room till 5pm. They told me they would contact me when my room was ready, and did not contact me at all, it was not until went to them for the 4th time, at 5pm, at which time they informed me my room has been ready for an hour, mind you also asked them at 3 pm, and 4pm. Then only for them to say that check in is at 4pm...why tell me that I'm okay to check in early when I called in?

The resort it self looks nice but let's be honest, it's basically a cheap Mexican resort with decent rooms and service. Nothing is free. They have 3 pools, which allow late access, but all else requires payment. The people and service were nice. I would stay here again, but i insist you avoid going to any time share presentation, it is a complete scam.

Let me expain based off my experience with their salesman. He pushed the sale of the plan, trying to suggest it is the best thing ever. However that was a complete fabrication. He is nice, however, let's get the facts:

He said the points are not impacted by inflation, in that case explain how the points cost more than they did 5 years ago? Because now the points are worth less and you obtain less.

I don't have the Financials to pay for a big point system and so he offered 40,000... which is 10,000 usd, but then they add their own expenses, which made it 12,000 usd, which i could not pay entirely, and he suggested to take a loan out. That makes no financial sense at all. This is completely ridiculous and anyone that suggests such a thing to a person is heartless and does not actually care. The costs came up to $195 usd per month (20% interest rate) plus $460 usd per year for maintenance, which is just the initial cost, and also $170 for a membership cost, and this is after i pushed for lower cost given financials. How does it make sense to pay membership when I would become an owner. Also, adding it all up, roughly comes up to about $3000 usd, which does not include flights or anything else. So that is a very expensive trip on a yearly basis.

When I asked for a lesser price they said they cannot do that because some clients have paid different prices and would be unfair. Then why am paying more than the clients from years ago, especially since Holiday inn has actually closed down their resorts instead of expanding?

He did not explain at all that maintenance costs increase substantially year by year, which makes buying this point system completely redundant.

This whole system is a scam basically. Not only that, they don't allow you to make any changes to the contract even if you are the buyer? if that is the case, then there is no mutual understanding of the contracts. They force people to accept what they provide.

They use very good sales mechanisms so that people buy into it.

They fail to let people know that they have a cancelation period. Their quality assurance officer you meet after the salesman tries to say that they are there for you and your interest, but they say you cannot cancel once you sign, which is a lie because there is a cancelation policy, which is only 10 days in Florida, but differs depending on the state. They tell you not to tell your family but suggest its best for your family? How does that make sense? They highlight certain benefits, but fail to show you that unless you use the points to purchase vacations that are on sale ( which will never be available) you will not be able to travel the world with anything less than 100,000 points. They say you wont get your points for 6 weeks, however, this is because the closing of the property you are purchasing is a month and a half after signing... yet they only give you 10 days to cancel?

I can go on and on. Just don't do timeshare. These guys are terrible, it is a...

So happy to have returned to Orange Lake after a long 13 year time away. This time as an owner! As I had been gifted a timeshare and finally been able to make use of it. We stayed in the East Village and the villa was fantastic. Cool, comfy and even though it was on the ground floor, I could spot the fireworks over the trees from Magic Kingdom. The small pool nearby was fantastic, heated too so when the temperature dipped (which it CAN do in Florida, it seems!) it was very nice to sink into. While I would highly encourage those of you, planning to visit to have someone that can drive, the resort does have a shuttle service which was fantastic. Regular shuttles during the day, though in the morning and night the service DOES slow down which you'll want to take into account when staying out late or heading out early. Every one of the drivers that took care of us in the two weeks we were there were very friendly, very helpful. There's a high chance we rode with all the drivers employed too! You don't need to be at a bus stop to flag one down and they can drop you off at the (East) Security gate so you can pop down the road (10 minute walk) for shops, food or a slightly cheaper Uber ride. And you can request a shuttle at the Security gate when walking back. Some shuttle drivers will even go the extra mile and drop you off at your building (not including the express which will do that anyway). We didn't make much use of the shops in the resort, though I was surprised to see a lack of plasters in Marketplace or River Island (I did need some at one point). The Marketplace shop did have some groceries as well as baked goods, I couldn't help but buy the pack of four large chocolate chip muffins when I saw them. We also rented a basketball there on our last day to kill some time before leaving which was ideal. We only visited one of the restaurants in the resort, the River Island Grilling Company which was so good we went back multiple times. We tried out the driving range which was great, even when the clouds opened up and we had several bouts of heavy rain, we were nice and safe under cover, able to continue hitting balls with varying degrees of success.

In the end, we didn't get to do all we wanted to, either going to theme parks or opting for lazy days. I will do my best to experience all Orange Lake has to offer next time I visit, especially the Lazy River which I am disappointed I didn't get around to due to an injury I got from visiting one of the theme parks.

I only have two thoughts to enhance a guest's experience:

An app to request or at least track shuttles. If drivers have this app, then guests could use theirs to see where the shuttles are and know how long the waits might be. The times we were unaware the shuttle was slower at night, we could have walked to save time. Or for when we would leave for what ever we had planned for the day and not wait long for the next shuttle. An app to see shuttle times/locations would have been VERY useful.

And if non driving guests could have a complimentary golf cart to go around the resort in. This would have been exceptionally handy, especially when we had just missed a shuttle as well as getting to/from the villa in general.

The one criticism I'd give would be, a lot of information was given to me on arrival. I had thought my sleep deprived state had been what caused me to miss details but it turned out to not be the case as my friend was there to reiterate details. What had been described to me, was an information session for the owners at the resort, so I went along as I felt that I should as it was my first time visiting as an owner. What it turned out to be, was a sales pitch, which I am fine with, I did expect there to be one, but I would have preferred not to be needlessly mislead. Additionally, it was not made clear that I had to meet various criteria to be eligible for the rewards for sitting through this "information session", such as being employed which, currently, I am not. So my morning could have been better spent had I just been...

If you enjoy crowds, extra fees, long waits, and dishonesty, then this place might be a good fit for you! On the other hand, if you’re seeking peaceful relaxation with excellent service, steer clear of this place. Check-in took an eternity! From the moment I entered the reception building until I finally emerged with my room keys and parking passes, I had been inside for almost two hours. They offered me a $200 Mastercard for a 90-minute presentation about the facilities, which was supposed to be no pushy sales tactics. The room itself was decent. We stayed in a one-bedroom villa with a king-size bed. It wasn’t exactly a villa, but it was a nice oversized hotel room. It had a full kitchen, dining area, living room with a large TV, a full bathroom, and even an extra sink and mirror with a makeup bench. Our room faced a pool and early morning leaf blowers kept us from sleeping in, and the constant noise from kids screaming outside our window made it impossible to take an afternoon nap. If you’re looking for a quiet place to stay, make sure to request a room away from the pool. The restaurants on site are overpriced and the quality and service are not very good. If you decide to stay here, I highly recommend that you go to off-site restaurants instead. We were hoping to take a relaxing float in the lazy river, but it was anything but lazy. To float in it, you had to get a different wristband, which was an extra expense but that office was closed. Overlooking the “lazy” river, we quickly saw mostly kids running around in it without adult supervision. The few adults who were in tubes didn’t look relaxed either. We had a busy day scheduled with an appointment that we had made based on the presentation ending at 12:00. We arrived early for the presentation and were assigned a salesperson. He assured us that there were no pushy sales tactics; they would simply explain how their system worked. However, the presentation ended up being 150 minutes long. We sat at a table, received some information, and then moved to another room to sit at another table, where we received more information. At this point, we had not really learned anything about their system. We informed them that we had to leave at noon for our appointment, but they did not care and continued talking. We had multiple people constantly explaining why we needed to buy into their system. Even the manager did not care that we were going to be late for our appointment. In the presentation, they did not clearly explain all the fees that made it not worth it. They said they would get someone to issue the Mastercard, which we could use only on site, and then tried to sell us on another package. We said no again! So, they took us to another room where we were supposed to get our $200, but there was another line to stand in. Then, we had to wait to take a shuttle to get back to where we parked. We did not wait and had our daughter pick us up. We used the $200 gift card at a restaurant that was priced double what it would have been if we had used it off-site. The next day, when we checked out, we decided to use the remaining money on the card at their marketplace (sort of a convenience store). We grabbed some items, thinking it would use up the balance, but it turned out to be much more expensive. The coffee that said “Starbucks” was more like brown colored water. We swiped the card, and it was approved on the card reader, knowing that we would still owe a little more. The clerk came back and informed us that we still owed the full amount. She instructed us to swipe the card again, but this time, it was denied! She claimed that she couldn’t see anything and called a manager. The manager confirmed we still owed the full amount. He advised us to go to guest services. We went to guest services, but they couldn’t see anything either. They informed us that we needed to go to the pushy sales office where the card was issued. Needless to say, we left the establishment...