Holiday Isles Resort — Hotel in Madeira Beach

Holiday Isles Resort was not a bad stay, but other places in the area have been nicer for the same price.

Pros: • If you have a pet, they are welcome here. • They have plenty of beach toys for the kids. • There was no charge for early checkin. • $15 was not a bad price to extend checkout until 2 pm. • The beach is directly across the street. • There is a good breakfast at the place next door. • The place is fairly clean, outside of finding a previous guest's clothes. • Most of the staff is friendly. • You can save $15 by not getting room service. • Fridge, stove, microwave, pots, pans, and dishes in the room • They are flexible on pool hours, as long as people are being quiet. • Some cool things within short driving distance, like a putt-putt golf place and a lot of places to eat. • 7-11 and CVS within walking distance

Cons: • Lot of weird little charges, like the ice machine costs a quarter. • The wifi isn't all that great. • Your visitors pay $10 each to stay the night or use the pool, so if one of your kid's friends wants to visit for a swim, you pay. It is clearly posted in the office, so it's not a hidden charge at least. • Showers don't get all that hot (even after waiting like the little sign says), and get totally cold if someone else runs water. There is very little water pressure. • One tiny bottle of shampoo (we had 4 people for 3 days). Charge for extra. CVS is down the street. Just go buy a bottle. • Some of the staff was meh... The Spanish employee told the Spanish guests right in front of us that their visitors could park at the motel. He then told us ours couldn't. We asked another employee the next morning, before ours got there. They told us they didn't know why it was a problem, and they gave us an extra parking pass right away. It seems service depends on who you are and who you happen to catch. • 5 towels for 4 people for 3 days. Extras were again... an extra charge. • Not enough linens for the pullout bed, even though we reserved for four. Extra charge for more linens. • We asked how far of a walk it was to John's Pass, and they said a mile. It turned out being almost double that (1.6 miles to the actual boardwalk). It was also 98º out, so that extra distance was kind of killer, especially with kids. When we mentioned it was more than a mile back at the office, the gentlemen actually argued with us and got a little condescending with us in front of other guests. We let it go, because it was not all that big of a deal. I did look it up on Google Maps later though, and it IS more than 2 miles. Just something to be aware of if you decide to walk it. Maybe they use closeness to John's Pass as a sales point for them. However, the one mile part is not true. We had our car, so if they had just told us, we would have driven. We called a cab to get back. • Stairs only. No elevator. • Have to drive around the block to get to the rear of the building for parking. • Memory foam mattresses were advertised, but at least our room was a spring mattress.

Summary: This place was a place to sleep and shower, and right across the street from the beach. If you are mainly staying just to go to the beach, this place will do the job. Don't expect bells and whistles. Bring quarters. If you want something a little more hospitable and comfortable, you may want to look around a bit more. The word resort in the name is misleading here.

Side note: Management replied denying most of what was said here. They seem to do that on all reviews that say anything negative. We were charged for these extra things, there was a Spanish male employee that was rude to us and not to the Spanish guests asking for the same thing (they said not Spanish by definition, whatever that means), and no daily cleaning does not excuse finding the previous guests' dirty clothes. That means it wasn't really cleaned in between guests either, as a pile of dirty clothes is a pretty obvious thing. I stand by everything in my original review. I would have thought about maybe going back, but not after...

Avoid this hotel unless you're ok with rude employees and dirty rooms. Booked a room online for my elderly father to stay because the place looked nice in the pictures. Unfortunately the pictures don't show the door locks that don't work and the broken toilet seat ( that management wouldn't fix). There was no mention of the fact that there are 2 handicapped parking spots for the entire place. (Management says that's all they're required to have by law and they are first come first serve.) They don't tell you on the Internet listing that you have to strip your own beds and then remake them yourself if you want "clean" linens. Or that you have to wash all your dishes before you leave or there is an extra fee. I don't think they actually have a cleaning staff. Beware, they don't give refunds even if you find the previous tenant's clothing in the room or their old food in the refrigerator (exactly what did the maids do when they "cleaned the room")? No refunds even if you are handicapped and they dont have adequate parking. The staff was incredibly rude, dismissive and really couldn't have cared less that one of their guests was unhappy. They made him pay for the full week when he checked in and since they had his money there was no motivation to address any of his concerns. When my brother came to visit my dad they made him pay to park there during his visit. When he tried to help my father by asking the management to at least fix the door locks and toilet seat they were rude to him too! He tried to move my dad to a different motel but my dad was too afraid of losing the money that they wouldn't refund and didn't trust that that they wouldnt tack more charges on his credit card. Bottom line, dirty place with rude staff. Don't book here!!! RESPONSE FROM GUEST: The owner claims my review is just the rantings of a disgruntled person, that I stated half truths and that my opinion is not the same as a guest. Wrong on all accounts. The guest was my father and I was at his room everyday to address a new concern he had with his accommodations. The owners first point about the door locks not working properly is a half truth on the owners part. The doors would lock but the back door was so difficult to operate my father did not use the door for fear he would not be able to secure it again. The toilet seat was broken during my father's stay but was NOT immediately replaced as they claim. It was replaced two days after it broke. Parking was a huge concern for my father. He is handicapped and can only walk short distances. The lack of adequate handicapped parking (two spaces for the entire facility) was my primary concern with my father's accommodations and is the reason that my family members were trying to move him to a different establishment. My father was not "surprised" by family members while he was staying here. We came to Florida to visit said family members. In addition, those family members would not have stayed at this establishment if the rooms were free, they live close by and had no need for a room. They were not trying to relocate him to a facility where they were staying, they were trying to relocate him to a place that was clean and had a handicapped parking spot for him! While the onsite manager did assist my father with the air conditioner and t.v. controls he was not particularly pleasant about it. My father was certainly NOT pleased with his stay. He told me multiple times this was his worst vacation ever because of this dump he had to stay in. He may have offered to tip someone just because that is the kind of gentleman he is. He stayed for an extended late checkout time because our flight wasn't until 9:30 that evening and he was waiting for family to come help him pack his car to get out of there. Finally, my father asked me to write this review for him so the opinions contained within are...

So I secure A room for 2 nights via an online travel site. When we get there I was a little disappointed in the pool as it was terribly dirty. However upon entering the room it seemed clean. The beds were not comfortable at all . I went to take a shower and turned on the hot water… full blast. It was mildly warm at best. I took my whole shower and finally at the end of the shower the water had warmed up slightly more. I never even turned the cold water on. We went for a late dinner, came back and got into bed to watch tv before zzzzz. I kept seeing something crawling out of the corner of my eye..but never saw anything when I would look. Shortly after my husband swatted a German cockroach off his leg. I am terrified of roaches! But agreed to try and stay...it was in his bed (we sleep separately because he snores) after all. Except 15 mins later one was crawling on MY ARM! So around 1:30 in the morning I go to the office and explain we simply want to pack our things and leave. My brother worked in pest control for years. My husband has extensive knowledge of pests due to the work he does. I know when you see one there are thousands in the walls. And we saw 2 for certain. They offered me another room and I declined because I'm not moving my stuff to another room that's connected knowing there will still be roaches. We found another hotel and it ended up costing me a lot more that I was not prepared to spend. The next morning I finally, after the night person sent emails to the manager and I called twice and ended up physically going there in person then next morning, get a phone call from the manager who tells me that it was my choice to leave and I did not have to leave since they offered me another room and that they were only refunding the money for the 2nd night. I was in their room a total of about 9 hours. I wanted to ask the manager if you found a roach and your food at a restaurant and they offered to move you to another table would you accept it? He also implied I was lying..talk about adding insult to injury!!! His comment "We checked the room after you left and couldn't find any bugs." Seriously? You do realize with commotion bugs go into hiding? Needless to say we packed everything up, we had a good deal of stuff, and I am sure sent any other bugs into hiding. WHAT reason would I have to get up at 130am and LEAVE a hotel I had paid for only to drive further and pay MORE to stay in another hotel?? I assure you there is no logical explanation except the conditions were completely unacceptable! Needless to say I am now out $150 that I paid to have no hot water and roaches crawling on me. Way to go holiday isles resort.. Don't stay here people. Had I been the manager? Not only with my full bill have been refunded but I would have offered the customer a free night's stay period of course me being the customer I would never even consider staying there again. What a terrible way to do business. PS Please don't reply with this being a false review or try to imply that I am disgruntled over something I was called out on. You have multiple complaints of cockroaches. You've Also got multiple bed bug complaints. You assured me you had not had any issues with roaches yet one of your employees admitted you typically don't have complaints about roaches being in the beds but you do get them for being in...