La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Orlando Lake Mary — Hotel in Lake Mary

This hotel experience was by far the most disappointing I've ever encountered. Initially, upon entering the lobby, everything appeared pleasant and inviting. However, the facade quickly crumbled as we stepped into the elevator and noticed the walls peeling off – it was starting to become clear that the lobby was the lipstick on the pig.

Upon arriving in our room, we were greeted by the thermostat set at a freezing 60 degrees. In early September in central Florida, where the temperature had reached a scorching 95 degrees earlier in the day, this was far from comfortable. We had to turn on the heat just to make the room bearable.

To make matters worse, we discovered they had only provided us with two towels. I called the front desk for an additional towel, and their response of “you can come down to the front desk and pick it up” could only be described as lackluster customer service. None of this was really that big of a deal, but in hindsight it was red flags. I told myself you know this is why it’s a LaQuinta and not a Hilton or Marriott. We’re only here for one night so nothing I can’t live with.

However, the nightmare unfolded when we pulled out the sleeper sofa. The condition of the bed was beyond appalling – it looked like a crime scene. There was no way we would allow our child to sleep there. I went down to the front desk, showed the clerk the shocking pictures of the bed (which I'll upload with this review), and received a lukewarm response. The clerk simply said, "Let me see if I can get you another room," without a trace of apology. It made me wonder if such incidents were a common occurrence.

We were assigned a new room, but the door was damaged and had clearly been forcefully opened, presumably by the police or someone else. Astonishingly, the hotel had made no effort to repair the door. This was particularly disconcerting as it was one of their suite rooms – a fact that appeared to hold no significance for LaQuinta but meant a lot to me.

Given the unsettling sight in the first room, I couldn't help but wonder what had transpired in this new room that had warranted such drastic entry measures. Despite our reservations, we entered the room as it was now well past 11 pm, and we needed to settle my son for the night. However, we soon started to feel unsafe, so we decided to leave in the middle of the night.

When I received the key for the replacement room, I requested that the manager contact me the following day. Predictably, I never received that call. So, around 2:30 am, I decided to call the hotel directly. The night clerk assured me that the manager was on-site and promised to transfer my call. Regrettably, the call went straight to the manager's voicemail. I called again, this time enduring a frustrating seven-minute ring without any response. About 15 minutes later, I called once more, only to be informed that the manager had mysteriously "left...

⭐☆☆☆☆

Horrible Hotel – Avoid This Place!

Let me start by saying our stay here was extremely disappointing. This hotel has serious issues with cleanliness, maintenance, and overall upkeep.

The shower curtain was too short, flooding the bathroom floor every time we showered. The shower handle was broken, making it impossible to set the right temperature.

Towels were stained and looked like they had fecal marks.

The bathroom was filthy, with dead bugs in the light fixture, rings of grime in the toilet, peeling paint on the door, and a dirty appearance overall.

The fridge freezer was a solid block of ice and smelled terrible.

The carpet and furniture were heavily stained and dirty.

Common areas were even worse: stained hallway carpets (some bleached in spots), broken light fixtures, dust and grime outside the elevator, and graffiti inside the elevator.

Both luggage carts were broken—one had a busted wheel, the other one had two flat tires.

The breakfast was awful. The eggs were rubbery, and the sausage was undercooked and unsafe to eat.

Outside, the grass was dead in many spots, and there was dog waste all over the grounds.

On the positive side, the gentleman who handled my check-out was professional, and maintenance responded when I reported the leaking shower. But these small positives can’t make up for the horrible overall condition of this hotel.

This property needs a complete overhaul—deep cleaning, repairs, and better management. Until then, I strongly advise others to stay elsewhere.

UPDATE Personal email response from Colton Baptiste, Hotel General Manager. Does anyone else notice how the public review response and the private email don’t match the narrative he’s trying to present?

Dear Ms. Peters,

Thank you for taking the time to provide such a detailed review of your recent stay.

I want to express how genuinely surprised and concerned I am to read your comments. What you've described does not reflect the standards we uphold, nor is it consistent with the feedback we typically receive. Please know that we take these types of comments very seriously, and I have already begun looking into each of the issues you've raised.

While I cannot speak to the specific circumstances without a full internal review, I want to assure you that your concerns are not being taken lightly. We will be conducting a thorough inspection of the areas mentioned, including the room conditions, common areas, and breakfast operations, to determine the root of these reported concerns.

Again, I appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and I sincerely regret that your experience did not meet...

Do not stay here! First issue was we checked into our room and noticed the bathroom had not been cleaned. Nasty build up on the drain, stains on the toilet, just disgusting. So they moved us to another room which ended up being equally unclean and had a smell like something died in there. Then they moved us for the THIRD TIME into a room that was below par, but after being moved three times we decided to settle for it. There seemed to be what looked like bloodspots all over the room. And in the middle of the night I had my phone plugged into the lamp outlet and felt something crawling on me. I looked to find a ton of ants going up my charger into the bed and then a ROACH crawled out of the lamp outlet.(PICTURE PROOF ATTACHED) absolutely disgusting. I didn't sleep a wink after that. Also the elevator was down but only had an out of order sign on the first floor and not on each floor. Which is so dangerous. When we went to the pool it was ok, but there were several sketchy characters hanging around. A group of fully dressed childless men sitting by the pool watching the kids and a couple who asked us very personal questions, tried to give us alcohol, and secretly record and take photos of us. We were so scared and nervous that we were in danger because apparently according to reviews I read afterwards, this hotel has a history of criminals and drug addicts staying there. Then, we wake up the morning we are due to leave and we get a warning only TWO MINUTES before the fire alarms in the whole building went off. We have a cat and a child with us and this alarm went off for about 20 minutes straight. Which can cause ear damage to animals and children. Finally we got to the front desk to check out and of course we complained about the service but the woman at the desk was extremely rude and said if we didn't like the room "then why didn't we ask to be switched again". Unbelievable. We then asked for the manager and was told he "stepped out" and she was unsure when he would be back. She refused to call him or leave a message. We asked for a corporate number to call and she then started yelling at us saying "la quinta is a franchise not a corporation!" "We don't have a corporate number!" When clearly Windham is their corporation. She refused to give any numbers so the hotel couldn't be held accountable. We will never be going back to this broke down, health code violation, crack motel ever again. Worst stay at a hotel in...