Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando — Hotel in Orlando

We checked in to the Hard Rock Orlando Hotel for a four night stay to be close to the parks for my niece’s requested senior trip to Halloween Horror Nights. At check-in it took a full 45 minutes for them to check us into our “three room suite.” This is face time at the desk, not waiting in line. The gentleman said he was new, which is fine of course, but someone should be helping him, not leaving him to flounder on his own. He did ask for help at least twice during the process, and each time someone came and helped with whatever task he was working on but did not stay and see him through the transaction. ||Suite is in quotes above, because the room is not in fact a “suite” but is three connecting rooms; two garden queen rooms and one king suite. It was advertised as having three bedrooms and a shared common area, but the shared common area is the living area of the king suite, the bedroom of the king suite is fully open to that living area, so it cannot be shared if the bedroom is in use, really limiting its’ usefulness to our party of six, and forcing people to essentially hang out in their individual rooms rather than in the common space as planned. Additionally the rooms were old and shabby with lots of deferred maintenance. Threadbare furniture, small holes in the walls, mirror peeling, and so on. All really in need of up keep and replacement. Certainly not what we expected at this price point (roughly $1.8k per night including park tix for 6 for two of four days). Additionally, common spaces like the hallways seemed to not be vacuumed, cleaned very often, lots of small debris/crumbs on floor and a green m&m that lived in the hallway for our entire 4 day stay. On the first morning our keys stopped working so we had to go to desk to get them replaced, and asked to move who was in which room around, since we could not use the suite in the way we anticipated. They initially told us we could not move people around, I explained that we had no way of knowing prior to seeing the room that we could not use as anticipated, and now we had to walk into one person’s room, to get to our room, while they were asleep, which agin had this been legitimately a suite with a common area and separate bedrooms as advertised, would not be a problem, but since it was not an actual suite, we needed people to have keys to their actual rooms to avoid waking one another. He still said no, so I brought up all the other small issues with the suite, and he then got the manager and fixed it, and gave us a small credit on each room, which was nice, but was not what I was looking for, we just needed the keys swapped around, which was fixed.||But despite that none of the above would have prompted me to write a review. When we arrived back to our room yesterday mid-afternoon beat and ready for a shower and a pre-dinner nap , there was very loud almost continuous drilling and banging immediately over our heads. I showered, presuming maybe another room had an issue they were fixing, but it continued. I finally called the desk because it was truly mind-numbing and non-stop and was told oh we apologize but we started renovations of the 7th floor (the floor above us) today and there is nothing we can do. I pushed back on this, and requested, begged, pleaded, ordered them to make it stop to no avail, I requested another room, the answer was no. In frustration I requested a refund, they initially offered me $150 credit, but did eventually comp the night, but that does not really compensate for the loss of enjoyment. We still had to listen to that noise during a time when we planned to be in our room. Simply using another part of the hotel was not a reasonable alternative to nap. || I said that was unacceptable given this is a planned renovation and they had from the time I booked last January up to and including the time of check-in to notify me and allow me to book a different room or hotel. Even on the day it started no notification was given of the impending noise problem. They should not have put us in these rooms knowing this was coming without giving us notice and alternative options. Renovations of this scale are not just decided upon and started last minute. They had to have known for some time, and yet they put us in these rooms anyway with no notice of the impending renovations and noise. The noise did finally stop at 5pm, but started up again promptly at 9 this morning, at which point the manager again apologized but made no effort to have the noise stopped. She did of her own accord comp a second night of the stay, without me asking (I never really wanted any cash, was simply looking for peace and quiet I had every reason to expect given there was no notice at all.)||I write this review as a warning to anyone with upcoming stays. I would call and inquire where your room is and if it will be impacted by construction and request to move your room to one that is not impacted or request to change...

Hard Rock Hotel Orlando |I have been wanted to stay here for several years and this year we decided to split our holiday and stay here for half of our stay in Orlando as a treat for our 20th anniversary. |The hotel is beautiful, the reception is a great area to hang out with loads of comfy sofas and a big screen playing music. The pink lemonade they put on throughout the day is lovely. The pink lemonade they put on in reception around mid afternoon is very nice. ||The pictures on the walls add to the rock and roll feeling and give a real luxury atmosphere to the whole area. |The staff are welcoming and the early check-in system works well as the email and text you once your room is free. One area which we would have appreciated was the offer of a tour of the hotel to point out key areas and times when things were, when the opened and how things worked. ||Level 7 Rock Royalty |This is a great level to stay on if you have kids and need access to constant drinks and snacks....|The VIP lounge is a great room and between meal times is usually very quiet so you get the whole room to yourselves. I must just say that without staff like Nan and Maceala the level would not be as great!!! We always looked forward to seeing Nan and Maceala on shift as they were so nice and made everyone feel like a "rock star" with their friendliness, care, and amazing customer service they are a real credit to the hotel. ||The rooms are lovely at first glance however they were looking a little worn with some of the walls having a white staining on them (see images), the drawers were out of line and did not shut properly, the skirting boards had lots of marks. Some of the bedding and towels had holes in them which we did not fit with our view of "Rock Star Royalty" or what we expected from an paid upgraded room/experience. ||Cleanliness could have been better, it was nice to get back to a tidy room however the room was not clean, there was thick dust on all flat areas (see images) also the telephone looked like it has a glittery finish however on close inspection it was dust 😔 I noticed more so as I have a dust allergy.|There were 4 of us staying in this room and we did need to shower at least twice a day due to swimming and the heat, however the cleaning staff did not top up the shampoo, conditioner and body wash on so we needed to ask for this when the cleaning supervisor popped around in the evening which was a godsend. ||We did experience an issue while staying in this upgraded rock royalty level room which was very strange, the first night we could hear dripping/running water coming from behind the wall, which during the night when everything was quiet it was like water torture and we struggled to sleep. We did get an engineer to resolve the issue which was apparently a drain above our room that was blocked. Once cleared the noise went and we had 2 good night sleep, however on the forth it came back and again we had another really poor night's sleep as it sounded like water was running constantly in the wall next to the bed. Again we had to ask for an engineer to come in and resolve the same issue for a second time as we wanted to make sure our last night before travelling home was good.||Pool area, |This is lovely with a slide, volleyball court, bar, lots of loungers and a beach like feel with the sand areas they even have their own resident ducks were fun to watch and there was always towels on hand. The DJ is energetic and great for the kids and music plays all day. The pool is only 3-4 feet deep so swimming cannot really be done but was a nice space to relax and chill.||Food in the kitchen restaurant was lovely with the wings and Mac and cheese a must. The staff was really helpful ☺️||The boat transfer was great to and from the park, however the walk is only 5 minutes so it's a real luxury to have the option. They run every 15minutes or so 👍 ||Last thoughts on my 3 out of 5 review.... This would have been much higher if the customer service was consistent throughout the hotel as depending on which staff you get it can be either abrupt or amazing. Something you don't expect to vary this much in such a large hotel like Hard Rock. If they get this right it would make the whole experience amazing. We feel a little let down as the only person to show empathy to us having 2 sleepless nights out of 5 was the person checking us out of the hotel. We had no offer of any real apology or anything to make up for the inconvenience which is...

I was very excited to stay at Hard Rock Hotel for the first time, and for my first ever trip to Universal (lifelong Disney visitor, DVC member), and unfortunately I was disappointed w the resort, especially for the price (ave $730 per night, 4 nights). We waited about 20 minutes in line to get to the front desk to check in, which was at 11am. Employee was friendly and knowledgable. Was given a piece of paper stating that there was construction and possible water shut-offs daily. Front desk rep said where our room was we should not hear anything, but we heard construction noise every day. When I communicated that it was my daughter's birthday, he gave her a Bday button to wear and a coupon for a free dessert, which was a nice touch. Checked bags w Bell Services (Concierge), then checked Amazon fresh order w Bell Services. Items were not refrigerated (I guess we were supposed to tell them to do so, which we have never had to do at Disney's Boardwalk, so I was not expecting to have to personally direct this). Went to the pool, ordered lunch, and then into the lobby to wait for our room. By 3:00 our room was still not ready so I texted, and the reply was that check-in "begins at 4:00." I can't remember ever checking in so early and waiting so long for a room (maybe it's happened once?), especially when the resort is not fully booked, but I chalked it up to staffing issues. The person texting back (Audrey?) was nice and used "Rock-speak," but the vibe I got was that guests checking in are not prioritized, bc check-in "begins" at 4:00 (rather than the room should be ready BY 4pm and EARLIER whenever possible). 5 minutes later, I rec'd a text that the room was ready (Deluxe Queen). Was satisfied w room location, but the room itself was bland - not the edgy Rock vibe I was expecting (pics online are a bit deceptive here). Took a shower, and shampoo and conditioner were both out. Called Concierge from the room phone for our luggage and grocery delivery, but it went to voicemail (we did not know we should text the number given to me at the front desk for Concierge). The pool has great potential, and I can see that in its prime it was probably great, but it is long overdue for some maintenance and TLC. The water fountain features with the mosaic tile globes would be cool if they were clean and in working order, but they were filthy and barely dribbling water. The entire pool area just looks old and worn down, like an 80s rock star. The staff at the pool were all very friendly, which was great, and the servers always communicated the automatic 18% gratuity, which was also nice. The large bottle of sunscreen next to the towels is a great idea and very appreciated. On Wednesday (May 7), my husband had an important Teams/video call in the afternoon, but when we got back to the room, our water was off and he couldn't shower. The front desk did discount the room by 50% for this day, which was appropriate and appreciated. In the room description when I booked online, under amenities, it listed microwave was available upon request. While I find it odd that a microwave is not standard as it is in the majority of most basic hotel rooms, when I requested it, I was told there would be an additional $15 charge per night, or there was a public microwave available (there is no mention of an additional charge on the Hard Rock site, where I booked). It is insane that for $736 per night I do not have a microwave in my room. I honestly cannot remember the last hotel I stayed in that did not have a microwave. Again, this just leaves the impression that Hard Rock does not prioritize the Guest experience. We ordered room service on the last night, which was a good value, I thought. I really wanted to like this hotel, but all these little issues chipped away any remaining enthusiasm. The cool Rock-n-Roll vibe the hotel seems to offer is sadly soul-less, where if it were executed well could be really exciting and energizing to guests...