Magic Key — Hotel in Kissimmee

Never have I EVER had an experience such as the one I had here.

When I pulled in, the property was treated like and looked like a motel 6 only used by shady activity and spring breakers spending their last $30 mom and dad gave them. I stated though “I won’t judge it off first impressions” against my better judgement and went to check in. Boy was I in for it

I let them know my reservation information and he says there is a $200 holding fee. I thought this was high being that nicer hotels and literally resorts are only charging $100 holding fee a minute or two down the road. I chalk it up to “this is what I get for trying somewhere new” and pay the fee.

Now, it is almost 11pm. I am tired, just drove 1.5 hours out here, and already not happy that I paid more to stay here when better locations for cheaper are located on the app but this one had a slightly higher rating.

We get in the room and it’s very basic, which is fine, because I’m tired and just looking to mainly sleep here. Upon observation, they had a list of items they had “inventoried” to supposedly be in the room with absurd charges like $90 for an alarm clock that wasn’t in my room. Reg flags going off everywhere but again, I’m tired with a wife and two kids 4 and under and want to just sleep. I go to use the bathroom and I was MORTIFIED. There was a mystery liquid all on the floor and urine in the toilet! So wanting to be done with this nightmare, I went to flush the toilet and of course. It doesn’t flush. So I lift the lid to the back of the toilet and I can’t describe to you how filthy and moldy and rusted out the back was. I thought “this has to be from like 1960 and hasn’t been cleaned since 1970” the water was murky and all types of awful. For me, this was the last straw and why I was ready to leave altogether. But I feel everybody deserves redemption so I went to the office to say something.

And this is why I finally decided to write a review. I don’t write negative reviews, just avoid and word of mouth tell others. But this final interaction is what caused me to write this review.

The guest service person I dealt with questioned me asking “well how do I know you didn’t just do that?” To which I replied calmly but also with slight annoyance “I serve to gain nothing from doing that. I was letting you know and hoping we be placed in the same style room with better cleanliness. It’s 11pm and I have 2 kids 4 and under. I gain nothing by lying to you and saying there is urine in the toilet and it doesn’t flush” so he repeated the same thing and so did I to which he seemed to lose his cool and said “okay, let’s go look at it”

So with much disgust and frustration he marches to my room and I open the door for him. I informed my family not to go by the bathroom for this exact reason. He walks in the bathroom, looks at the substance in the toilet, that was murky, dark yellow, and smelled and looked at me after with a straight face: “that is just our cleaner”

I looked astonished at him thinking “clearly this man doesn’t think I’m that stupid” and proceeds to manually flush the toilet as if that fixes the flushing issue or the fact our bathroom had urine in the toilet AND on the floor. He proceeded to storm out without a word and I was saying to him “what about the liquid on the floor?” And no response.

Needless to say, I said to my wife “start packing up the room and I’ll look for another place to stay”. I’ve never left a place so quickly and luckily we found a place down the road we had been at once before and left. I complained of guest service at the desk and said nothing was taken from the room, you never provided this this and this from their ridiculous list and asked for my deposit back. They said it would be submitted after an “inspection” of the room but clearly they didn’t do one before I checked in. I will NEVER stay there again or recommend it to anyone. Sleep in your car. It’s probably safer and cleaner then that sketchy place of business. Still waiting on my returned deposit...

We stayed for two nights before moving on to the Tampa area to visit family. This is one of those motels that, if you don’t look TOO closely, it’s fine especially if you’re only there to sleep. Pros: The beds were super comfy. The water pressure in the shower is amazing. They provide a hand pump with shampoo and body wash in the shower. We had two mini fridges, a microwave, and a coffeemaker with coffee and sugar. The staff I encountered were pleasant. Parking lot and sidewalks/stairs were swept. Sheets and towels were clean. Shower was clean.

Cons: I had read the rooms on the ground level were more updated, so I booked a room with two double beds. On the Booking website, it said ground floor. However, I was on the second floor in room 207, in a room with one large bed and a pull out couch. I didn’t say anything to the front desk because there was more than enough room to accommodate us, but I do wonder if there is a price difference for the two rooms and I paid more for a lesser room. The couch cushions were stained and had crumbs on them. Upon pulling them off to open the bed, there were more crumbs. Only one large blanket provided, I assume I could’ve asked for another but we had brought our own. Just a heads up. The shower curtain had what looked like cigarette burns and the shower grip rug provided was black with mold on the bottom. It looked like it was just stained, but I still didn’t use it. There’s no carpet in the room which is great, but I would guess that means the floors are harder to keep clean because, while it looked swept, there was still dirt on the floor. Cobwebs in the corners. I don’t know if the ventilation fan in the bathroom was working properly because the paint on the walls started to puff up and peel when we showered. I thought they were just textured walls.

All in all, we don’t regret staying here. It looks as if the property is actually trying, which is nice to see because so many smaller places just don’t care. I feel like, with a few improvements, this place could be amazing. Personally, I wouldn’t stay here for more than a few days, but I would definitely recommend it for a couple nights to visit the theme parks. Location is great, there are so many stores and restaurants nearby. The reviews that have been answered by the property show they take the comments seriously, so if they’re listening and continually improving, I’d come back next visit. I did receive an $18 charge two days after checkout, but I’m not sure for what as there is no communication from the property. It would be nice if they had communicated what it was for. I also have yet to receive my $100 deposit back, so we’ll see what happens with that. The site says two days, and I guess it won’t be 48 hours until 10:30am when I...

Our first stay at magic key was during our honeymoon in February 2020. We stayed a couple nights to go to Disney before our cruise. They surprised us with sparkling grape juice, petals, and chocolates. Nothing extravagant and we weren't expecting anything. The room itself was an average room, clean and secure. Nothing to rave about but a good price and good deal. We were blown away just by the touches they added for us since this was just a little part of our honeymoon. Our cruise didn't do anything special to our room even. So in April 2022 we decide to go to Disney again and stay at the magic key since it was cheap and they were guest centered it seemed. The room we had seemed to be an old utility closet turned into a room. It was clean, the bathroom was weird. King size bed, very small window with a vending machine in front of it. What I had a problem with this time was the lock was not secure at all. I did not feel safe. You could push the whole locking mechanism to the side and see through a hole in the door. So large someone could put your finger in and unlock it from the outside. Being that it was late when we got there, we didn't want to go through asking for a new room. However I did not feel safe during my stay on the ground floor, next to a vending machine, with a lock that was pretty much useless. I raved to all my friends about this place the first time we stayed but we will not be coming back. I have photos of the door and lock itself an want to contact the manager but I cannot find anyway other than phone to...