Fitch Lodge - Key West Historic Inns — Hotel in Key West

Ever woken up to bugs crawling all over your face, in your hair, in your sheets and all over your pillow? Well now I have.

Read the whole story of poor service and the nightmare experience below and see attached visuals.

Chose this hotel because of all the great reviews and when we arrived we thought what we read was spot on, friendly staff, difficult parking but otherwise a decent place to go (not for the price though - at $320 for one night although it was Memorial Day weekend).

The lady at the front found out my fiancé and I had just gotten engaged and decided to “upgrade us” to a top floor room with a couch and skylights above the kitchenette and over the bed. We thought it was pretty cool, and so dropped off our things and headed out for the evening to the bars. I’ll note here that they had had about a 2 week stint at this point of heavy rain and it was raining when we left the room and when we came back. At around 3 am we came home, prepped for bed and went to sleep.

At about 6am my fiancé wakes up to something biting him so he jumped out of bed and turned on the lights to see bugs ALL OVER the bed, walls, sheets, and to our horror, us. They were termites, they could fly and were falling from the skylight and it’s blinds right above our bed. I immediately ran to the shower to get them off of me, only to find them on the shower walls and when I finally felt I had scrubbed myself clean, picked up a towel to find one there too. Needless to say we immediately packed up everything and left the room to find a number to call for after hours service.

This is where I get really upset. When we call the on call manager he comes in about ten minutes after we call. While waiting we run into the maintenance guy on duty who comes up to look and says “ yeah we have been having trouble with termites, especially with all the water. Someone was supposed to have taken care of this but doesn’t look like they did. I’m really shocked they put you in one of these rooms with the trouble we have had.”

Then the manager comes and we explain the situation and how we were woken when my fiancé felt a bite. After listening the first words out of his mouth are “ Well termites don’t bite.” THAT’S what we decided to say to us after we tell him we woke up to bugs crawling all over the place in our bed. I lost it. He then says “ I’ve been here all night, not sure why you didn’t call me sooner.” Like we CHOSE to sleep in a bed full of termites for three hours unknowingly. No apology was ever given. He literally asked us what we wanted him to do about it. Like this was our issue not the hotel’s.

We then had to wait another half an hour for the regular receptionist come in so we could get a refund. At this point its a quarter till 8am. We finally get a refund and check in to the Marriott down the road. ( and I will add they were the nicest group of people I’ve ever met. We were welcomed with huge apologies for our past experience, given a late checkout of 4pm so we could calm down and recuperate, and even a free breakfast at their beautiful dining room).

End of the story this place has scarred me, probably for a very long time. I woke up terrified I had something in my bed randomly throughout the rest of the day. The staff showed little remorse or willingness to make it right for us which blows me away. Find somewhere else. End of story.

See photos and...

Long post incoming. First night we had a rowdy neighbor that didn't feel they were drunk enough from the bars so they brought some friends over and had a party outside our door, at 3:30am, I came out and spoke to them, they were okay with not making noise but 4:30am rolls around and boom more noise. So we went on a walk, 5am.

Getting back from the walk, silence since it's was around 8am, we came back rinsed off (water diverter in shower controls going bad in our room, and pressure would drop to almost nothing for short periods of time) then took a nap. (Beds are soft and pretty comfortable, our bedsheets were a little stained or dirty when we arrived) then went out for lunch, when we came back, we mentioned the noisy neighbors to the front desk and they gave us a number to call for when it happened again. The neighbors did wake us at 2:30am but instead of walking out there myself my wife called that number given and within 20 minutes the noise was gone. So great service, on their end for that.

Since it was pet friendly we did hear howling and yapping as its too hot in key west to walk your dogs midday or even let them out. They can overheat, so the dog noise didn't concern me as there is nothing you cab do but hope the dog goes for a walk after sunset.

Around Wednesday day, since we read through the terms and rules of the hotel, we saw that they change sheets every 3 days of the stay, which should have been Tuesday for our 3rd day, but it didn't happen, so we requested a change since my wife's recent ear piercings were starting to irritate her from what we believed were dirty sheets. The helpful young lady at the front desk put in a note to have them changed, but next couple days go by and the sheets only got a change when we asked for new linens and then caught the room service and had her do it since we already had them there. This was finally changed Friday... and we left Saturday. So that kind of sucked, and made us question the $40 daily resort fee. However the house keeping comes in and makes the bed and changes towels and vacuums on the daily.

The rooms themselves were pretty okay, the blinds don't hold up unless you get a piece of tape to kinda prop them into place. The floors left my bare feet dirty on the bottom, and the walls are straight up paper thin. You hear everything unless you have bathroom fan on, fan on ceiling on, and ac going then it's manageable. Doors, you kinda have to slam to shut since the hinges shifted over time.

Also think landlord special paint job.

Location wise, it's phenomenal, like 10 minute walk away from Duval main strip, and if on a scooter like we were it shortens it to 3 minutes.

They have a hammock on upper level and some beach chair/beds. We're a great addition to sit on during the evenings, but pulling out onto Eaton morning time - lunch time was a pain.

They offer these coupons to a local breakfast bakery shop that makes very strong coffee, and pretty okay pastries. First come first serve type deal.

If none of these are deal breakers, you'll definitely have a...

Really sad to be rating this property so low but it is 100% not at the same level as other Kimptons and the staff 100% does not do what they need to do to make guests comfortable.

Rooms are tiny and poorly designed. No hooks for towels in the bathrooms, no built in storage to make the historic size easier. We kept getting the whole “it’s an antique building” but that’s no reason. It’s just a bad renovation job and not worth $200+ per room. Also the AC is so loud and there are tons of scuff marks everywhere on the walls!

Staff was also so bad for a Kimpton. Both staff members we dealt w thus far (we still have one night here) were not fully open about what the amenities were, not apologetic when the rooms aren’t big enough and not quick when we asked for stuff. And like so disingenuous. And sorta snotty. I asked about the resort fee at one point and the attendant told me the long history of it stating that it basically gave hotels the opportunity to advertise a lower rate and eventually charge more. Thank you for the insider feedback. This hotel is now on my list of places not to return!

There’s “breakfast” - think gross cereal and mass manufactured muffins. And like coffee w creamer. Asked if anything was local - and they said they “used to buy from a local bakery” but everything had to be wrapped and pre packaged. I highly doubt it’s that hard to find a local bakery w decent tasting food to pack up for breakfast. Feels like a Howard Johnson motel. Not a “fancy boutique” hotel.

Oh and then the 30 dollar resort fee. LOL. Can’t wait till they try and charge me this at the checkout door - absolutely no reason to charge me for any amenities bc there was no housekeeping, no fresh towels unless you asked for them (would be great if someone came around with fresh towels). There’s no parking on premises. And the pool is tiny so not covid friendly that it’s a joke anyone would actually be able to enjoy it. Also no happy hours like other Kimptons. If you’re charging us 35 a night then please at least send free little baskets of snacks and drinks to the room. Come on people!

Such a ripoff. And I’m sure everyone...