The Porch on Frances — Hotel in Key West

Great property; terrible host & service. Beware of exorbitant / additional cleaning fees if you stay here during Fantasy Fest.*

My husband and I were thrilled to find this property available for our travel dates in October 2023. Given that this is an old Key West house that has been renovated and updated into an Airbnb, the rooms are small, but that was to be expected and we enjoy staying at this kind of property instead of cookie-cutter hotels.

Although we stayed during Fantasy Fest week, and brought costumes with us to participate in festivities, we were ultimately lazy upon arriving in KW. We ended up renting and riding bikes around the island, doing some bar hopping and spectating, enjoying the beach and Farmers Market etc.

Unfortunately, during our stay, the Keurig Machine in the room broke. We brought this to the attention of Stephanie, the property manager, who wasn’t immediately responsive, but did eventually respond and replace the coffee maker with a new one.

Before the coffee maker was replaced, we had to clean up a coffee spill caused by the original defunct coffee maker, and as a result, we did get coffee grounds / coffee on one or two of the room towels.

Upon check out, we left the room tidy. We piled the two or three used shower towels and the coffee clean up towel neatly in a corner. We have stayed many times in hotels and Airbnbs. We leave them as close to the condition we found them in as possible. We’re neat and respectful guests.

I received a call on the way home from Stephanie that she needed my credit card’s three digit Security Code in order to close out the reservation. I thought this was odd, but I nevertheless supplied the code.

Several minutes after the call, I received a notification from my bank app that she had charged my credit card for $250 Fantasy Fest Damage Deposit, although we did absolutely no damage to the room, and did not cause anything other than normal wear and tear that all hotels, motels and Airbnbs would expect.

I attempted to remedy this through phone calls to property management and owner. But ultimately the property owner refused to refund the damage credit, asserting that we had somehow flung wine on the window blinds and left blood on towels. Neither of which were true.

So, we would caution you against staying at this property. And if you do stay, we would suggest you pay in cash or do not provide your credit card information to the property manager.

It is our strong belief based on our experience that management tried to cover the cost of the non-working coffee maker by improperly charging us the Fantasy Fest damage deposit, when we caused absolutely no damage...

The property is amazing and well maintained. Management however ruins that essence.

My wife and I came down for fantasy fest last year. Not to party or participate. We simply came to relax and enjoy the entertainment. This would be one of the very reasons why we chose Porch on Frances rather than being closer to Duval.

We were clearly told that there would be cleaning fees if we made any type of mess in the room. Especially body painting. They were very clear about this. But that didn't matter to us, to this day we have still never been body painted, ever.

Their methods in which they charged the card was alarming. Very deceitful practices. We attempted to remedy this misunderstanding through communication. Clearly, they had us confused with other guests because we were being rudely talked to as though we were dirtbags. Since that was going nowhere, the issue was dropped. We accept that some battles aren't worth fighting and we simply bring our business elsewhere. My wife has left her own 1-star review on here since then.

I'm returning to follow up with my own personal review because the response that management gave in response to my wife's review was completely out of line and extremely inaccurate of who we were as guests at this facility. The manner in which we were accused of making a mess in that room was absolutely unprofessional, regardless of the circumstances. But to further only address it on a public forum, such as a review response, is representative of how inept your customer service is. And still, nobody has tried to reach out to us. We didn't even want the money back, we just wanted to be treated like you weren't scamming us out of the money. 👎

We never got to see the back area where couches are much less leave it trashed. We've never worn body paint so it's impossible for us to have left body paint mess anywhere in that room or anywhere in Key West. And we didn't have red wine or any wine in the room to have spilled it on the sheets either. It was supposed to be a peaceful and...

We made reservations almost 4 months ahead of time for the Bottle Room. We were so excited to sit on the porch outside our room! Upon arrival, we were told a 92 yr old was staying there and Jeff was concerned about him going up and down the stairs, so we were told we were being upgraded. No problem, or so we thought. Moved to a king bed instead of a queen...great! But, NO PORCH OFF OUR ROOM. Such a huge disappointment. After mentioning that this is not what we reserved he said we could move to a different room with a porch, but only for one night, then we'd have to move again. He said they were booked, but only we were being inconvenienced. Then Jeff said we could have our original room, but if the 92 yr old fell down the stairs and died "it was on us". Awful! He made us feel so guilty, we stayed in the room with NO PORCH. We actually believe Jeff/loser gave our room away before we even arrived. There was no resolve, despite sending texts asking for a slight refund. Jeff also threw his staff Rider, under the bus by saying how dumb she was and he has to continually train her. So unprofessional! Great room, just not the one we wanted. We'll never stay here again and don't recommend. Unprofessional, manipulative, and chaotic. Very disappointed. Sent several texts and emails...NO RESPONSE!...