Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center — Hotel in Kissimmee

Extremely Disappointing Stay at Gaylord Palms – August 24–27, 2025

To Whom It May Concern,

I have been a loyal Marriott guest for years, and Gaylord Palms Orlando was once my favorite property. Sadly, my most recent stay (August 24–27, Room 2125, St. Augustine side) was a complete disappointment due to both operational failures and unacceptable customer service.

Crib Request Mishandled Prior to arrival, I requested a crib through the Marriott Bonvoy app and confirmed by phone that one would be available. Despite this, no crib was delivered until I called, well past my toddler’s bedtime (8:00pm). This lack of preparation caused unnecessary stress and inconvenience.

Elevator Failures – Major Safety and Accessibility Concerns The most serious issue was that 3 out of 4 elevators (St. Augustine Elevator B bank) were out of service throughout my stay. This left only one operating elevator to service eight floors, with three wings, during a large conference. Guests, including myself, waited excessive times, often only to find the single car full. My husband had to carry our stroller up the stairs while I carried our child. Other guests voiced the same frustration, and I was deeply concerned for attendees with disabilities or mobility limitations. Despite reporting the issue to staff on Tuesday, August 26, the problem persisted without resolution. A property of this size and reputation should never allow such inadequate elevator service, particularly when hosting conferences.

Poor Customer Service & Lack of Communication Equally disappointing was how staff handled complaints: On Tuesday, I alerted the front desk. I gave grace and benefit of the doubt and simply told the agent, I wanted the matter addressed and fixed. Tuesday afternoon, I called the front desk around 4:30pm. I escalated to a Manager. I reported the issue to the Manager and asked for when the issue would be fixed. She informed me she would call me back when she knew more after speaking with her Techs. I did not receive a call, nor any communication follow up. On Wednesday morning, when I attempted to escalate again around 9:00-9:30am, the front desk associate repeatedly interrupted me, spoke condescendingly, and stated managers were “too busy” to speak with me. Only after I threatened to come to the lobby visibly upset did she finally offer any assistance (which was far too late as I was checking out). This level of disregard for guests is unacceptable at any hotel, much less at a flagship Marriott property. Both my employer and I paid thousands of dollars to stay here. My family and I were treated like we were 1 in thousands, our money already spent, and our complaints not even relevant enough to receive a most basic apology.

Broader Concerns While the hotel may technically meet legal compliance by keeping one elevator in operation, the reality is that guests—particularly families with strollers and individuals with disabilities—were left in untenable situations. Compliance is not the same as creating a safe, comfortable, or humane guest experience.

In Closing
What was once a property I loved has now become one I will think twice about returning to. The combination of operational failures, lack of urgency, and unprofessional customer service has eroded my confidence in Gaylord Palms. I will be filing this complaint with the Better Business Bureau and sharing my experience on public platforms so other guests can make informed decisions. I strongly urge leadership to address: Proper handling of guest requests. Preventative maintenance and timely elevator repair. Customer service training that emphasizes empathy, communication, and accountability. A guest should never repeatedly be spoken over.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Barrett – Room 2125. I ultimately checked out only after my husband had to drag our belongings down the stairs in three separate trips, as reliable elevator service was never restored. Most grateful it was only one...

There are some epically wonderful things about this hotel, and many other things that are not great. We don't regret going, but wouldn't go again, and am not sure I would recommend that others go, unless you can get a much, much lower price on an atrium room. Had we not had the atrium room, which was about $300 more than the lowest-priced room, we probably would not have enjoyed our stay.

What's good: The gardens in the atrium are stunningly beautiful, and it's sort of amazing to have small alligators, turtles, giant fish, etc living within the hotel in an extensive network of ponds, waterfalls and streams. It was particularly magical being decorated for Christmas. Having a room overlooking the central atrium courtyard was really beautiful, and very convenient for the evening Christmas light show. Some of the food was great, and the ICE show was incredible - there was even one of the ice carvers from Harbin on sight. They have a huge water park that we unfortunately didn't have the time to try out, but it looked lovely. Though a huge property, they've also done a really good job of making the facility wheelchair accessible.

What's not so great:

1. For $750 a night, I would expect a significantly more polished level of service. Housekeepers don't know where the stairs are. The concierge can't make reservations at the hotel's own restaurants, and says just to show up as they're not heavily booked, but when you actually show up, you're told you should've worked with the concierge to get a reservation as they're fully booked. When asked, the concierge gives you a list of events that doesn't include everything - you need to somehow know to ask for the /other/ special list of Christmas events. The QR code on the hotel map for events leads you to an outdated page for Halloween.
2. The parking garage is surprisingly far away, at the far end of the convention center, not the hotel proper. At $38/night for self-park versus $50/night for valet, just eat the $12 and park in valet.
3. I saw several mobility-impaired folks riding around on rental scooters, but there didn't seem to be anything about this on the website or anywhere else - as my mother had a lot of problems getting around this huge property, it would've been great to know about this on check in, and to add an accessibility section to their website.
4. The food is really hit or miss. My parents both got ill eating at the breakfast buffet. The Moor restaurant was full of ups and downs: a cocktail that tasted like water, red wine served instead of white, and a cream sauce served when asked for a non-dairy dish, flavorless 'butter pecan ice cream' on a very unmemorable pecan "tart" dessert, regrettable coffee, but on the other hand an insanely delicious pasta and a pork chop entree that while tough to cut was, curiously, melt-in-your mouth tender while eating.
5. Most of the elevators seemed out of service; there were always huge crowds and long waits at the elevators. One of them stranded me on the staff only lower level as the button for the ground floor was broken. The stairwells, though, are clearly intended only for emergencies - aesthetically they're more horror movie than luxury hotel.
6. The TV channel listing was ... broken? It listed channels, but for every program it just said "Information not available."
7. Cleanliness was hit or miss. We had a few dirty forks and mug at the breakfast buffet, and someone had spilled some sort of drink that coagulated on the exterior of our balcony, which was never cleaned before our stay.
8. If you're not into noise, this is not the place for you. Kids run up and down the halls screaming well past midnight, and the multiple daily shows have a booming sound system that echoes throughout every room...

I have been holding off writing this to see if time would cool me off a bit, and it has, but I still think there is a learning opportunity for the hotel here.

I checked into the hotel on 12/27/24. I had 2 rooms and came with my wife and 3 of my children. I'll start with the positives. Beautiful facility especially around the holidays and the "Ice" event being held in the convention center. Many of the service interactions were fine. Nothing remarkable to point out but nothing troubling either. I am a Titanium member and as such I had requested a 4pm check out. These weren't available due to the hotel being at capacity, but there were able to get me to a 1pm check out which I appreciated. I was instructed that I would need to go to the front desk and get new keys. Which I found odd because usually they can update the rooms and no new keys were necessary. And this is where the issue starts to evolve.

I am handicap with a prosthetic leg. I do not use a cane or wheel chair but the year have made walking more of a challenge than it used to be. I have identified in my profile the desire for handicap rooms with the hopes that I can be closer to the lobby and elevators. I was put in a room about as far as you can get from either. Which by itself is not the biggest deal. The place was busy and sometimes you just get what you get, and I understand that.

So even though I needed to go to the front desk to get new keys I wasnt going to raise the issue as people do not know your circumstance when discussing with them over the phone. So I went down stairs to get the new keys. The line for the "elite" group was about twice as long and the main line so I chose that one. It took about 20 minutes but I was able to get the keys from a very nice young man. I went back and we carried on with our otherwise pleasant stay.

They next day almost immediately at 11 they keys for both rooms stopped working. I was in the lobby when this became apparent and had no keys. My wife and kids had them. This is frustrating but again things happen. So I go to the lobby and the lines are even worse than the day before. I decide to wait on the elite line and after about 15 minutes I notice a young woman wearing one of the gaylords festive green jackets standing between the 2 lines so I decide to go up and ask "do I need to actually have the keys in order to get them update...again? Now let me tell you at this point I was no longer giving the benefit of the doubt. I was wearing shorts and clearly have ambulatory issues. I explained that I had updated them the day before and they were not working. I was told it was the policy that the keys needed to be presented in person. So I asked the question to make sure I understood her position "so I have to go back upstairs, to 2 different rooms, in 2 different locations and come back and wait on this line again and the answer was a rather short "yes that is correct". I asked can a family member do it. "No sir if the rooms are in your name"

This was the last straw. People on power trips with no ability to think critically and independently should not be in customer facing roles in a luxury hotel.

I am not going to threaten to never use Marriott again but that is only because I am the only one who gets punished in that scenario. I have been loyal for over 2 decades and built my status up to get the perks I have paid for and deserve. But I am going to have a soar taste in my mouth over...