Best Western Plus Orlando Lake Buena Vista South Inn & Suites — Hotel in Kissimmee

My family stayed here for an extended period, over 20 days. For this reason, I read all the reviews in order to be prepared for any challenges we would face. Thankfully I did. When my husband booked the room, the hotel was advertised as pet friendly. I saw on a review that the hotel is listed as such but is in fact not pet friendly. There is an obscene charge per day if you bring and animal and they find out, so beware. We were, of course, unable to bring our pet. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They did tell us ahead of time about how they operate regarding dirty linens and trash and they did tell us that we needed to go to the desk for any items that we would need and that we would need to notify them if we wanted the took cleaned. I didn't mind this set up, but many people might not like it. One of the two elevators stopped working and it was not fixed for quite a few days. It was a minor inconvenience. There was one instance where the water was shut off just as I was about to shower. I inquired at the desk and was told it required maintenance and would be back on in an hour. It was indeed back on in about an hour and I found it to be a minor inconvenience. Breakfast is between 7-9am. The breakfast is very basic. The food is not great, but it is something. One of the only things my child would eat was the yogurt but the yogurt machine was always having issues. Either it was low and the yogurt would barely come out, or it was empty, or it was jammed. I strongly recommend to the hotel that they get rid of the yogurt machine and just offer yogurt cups in a refrigerator (along with individual wrapped cheese slices so people can make breakfast sandwiches out of the ingredients available). The kitchen staff were mostly very friendly but if you do not speak Spanish you may have trouble if you need them to refill something or if there is an issue with something. One of the kitchen staff just said "sorry no english" and walked away. Sometimes I asked for something but they said it couldnt be refilled, like the milk even though there was still an hour left of the two hour breakfast window. I used the laundry room often during my stay everything worked very well. They had small tables where you could fold your laundry if desired which I appreciated. The 1st floor has air conditioning throughout the common areas of the floor. I stayed on the 4th floor. The hallway was always very hot and therefore a bit stinky in the heat. Thankfully the air conditioning in our room worked wonderfully. We had plenty of outlets. Outlets next to the chair, on the wall next to the bed and outlets by attached to the lights and the alarm clock. Nobody ever came to our room or bothered us, that was very appreciated. However we did have neighbors in the next room over at times and we could hear everything mostly from the shared wall in the entryway. The swimming pool was fine but the playground seen in pictures on google is no longer there. The hotel also is advertised as having a game room/arcade but that room was empty also. So if you have kids and were hoping to utilize the playground or arcade, just forget it. And finally, at checkout we were told we had to pay a "local fee." A charge per day for our 28 day stay. So that added up quite a lot for us and we were not expecting to pay this undisclosed fee at checkout. My husband was told that the person who checked us in was supposed to tell us, but we were never told. I think that this is my biggest complaint along with the false advertising of being a pet friendly hotel. Everything else I mentioned was a minor inconvenience. If you research ahead of time and are relatively easy going, you can avoid becoming frustrated with the hotel. I will also say that overall we felt safe the entire time and that the hotel was decently clean except the lounge by the front desk is heavily stained and they need to hire someone to clean it with an extractor. Best wishes to the staff at Best Western. Overall I would recommend this hotel, but just be aware and be flexible if you are going...

!!!DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! This hotel was a HUGE disappointment and the customer service was non existant. We booked this hotel for 6 nights while we visited Disney but once given our room we knew immediately that this hotel was a mistake. The floors had not been cleaned and the bins had not been emptied - there was a USED sanitary pad in the bathroom which by anyone's standard is just unacceptable. We went to the front desk and got given another room but again upon entering saw that it seemed to be a theme where the rooms were not cleaned to a satisfactory level, let alone properly. This time we found another guests used socks on the floor and again the bathroom had not been cleaned properly with hairs everywhere and rubbish under the counter. There were also ring marks on the sideboards from previous guests drinks etc. These came off easily when we wiped over them with a wet wipe so we knew that this had not been done by the cleaning staff. We were also informed that there would be no maid service during our stay and that all rubbish should be left outside the door. This was not made clear upon booking and it made the corridors look like one big trash pile. We unfortunately were left with no choice but to stay the one night in the second room as they apparently had no other rooms available and by the time we had been messed around changing rooms etc, it was 1am. With 2 small children, waiting longer was much more inconvenient and booking another hotel at that point would have been futile. Just as a small disclaimer, the walls of this hotel are PAPER THIN, like literally as if the neighbours are in the same room. Ive never experienced anything like it while staying at a hotel! Luckily my children fell straight to sleep so they were were spared the sounds of our neighbours 'enjoying' themselves which i assume they believed was a private moment between them both. We were told a manager was not available until the next morning so i went straight down at 6.30am to deal with checking out and what we assumed would be a reasonable request for a refund based on our experience. However, a manager was not available and the lady at the front desk was unable to assist me other than to give me another room for the remainder of our stay. This was no longer an option for us and we booked with a different hotel, which by the way has been fantastic thankfully. We were told a manager would have a decision on authorising a refund later that day and we would be contacted. Suprise, we were NOT so i rang again that evening to be told yet again a manager was unavailable until the next morning. I rang AGAIN the next morning at the time they suggested to be told we could only be given a partial refund which was unacceptable. Again the 'manager' was unavailable and the lady at the front desk was unable to authorise or give me any further help. I repeatedly asked to be able to speak to the manager directly but was sent to a voicemail number. To this date i have recieved no return call from this 'manager' to attempt to resolve this issue. After 4 days of constantly being messed around by this ridiculous hotel i unfortunately had to go through head office who were very apologetic and granted my refund, something even they admitted should have been resolved with much better customer service by the so called manager from the Kissimmee hotel. Being in the millitary i have travelled extensively and stayed at many hotels with many different star ratings. My families stay at this hotel has been awful due to the complete lack of customer service hidden behind a false smile and the lack of communication with anyone who can actually help deal with the issues we had. Had they have been better at placating our situation i no doubt things could have been rectified so much more easily. If you are thinking of booking a hotel in this area i honestly urge you to AVOID THIS HOTEL...

A nice hotel. Best Western certainly seems to he making an effort to compete on a national level again; however, national intentions are always gated by local performance.

The room is quite nice (a 1BR suite), and the mattress is very comfortable. The mini-kitchen is kind of odd since the large mini-fridge and microwave are across the room from the wet bar and cabinets, and there really should be a roll of paper towels provided, but it all works. and I really like the walkthrough bathroom.

There's also a nice pool and pool deck.

I would comment on the breakfast, since it came with the room, but the window to dine is so narrow I missed it this morning. I travel for a living, and I'm unaware of a breakfast window that's only 2 hours; perhaps tomorrow.

Staff note: The maintenance and clea ing personnel have been quite friendly and welcoming, and Donna, who handled my overnight check-in, was both awesome and friendly.

Three significant complaints: I booked this hotel specifically because it offered breakfast and laundry facilities since I have been traveling for 2 weeks (London, NY, LA, Orlando), and thus I'm out of clothes, and I'm also without a vehicle.

1. The laundry equipment is coin operated, like relics of the 90's, which wouldn't be a problem except there is no way to get quarters onsite. I had to hit four different stores over 2.5 miles before I could come up with the $8.00 in quarters necessary to do 2 loads. This is a reasonably new hotel - time to get some modern equipment, or at least a change machine.

Now this may seem like a minor complaint, but again, I picked this hotel for its laundry facilities, so walking 2.5 miles, in Florida humidity, to get quarters, is infuriating.

2. The room is musty, even with the air conditioner running for at least 18 hours. No mold is visible, but the musty smell is distracting, and a bit concerning. The hallway a/c appears to be off, so the hallway is warm and thick, leading to a cool room with that distinctive moisture smell. (note: 3rd floor room)

3. The breakfast window is just ludicrous.

So my takeaway is that this is a decent hotel for servicing the budget-conscious tourist crowd, but management is unconcerned with ensuring the amenities are available, convenient, or functional.

I see this as a local management issue, so while I probably won't return (too many 4 and 5 stars to return to a 3 star property), it won't stop me from booking at other BW properties.

(Note: I hold Diamond status on Delta, and with both the Hilton and IHG hotel groups, and platinum at Marriott. My expectations are based on price-point and brand aspirations/marketing. Since I've already earned my status levels I thought I'd test out some BW's for the rest of 2022.)

Edit: Breakfast was fairly good. The hot bar had eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy - not cracker barrel, but tasty and filling. plus all the other usual suspects for the continental breakfast. It is also exceptionally clean, and the staff was very attentive to the food. Additionally the breakfast area is well laid out with a variety of seating options, and considerable power accessibility.

New Concern: While the facility is non smoking inside, outside has no designated areas so when taking breakfast out to the pool I was forced to walk past the myriad 4-person tables, each with a single smoker sitting at it, which created a nice smoke gauntlet, and took all of the pool-side tables out of play for pool-goers. (I'm an ex-smoker, but not offended by it in general, but the attitude of smokers to take over the pool area is...