Grand Hotel Orlando at Universal Blvd — Hotel in Orlando

While I never leave negative reviews, I feel advised to warn future bookers on the absolute disaster this claim to be ‘hotel’ is. I booked a stay through Expedia for two nights; soon realizing their check-in time ends at 10pm we passed by early at 8am on the morning of our stay to make sure checking in would not be an issue. The first front desk male was sitting on his phone and disregarded my greeting leaving me standing like a fool in front of him until a lady took notice and attended us. She encouraged me to pay the deposit and remaining hotel fees to secure my room and reassured me a late check in would not be an issue (as it was New Years and we would be back afterwards). On the front desk stood a sheet stating the deposit costs, which stated mine, a 1-2 nights stay, would require a $50 deposit. She attempted to charge me a $200 deposit, but after showing her the sheet she stated she would leave it at $100, as if that was her call at all, but nonetheless I just wanted to avoid a late night check in issue so disregarded it and paid. We came in again around 2am and greeted a male who seemed to be under the influence as he was slurring and uttering his words slow and low. He stated he could not find my reservation. I showed him my ID and confirmation email and he proceeded to ask for my name again even though I had just given him all the information. He finally found a room and gave us a key and faint confusing directions to find our room. After walking around with immensely heavy luggage trying to find the room, I go to unlock it and while it opens fine the manual indoor metal lock halts me until I hear a couple from inside the room I just unlocked yelling and running to shut the door. We went down to the lobby to complain how we just were given a key to an occupied room and so much could’ve gone wrong if the other guest had reacted with direct physical violence. He did not bother to apologize for the inconvenience and just handed me another room key and said to “try this one”. This key and the next two end up not working to unlock the assigned room. He eventually finds a room that had its doors opened wide to the halls and said we could stay there since it was unoccupied. With reason, I check everything including under the beds since anyone could have sneaked into an open room and I no longer felt safe after being told the digital keys and locks were having issues so someone could walk into my room throughout the night. The final straw was walking into the bathroom only to see the floors covered with pieces of the plaster from the shedding walls and littered trash and hair, seemingly not having been cleaned in multiple stays. We told him we could no longer stay there and was told they would authorize my refund after contacting Expedia. Now that I was able to contact Expedia their front desk did not authorize a refund stating I was there my full stay until a certain randomized false time they claim I checked out leaving me to loose a two nights...

Because of how things usually are, you pay a price all in for most holidays, but you know what happens to people who just assume. I arrive and had to pay $250 just to be able to check in or find somewhere else to stay. It is in the fine print on the site I got the holiday, but no clear explanation about amounts or that I would need to pay them on the day, and not at the end of my stay. So I arrived with $100 as I was paid only a few days later. After about 30 mins I decided to pay the fee as it was 8pm and I discovered I had an overdraft. But I felt I was being tricked and bullied into paying, but I have autism so it is hard to know how to cope in situations like this. The place is nice but rundown, and I was lucky to get a ground floor room and still get access to wifi. My room had some issues like a melted hairdryer, holes in wall and things looked rusted, rotted or broken, like missing mortar and cracks in the wall. However, the bed is comfortable, there is a coffee maker, fridge, safe and iron. There is a TV, but I didn't use it other than when I arrived. Draws to store your clothes, but no hangers in the closet. The air conditioning unit is on all the time, and gets very loud. Because of my issues with noises I wear earplugs to I can get to and stay asleep throughout the night, so I was prepared, but be wary, it could be an old unit or you may be used to that, but the room was cool. I've been here for 7 nights so far and the cleaners have only been twice, and to say I paid extra for services like cleaning, I'm a bit miffed by that, but what can I do, I'm not at all good with confrontations and so I'm unable to ask. Breakfast was included, it's basic, toast, waffle, egg omelettes and turkey burgers that look like beef burgers. Porridge you have to microwave, fruit cocktail and yogurts, juices and coffee. The biggest thing for me is the shuttle to the parks, life saver, but only small bus, but I've had a seat most days as we are usually last pick up. But for pick disney it picks up 15 mins after breakfast starts at 7.15am, so breakfast is a rush and we need to wait till 9pm to get back. It is possible to get a public bus back sooner, but it's a massive mess around. I've made the most of my trip and the shuttles help, and I usually fill up at breakfast to last most of the day. My needs are basic and I chose this hotel because it was cheap at the time I had lowered my expectations to the very bottom, but assumed it would at least livable in a city like orlando, with families visiting daily to go to disney and universal. So reading reviews before coming, minus that service charge and deposit on the first night, I got what I expected, however I do get a good full night's sleep. Only seen one...

For the price we paid it's pretty much as expected. Definitely not luxurious by any means but it was somewhere close to universal studios so that was a plus. Most of the staff unfortunately only spoke Spanish. The "free wifi" NEVER worked in our room even when maintenance supposedly came to try and look into the problem only to say they will check something and be back... Que them never coming back. So that was very unfortunate. It is definitely pretty rundown and could use some renovations but overall it still was somewhere to stay. The breakfast was actually pretty good though. They had an area with cereal (froot loops and some bran cereal at the time) mini muffins of various types, egg patties, sausage patties, hard boiled eggs, bread to make toast, jams for the toast, some packages of oatmeal, orange juice, apple juice, coffee, milk, water microwave and toasters available. Unfortunately while it was close to universal studios it also was by the hookah bar and lounge which gets EXTREMELY loud on weekends blasting music all night. The parking ramp across the street has turned into some peoples personal race track so be prepared to listen to cars squealing and revving engines constantly. We were told we had to schedule cleaning of the room only to discover the did it whenever they felt like without having to schedule so wasn't too comfortable with it as we never knew when they would be in the room so there were times we forgot to lock up expensive items however they were completely fine it's just a habit to worry. We also felt like the door never did truly close all the way though it was able to lock it was still a little concerning. Managed to see a mini lizard squeeze its way into the ground level hotel room when passing by so that was fun though the hotel doesn't have much control over wild animals! It was decently close by to food options. Overall I doubt I would stay again unless priced right. It worked for what we needed and was overall clean from what we noticed.

TLDR Overall decent if you get good price. Loud. Outdated. Decent breakfast. Close to universal studios. Mainly...