Fisher Inn Resort & Marina — Hotel in Islamorada

First off, we don't normally take time to write negative reviews, and generally only write positive to help the staff and workers, etc, get props they deserve, whether it's a hotel, show, boat trp, park, etc. But in this case, it was just too bad to not say anything.

This hotel is in a great location if you love Islamorada (which we do, and go multiple times per year). It is right next to the Drop Anchor hotel, which is actually excellent, has a similar aesthetic (but much nicer grounds, since they put some energy into it) - but the Drop Anchor is sooooo much better (but was fully booked at the time).

The staff is the number one issue with this location. The attitude problems are endless - they clearly don't get customer service/hospitality. We are not uppity people, and are very basic, with little needs for people going out of their way to make us feel welcome. However, when people are rude on the phone when we are simply asking some basic questions about check in, and can't muster basic professionalism of answering nicely, and completely, are making rude comments, and sighing because they are lazy and tired of talking on the phone to guests; it's simply unacceptable. Same with arrival and getting the key, signing in, and asking about amenities, etc. These people are not happy with their desk job, and simply need to work elsewhere, doing something they enjoy, or realizing it's a job, and needs to be done at least somewhat well, especially in this business.

It's even worse when the maid comes to your door in the middle of the day, knocks, you open it, and say "Hi, how are you?" and they say just grunt and say "You need service?", and you say, "nah, we are good today, but thank you", and they say "well then put the do not disturb sign on your door so we know next time". Seriously? I need to accommodate you and know your preferences when staying here? Yikes.

Then; the property is nice and has wonderful potential, with a great morning view of the ocean and sunrise (amazing) - but the beach sand area, which is quite large, has zero shading, and not many chairs (which no one will sit in, unless they are looking to get cooked, because there's zero shade). The property right next door, the Drop Anchor, spent some money to put in some nice palms trees to create shaded areas on the beach, and tables with umbrellas, as well as some great hammocks. Fisher Inn, in contrast, is just bare. Even the swimming pool, which is decent, has zero shade, or anything you could move to shade yourself if you want.

I do not understand why the owners don't seem to care about guest satisfaction, and the massive potential their property has to be amazing (with a perfect example next door at Drop Anchor), but clearly they either don't want to spend a little extra money on some palms, tables and umbrellas, hammocks, tiki torches, or anything else that might finish off the experience, or they just don't care.

The two table tennis setups are nice enough, but there are only 3 kayaks and two paddle boards, and they are not terrible, but it would seem having more would be better. They have around 8 bikes, I think, which looked decent enough. But it would seem having some more equipment, considering the hotel was full, would make more sense, and I am guessing people were not accommodated often, when other people wanted to use the equipment.

For the price per night, this was not a great place to stay, compared to so many others that are cheaper, or simply have a more friendly "Keys feel", or nicer rooms, and amenities. Definitely any Air BnB we have stayed at, and a number of hotels in the area, have all been as nice or nicer, with better amenities and most importantly, much friendlier staffs.

Not a terrible place, by far, but simply put, there are so many better choices until they change the staff attitude and fix the...

Where to start with this review..

First, I am one of the many “COVID” brides that unfortunately had to postpone our wedding one (1) month before our original wedding date of May 2nd, 2020. Leann, the GM of Fisher Inn, was very understanding and above all made the process for my husband and I as simple as possible. She made sure we knew we would be taken care of and that there was nothing to worry about… and she was right! We settled on a new date of Nov. 11th and Fisher Inn handled revising all the reservations and holding our contracted rates. I have heard so many horror stories of brides losing deposits or venues not willing to work with them on postponing the date due to the pandemic and we experience nothing of the sort with Fisher Inn!

As for the actual wedding planning process, I am a project manager by trade and like many other women, a wannabe wedding coordinator (lol) , so I made the decision to handle all details myself. It was overwhelming at times but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the process and wouldn’t change a thing. With that said, I dealt with Fisher Inn A LOT throughout the process, Leann could attest there were times she was hearing from me multiple times a week… The hotel itself has a beautiful space to setup a wedding overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The hotel doesn’t provide tables, chairs, tents, linens silverware Etc. so you must be prepared to outsource everything wedding related to make your vision come true. What they do provide is amazing service to the guest, clean spacious rooms, and fun activities for guests ( kayaks, bicycles, paddle boards & ping pong ). The biggest selling point for me was that I could take the private beach area “ blank canvas “ and create the wedding of my dreams with minimal restrictions that you would typically find at your corporate hotels. That is exactly what I did! I rented out all of Fisher Inn ( 22 rooms ) for my family and friends, hired Coral Keys Party Rentals for our tables, chairs and tent, Chef Drew for our amazing food and Vibes Farm for live entertainment and Care Photography to capture our day. Our wedding day was nothing short of amazing. The hotel was a great help when it came to coordination leading up to our wedding. Also I left out the best part – NO DECORATIONS WERE NEEDED! Fisher Inn was beautiful just the way it is there was no need for me to add to it.

Fast forward to the actual wedding day , Stephanie was such an asset to the day. She checked in multiple times with us, our families, and bridal party to see if we needed anything. She also let us use the breakfast area as a “storage” area as we were setting up. She was a pleasure and made us feel very welcome at Fisher Inn. There were multiple people working that day ( I wish I could remember all their names – as they truly deserve a shoutout ), all of them nothing short of awesome. The customer service we received at Fisher Inn was over and above what I am accustom to receiving. For example, I forgot my earrings at the hotel and didn’t realize it until we were already home ( 4hrs north of the hotel ). When I called Stephanie she offered to drive them over to a hotel nearby where my sister in law was staying. It was gesture that was over and above what was expected of her, that it just one example of the service we experienced the entire weekend.

All in all, if it isn’t clear by now, I would highly recommend looking into Fisher Inn if you are interested in getting married in the Florida Keys - you will NOT be...

We have stayed at the Fisher Inn 4 times. The first 3 times we enjoyed our stay, but unfortunately after our last visit, I don't think we'll return.

Let's start with the pros: We always spend more to get a King Suite Premium room. These are some of the best views of the water that we've ever had in the Keys, especially for the price. We also love how quaint and quiet the resort is overall. The location is also walking distance to a handful of restaurants.

Cons: On our third visit, our reservation was nowhere to be found when we went to check in. This is notorious for happening with 3rd party websites at no fault to the hotel itself. Knowing this, the reservation was booked directly with the hotel. They explained that they had recently gotten a new computer system and we must have booked when it was getting transferred over. I didn't think anything of it - it happens, and luckily, they had a room for us so it was not a big deal. However, on our last stay, the same exact thing happened to two different people checking in in front of me. Even though our 4th trip was 3 months after our 3rd trip, they gave the people checking in the exact excuse for their missing reservation. I find it hard to believe that the Fisher Inn moved their reservation system over again. This is such a big deal because if you know anything about the Keys, waiting until the last minute to find reservations will be very expensive. So if they lose your reservation and don't have room for you, you'll end up paying a lot more somewhere else if you can even find a place to stay. If I booked w/the Fisher Inn again, I would be so paranoid about whether or not they actually had my reservation.

The fire alarm went off 2 of the 4 times we stayed there. The second time, we brought it up to an employee who let us know that it was a known problem.

On our last trip, the wifi didn't work in our room. If you are traveling for vacation, this is definitely not a big deal - afterall, you're there to enjoy yourself, not be on your phone. But unfortunately, we were there for work and we really needed wifi. I'm also very familiar w/the Keys and I know that their wifi goes out on the island fairly consistently, but this was not due to a random outage. We were given 3 different answers by 3 different employees as to why it wasn't working and ultimately it never did work. We also did not get service in our room with Verizon, so we were completely unable to work. One of the employees told us it had been out for 2 weeks which is a long time to not have a basic amenity fixed. We were told by 3 employees that our resort fees would be removed for the inconvenience but it never was. I also emailed management but never heard back. On this particular trip, we paid $400/night and stayed for 2 nights - that price is very steep for wifi to not be working and it ended up costing us much more in missed work.

We are loyal to companies who treat us well as evidenced by staying at this resort 4 times since December 2021. Despite how this review may come across, we're easy to please. If we'd stayed at the Fisher Inn only once, I don't think that we would have noticed these as being too big of problems. It would have been easy to give them the benefit of the doubt that things happen sometimes. But as repeat visitors, it's clear that these issues...