Lighthouse Hotel - Key West Historic Inns — Hotel in Key West

DO NOT FALL FOR IT. What a huge disappointment, we spent our wedding/mini-moon vacation at the Kimpton Lighthouse Hotel in Key West and the only five stars deserved was its location (and given the fact that it was directly across from our wedding venue at the Hemingway House). 7 out of the 8 days we spent there was either dirty, or something in the room wasn’t working properly, which I had to waste time literally everyday of my vacation sending texts, emails, and being on phone calls with management dealing with this. Only 1 of the 6 front desk staff acted with a sense of urgency when our issues arose. The first night was the worst, see pictures attached. The bed was made up - with the last guests’ dirty linens. We found body hairs, including a nostril hair and booger on the bed linens. In addition, found two more body hairs embedded in the bathroom robes. When we brought this to Kassandra’s (front desk staff after checking in on night one) attention, her immediate response was, “we will fix it in the morning” because she was the only staff member at the front desk and would not leave to change our sheets. My wife and I were shocked at her response and both asked her if she really expected us to sleep in dirty sheets?? This was completely unacceptable (Especially the fact that we were paying for the most expensive room at a so called “5 star boutique” hotel). Since she refused to change the sheets, my wife asked to at least be given clean sheets (which Kassandra happily agreed to, however, ironically, still had to leave the front desk to get clean sheets in another part of the building). Baffled by this kind of service, I immediately contacted IHG corporate to report the issues we were having. While I was on the phone with corporate, my wife went with Kassandra to our room to show her everything that was filthy. She showed her the glassware that had thick layers of dust that looked like it had not been cleaned in several months. In addition to the majority of the room being covered in dust as well. There was also clearly visible sticky residue on the counters, and the floors had a nasty greasy-like residue all throughout the room. To top it off, my wife said that when she showed her the dirty sheets, Kassandra said “this pillow case looks okay” in essence, only needing to change the “dirty” ones. My wife was shocked and told her, if one piece of bed linen was dirty, it meant the entire bet set was dirty and needed to be changed. After that had happened, I refused to allow my wife to change our sheets when it was the hotel’s responsibility, and since Kassandra refused to do it herself, it took 4 and half hours for her to contact someone from housekeeping staff to come change the sheets, for her. I called the MOD three times with no answer and left voice mails. No call back until day 6 of 8 when I had to keep reminding staff no one had called us about our filthy room. If you are getting married at the Hemingway house, I do not recommend staying here longer than one night (using it only as the bridal party’s getting-ready space for the day-of and one night stay) But do not expect it to be clean. eyelashes stuck to various furniture pieces. The one other nice feature of this room was having a fantastic soaking tub in the walk-in shower. However, it must have been for looks only. It didn’t drain water properly, nor did the faucet’s handheld wand work. It took THREE separate visits from maintenance to “fix” it, when it hilariously turned out there was a small piece on the faucet that needed to be pulled to activate it. What was most upsetting was that the front desk tried to act like it was user-error (us as guests) when in fact THEY didn’t even know how to use it until after watching YouTube videos to figure it out! This also tells me, if they didn’t even know how to use the wand, then the tub never...

My husband and I are big Ernest Hemingway fans. I booked a stay at Kimpton Lighthouse because it’s across the street from Hemingway’s House, where he wrote 70% of his works. I had this vision of spending New Year’s weekend reading Hemingway on a private front porch under the palms with a view of where he wrote the book in my hands. So I was willing to pay more than I normally would for that experience. The king suites with a front porch aren’t exactly as advertised. It’s a historic property with three shotgun bungalows and a hotel, and the bungalows are chopped up into rooms. So there are 52 different rooms available, and they can’t provide a picture of every room. We paid $2300 for two nights for a king suite with a front porch, because it has a view of the Hemingway House across the street, or at least that’s the way it’s advertised on the website. But when we got there, we were put in a larger suite in the back. The upstairs deck, which was not a private porch, was the “porch access” that we were paying extra for. However, when we explained that to Laura, she was very quick to get us in a room with front porch access. So it’s not the hotel’s fault or the staff’s fault, it’s the fault of Kimpton’s website. If you’re interested in having a view of Hemingwag’s House from the front porch, just make sure to put that in your special requests box. (I attached a picture of the map, which Kimpton should put on their website, but the private front porches are rooms 1, 3, and 6.) I’d also call them to make sure they got the request.

The hotel itself was very nice. I loved the property. Other reviewers mention roosters but I really liked it. There was also an iguana in the palm tree next to our room! I thought that was cool. Ans yes, it might be a little noisy, but that’s because it’s across the street from one of Key West’s biggest attractions. I actually thought it was pretty quiet and private, all things considered.

I cannot emphasize enough how accommodating the staff is. Laura is so friendly, and I really loved talking with her. She recommended restaurants for us and booked us reservations on New Year’s Eve! That’s a big deal! She also told us about the best sights to see on the island; she was extremely knowledgable.

I would absolutely go back to Kimpton Lighthouse because, due to Laura’s quick thinking, I got my vacation wish of reading Hemingway looking Hemingway’s House under the palms, and it was as magical...

I booked this hotel for three nights because I had to do work in Key West. I finished on the first day so there was no reason for me to stay any longer. I checked out of the hotel after one night and they charged me a full night's stay as a penalty for checking out early. That's their policy, I get it. But there's also something called customer service. These circumstances should be governed on a case-by-case basis. I can understand if it was a slow time and the room may not get rebooked, or that I just wanted to go somewhere else for a better deal...but neither were the case. Key West was full, all the hotels were full, and trust me, the prices were at a prime. I was told that they charge the penalty to protect them in the event that the room does not get rebooked. (Paraphrasing) so my response was, " so when it gets rebooked you're going to refund me the penalty"? Of course their answer was a resounding "NO". I asked to speak to a manager and if memory serves me correctly, she said she was the supervisor, so evidently, what she says, goes. Kind of sounds like somebody with the ability to waive a penalty doesn't it? This is a small chain of inns. Very corporate style. It is not the true Key West experience if that is what you're looking for. All this place cares about is herding you in and herding you out...gotta make those Benjamin's. At no point did I get heated, loud or rude, but I certainly was visibly frustrated and unhappy...and as I was leaving the office, the girl (and I say that because she was young and obviously had no long term experience) behind the counter decided that gouging me for almost $200 extra for the penalty wasn't enough...she had to get one last jab in and very smugly gave me the ol' "Have a nice day". There are so many other options in KW to stay that have a true, welcoming KW vibe, where the staff actually does care about the guests. In my opinion, this place is NOT one of them. And one more thing: I was rudely awakened at 6 am by someone BLARING country music, but there was no one in the office to answer my phone call, so I left a message, which was never acknowledged at any point. So after hours...youre...