Hilton Vacation Club Grand Beach Orlando — Hotel in Kissimmee

We just got back from Grand Beach (June 8-10) and this was my 3rd (and last) time at this resort. The resort has nice grounds, decent sized rooms and good location which is why we kept going back.

However, this resort has a ridiculous policy of a 10:00 AM checkout. I was told this prior to booking but when I complained and was not going to reserve the customer service agent told me I could ask for a courtesy extended checkout for a later time and that it would most likely be granted. I asked to put in the request then and was told it would have to be done at the hotel. So I took a leap of faith based on being a repeat customer and booked anyways. Upon arrival to the property I was attended by what seemed to be an android as this person was so uptight and had no personality although she was very professional. I asked for the extended checkout then and was told I had to ask the day before I left, based on availability. Now I would think at this point they would know what is or isn't booked but I said OK, no problem. So the night prior to checkout, I called front desk and spoke to Justin and asked for extended courtesy checkout and was told they are at 100% capacity for Sunday and they couldn't offer me anything, 10:00 AM was it. He explained that they have many people coming in, blah blah, etc etc. I explained that although that may be the case that check in isn't until 4:00 PM anyways and that I have stayed there before and would expect more consideration for a repeat customer.

I also mentioned that the 10:00 AM checkout was extreme and inconvenient and shared my experience prior to booking and upon arrival at the hotel. It did not seem to matter and he would not budge. I then hung up and called back and asked for a manager. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask her name (however she was working the evening of 6/9/18 at 9:30 PM) but basically I repeated my story, asked to please grant us the extended courtesy checkout and she gave me the same standard company line. She was not very helpful to say the least and I told her that this would be my last time at this resort whether she cared or not. I also proceeded to explain that knowing the industry myself that basically the reason they have a 10:00 AM checkout is because they want to maximize the deliberately understaffed housekeeping staff. They do this to pay less in salary and make the the overworked staff be able to do as many rooms as possible for the 4:00 PM check in. They do this at the expense and inconvenience of the paying guests by giving them one less hour of stay yet charging the same rates.

Additionally, the housekeeping knocked on our door 1 hour after check in and handed me a bag with towels, blanket and mug, things they had not finished adding to the room prior to my check in. The hotel has lots of noises early in the morning of chairs/tables moving, kids running, things banging and other random noises. The television is standard (or sub-standard) definition, it looks terrible. The furniture is faded and quite unsanitary looking. Sleeping was hard to do after 7:30 AM and I find it frustrating that the staff doesn't address these known issues.

I understand that extended courtesy checkouts are not a given or mandatory. However, you should take into consideration certain factors and try to make your guests happy, especially repeat customers and even more when you are one of the few "hotels" in the area that has a 10:00 AM checkout. I should have gone with my gut and not booked here to begin with based on the principal of this ridiculous check out time (it was not like this on our prior visits), lesson learned. For the price we paid we could have stayed at other resorts with better amenities, courteous staff and an 11:00 AM checkout. In the end this is a time share property, managed like a timeshare, you get timeshare treatment and there is nothing special about the hotel, the staff or the service. You will not get outstanding service or have staff go out of their way like at a real resort.

** BEWARE of the "Welcome Package" after check...

We stayed at this hotel for two nights and it was one of the worst hotel stays my family and I have ever experienced. We’ve never had any issues no matter where we were staying across the country. We had booked a two bedroom suite and it conjoined with our family that also booked a suit- an obvious family space.

Some things I liked were that the rooms were clean, the kitchen was fully stocked, and the patio space was enclosed. The two bedroom suit was also very spacious, especially being conjoined with our family making a total of 7 guests. It’s also very close to Disney parks.

Here’s where things go downhill. First off I felt that finding the check in desk was a little difficult. It’s sort of hidden, so I would suggest some extra signs to point you in the right direction. Next, as I pointed out above, our rooms were obviously meant for family. We were bothered at around 10 on a Friday night that we were being loud. I will be the first to admit it if we were having a hotel party, but we (4 adults) were sitting around the couch area chatting. Our 3 kids were all watching cartoons in the room. We had music on, but not over a level that we had to talk over the music. The security guard said he could hear us from down the hall and then admitted he didn’t hear loud music when he was outside the door. Not only that but the security asked us “what kind of guests are staying here?” Talking about us. It was incredibly disrespectful considering he just admitted we weren’t being loud. This conversation happened between the security guard and the two men in the group.

The next incident was at noon on a Saturday where the same security guard and another man came and talked to the two women of the group that the people below us heard our kids (3, 5 year olds) running around. This hotel is a place near Disney, so wouldn’t it be expected that kids are existing in the space? Whoever complained below us must have been miserable people to complain that KIDS were enjoying their Disney weekend. I don’t mind complaints.. everyone is on vacation.. however when this complaint came, our kids had been outside not in the hotel room. So again we were bothered, and the security seemed surprised that the kids were outside and cut us off when we tried to tell him the complaints were ridiculous. He didn’t let us talk, and just left us in the hall instead of hearing us out. It just put a sour mood to a vacation we spent a lot of money on.

The hotel used text service to communicate, and when we texted that our experience was becoming pretty poor, we got no response until the morning where they sent a reminder for checkout. I’ll also note that room service didn’t come in the two days we stayed, so we had to take our own trash out and ran out of coffee after the first day. The AC also didn’t go below 70, and it was very hot in the rooms at night.

I am not a fan of bad reviews, and maybe we just had really picky neighbors, but our experience at Grand Beach put a bad taste in our mouths. I understand that security has to follow up on complaints but they lacked hospitality and tact when speaking to us, especially to the women. I will never recommend this hotel to anyone based on the lack of hospitality the...

Let me start by saying if there was a half a star I probably would have given it a two and half star rating. It does deserve three stars. The rooms aren't bad they are kinda outdated though. They are fairly clean. They really need to change some of the fixtures in the rooms. The trash system of leaving it outside of your door is kinda gross. Just open up the dumpster people. The fire pannle has probably went off every night for the past 4 nights. An it's difficult to get in touch with the front desk. Instead of just silencing it or putting it on test they really should just get it fixed. Stop being cheap. I couldn't stand outside unless I just wanted to hear an annoying beeping sound. The pools aren't very big for a resort. The basketball court was cool ,but one of the rems are crooked and that's something that would literally take like 10 minutes to fix. If they gave me a latter I could have done it for them. The no drinks at the pool rule is rediclous. I've been to much nicer resorts that have much nicer pools some even having lazy rivers and water slides. An not only could you bring drinks to the pool they had an open bar there too. I understand no glass. No beverages is rediclous. I feel like it's not cheap enough to be a budget hotel but not really nice enough to be a real resort. It's like they need to find their identity. The put-put course was a cool change up. I guess people don't really check up on that or do anything to clean it. The pens were laying everywhere along with golf clubs and golf balls. An while I definitely think people should put them back if they don't then that kind of falls back on the staff. Plus all the rocks and vegetation that gets on the course really takes away from how usable the course can be. I would say if you don't plan on being in your room a lot go with a cheaper option. An if you want to have more to do then find a different resort. Plus the stuff they used for activities where so cheap it was rediclous. We did a activity with painting and stickers. The stickers didn't stick an when we ask for glue sticks they where basically empty old and dried up. It would literally probably cost under 10 bucks to replace some of that stuff. I think my biggest issue was probably the rude security guard. The way he talks to people for them to get out of the pool is crazy. I personally was just sitting poolside and wasn't even in the pool. He was very rude. An I try to be understanding of people and look at the whole situation. For example if he ask multiple times and people ignored him I could understand. That's wasn't the case. My mother in law ask about when they thought it may open again. He acted bothered by her question. To me that's a reasonable question. Unless they want to refund money for things that are advertised not being usable. Then he should be able to answer that question without...