Holiday Inn & Suites Across From Universal Orlando by IHG — Hotel in Orlando

I strongly advise anyone considering staying at the Holiday Inn Across from Universal to look elsewhere. Our stay was an absolute nightmare from start to finish, and I would not wish this experience on anyone.

First Night: My family of four arrived at the hotel to find our room lacking basic amenities – no washcloths and not enough towels. We called the front desk and requested these items in which the front desk staff said there were no extra towels, but for us to come down to the lobby to collect the wash clothes. When we went to the front desk, we were able to collect not only the wash clothes but a towel that had just came out of a dryer. We overheard the front desk staff discussing housekeeping issues in a way that didn’t inspire confidence. When it was time to start taking showers, we discovered there was no hot water for our shower. Not a great start.

Second Night: We reported the issue to the front desk before heading out for a full day at Universal Studios, expecting the issue to be resolved by the time we returned. We also got a text from IGA asking how was are stay, and at that point reported our stay a 3 out of 10, the towel issues and the water issues. When we returned, the water was barely warmer – still not what you expect when paying for a comfortable stay. To add insult to injury, our room once again lacked washcloths and enough towels. Another call to the front desk to get what we needed and this time they brought up towels and washcloths.

Third and Last Night: This night was by far the worst. We left for Universal at 8:25 am and spent the entire day at the park. Upon returning at 7:30 PM, we were horrified to find our room door ajar, propped open with the lock. Panic set in immediately. We entered the room and called the front desk immediately. They asked us to come to the front desk. They asked if anything was missing or stolen, and we informed them that we hadn't even had a chance to assess the situation as they wanted us to come down to the front desk. They said they would send security up. We returned to the room to check our belongings (luckily our valuables were locked in the safe). Upon inspecting the room, we noticed towels hung in the coat closet area that we didn’t place there (right next to our raincoats) and a woman’s black swimsuit (we never even used the pool) that didn’t belong to anyone in our party on the bathroom floor.

The beds were made, which led us to believe that housekeeping was the last to enter the room. We took pictures and rushed back to the front desk lobby, and they asked us to email the pictures to them. Security eventually came up to the room and retrieved the black bathing suit that didn’t belong to us and the hanging towels from the closet. Another front desk worker came up and we asked her to take the towels up from the floor. While nothing seemed to be missing, the situation left us feeling extremely uncomfortable. We ended up throwing out about $50 worth of leftover food from TGI Fridays, unopened drinks that were in the refrigerator, and a razor that belonged to my sister.

We saw hair in the tub and at the point we didn’t know if someone took a shower and used the bathroom. My sister went to the lobby to ask for cleaning supplies. The front desk employee handed her a bottle of cleaner to clean the bathroom, but another front desk worker stopped her and said that they cannot give chemicals to guests (rightly so). My sister even made a comment that at this point we feel like we should go on to the airport and stay there until our morning flight. The front desk then offered to switch our room to a bigger suite room on the same floor (7th floor).

We packed up all our belongings, loaded them onto a cart, and moved to the new room. However, after unloading everything, we discovered the TV in this room was broken. We went back down to the lobby, and it was offered for us to be put in another room.

• The front desk worker was going to put us on the third floor this time and as were discussing the worker wanted us to step aside because other guests were arriving but at this point, I said no (with all the back and forth to the lobby) we needed to get this resolved. Another worker came out quickly and put us in another room on the seventh floor (which happened to be right next to the second room we just moved to).

• We asked if we could see the room first to make sure the tv is working (for my nephew) and that there was hot water (we didn’t want to move to worser room). Security and the front desk worker went with us to the room and the TV worked and it had hot water (At least the water was hot in this room, which was finally what we expected from a hotel). We moved all of our stuff into the third room.

• Something we didn’t think about checking in the third room was for was a hair dryer as everyone room should have one (per the website on Holiday Inn). We called the front desk, and they said they would send Engineering up. After waiting 40 minutes, my sister went down to the front desk to check on the status. The front desk radioed for Engineering, but there was no response. Eventually, Engineering walked around the corner in the lobby, and after explaining the situation, they left to retrieve a hair dryer for my sister.

By the time all of this was resolved—moving room to room, checking our belongings, and packing for our early flight—it was well past midnight. Our plans to return from Universal, relax, play some games, and spend quality family time together were completely ruined. Not to mention the whole situation left us feeling violated and extremely uncomfortable.

The front desk worker promised to reimburse our destination fees, as of today this has not happened yet (we know this takes 5 -7 business days). The hotel also offered us 5,000 IHG points. They mentioned they would have provided food vouchers for breakfast, but our early flight made that impossible.

NOTE: During the back and forth from the lobby and our room we heard other guests with plumbing issues.

After the Trip: After we returned home, the housekeeping manager called us and asked if it was possible that someone in our party of 4 to have come back to the room during the day and we explained no as we were all together at Universal and that we left the hotel at 8:25 am via the hotel shuttle, and all returned via uber at 7:30 pm. The housekeeping manager said he would call back and when he did, he explained that he and a security officer had attempted to recreate the situation but couldn’t figure out how this happened and that the logs did not show anything (which is a concern in itself). I explained to him that it was clearly a human error and a serious training issue. Given that the beds were made, it was evident that housekeeping was the last to be in the room.

They also asked us to give the hotel another chance and stay for free with them. We declined—and said ABSOLUTELY NOT! This experience was not typical of what I’ve come to expect from Holiday Inn, and it left us deeply disappointed.

Unanswered Questions: Even after leaving, we’re left with unanswered questions that still bother us. Who does that black bathing suit belong to? Why was our door left open? What time did housekeeping come to the room as the beds were made? Was housekeeping questioned? And why were towels hanging up in the coat closet (not in the bathroom) next to our raincoats?

These unresolved issues only add to our overall discomfort and frustration with this hotel.

In summary, our stay at the Holiday Inn Across from Universal was marred by poor service, a lack of basic amenities, safety concerns (the door left ajar and someone else’s belonging on the bathroom floor), and a complete disregard for guest comfort. Save yourself the trouble and book elsewhere. I would strongly advise anyone considering staying here to think twice and consider other accommodations. This experience was one we wish we...

Before you book here, read back through the reviews over the last few months. What you'll see is, more complaints and bad experiences than good ones, a lot of apologies for management, yet the bad experiences continue. Management, you should take action beyond just empty apologies to the reviews.

The summary of my review is... Not worth the cheaper cost. Stay in one of the value level resorts from universal and pay the extra 60 bucks a day. Your experience will just be so much better.

Here is mine. We checked in and immediately had some issues with the room though. We tried to look past them since it was cheap. The room was partially clean but areas of the carpet had not been vacuumed clearly and parts of the bathroom not cleaned. The toilet paper is as thin and terrible as other people mentioned about as cheap as you could possibly get. The shower kind of worked but would only get lukewarm as the handle would not turn all the way to the hot setting. the door handle in the girls bathroom was completely broken off inside.... Which we did not notice until my 10-year-old daughter took a shower and got locked inside because the handle came off in her hand. Took me a few minutes to get her to calm down enough and walk her thru putting the door handle back on the door so that she could open it as it was default locked from the outside.

I immediately went down and reported this issue to the front desk and they told me they would get somebody to fix it. The next morning I reminded the front desk since no one had come to fix it and they assured me somebody would fix it. We got back to the room after being at the park all day and no one had fixed it. I went to the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. The lady wanted me to tell her why I wanted to speak to a manager first and when I told her she said she would put us into a different room as that's what the manager would do. Now, that's fine though I would rather have addressed it with the manager. But she was the least disinterested front desk staff we dealt with. We changed rooms and the new room did have working bathroom doors, and the shower actually worked better in this second room. However, there were some other issues in that room like no hair dryer, several of the lights weren't working, the phones didn't work.

Now I see a lot of people complaining about the parking cost. When you first look at the site it just says on-site parking and that kind of implies it's covered.. I guess if you're naive like me. The cost of this is not very upfront. It's hidden a bit under a FAQ type section. However, at least it does show up in the details when you're checking out under " other charges may apply". So if you ignore my advice and stay here, just remember there is a daily cost for parking and it is through a third-party vendor that the front desk won't help you with.

However, I feel like the more sketchy situation is the breakfast. You can either pick a rate for the room with or without breakfast. But there is nothing in the checkout process that provides the details of that breakfast. If you search around enough, you'll find something that indicates one breakfast for every adult and one kid for every adult. However, the breakfast area considers a kid somebody under the age of 12, whereas the check-in process considers an adult anyone over the age of 18. So if you're like me and you have a 16-year-old a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old with two adults you only get two adults, breakfast vouchers and two kids vouchers. The 15-year-old was not checked in as an adult so the hotel would not give us another voucher.I ended up not eating breakfast while I stayed there because the front desk would not budge on this or help me and I was not going to pay the too high cost for that buffet. I've gone back several times and looked and I've included pictures that show the checkout process and where parking is indicated under additional fees, but the breakfast details remain vague at best.

Won't be back. Won't recommend. Management, no need to reply. Manage and...

The location was great, walking distance from universal which is what I wanted. And they upgraded my room type to a suite which was very thoughtful considering I was there over a week.

A lot of the ice machines Fridge doesn’t get cold

The property is a little rundown, I expect this from any Holiday Inn. A few of the ice machines were not working and I didn’t use any of the amenities to comment on these. My issues from this stay were mostly from the front desk team.

The check in process was standard.

My third day I went to the front desk to request more towels and toilet paper be brought to my room, and I waited at least 20 minutes for someone to come to the front desk as there was no sign on the desk that they were on break. Then another guest informed me they had waited for awhile too. The employee also left their opera open while abandoning the desk which feels really insensitive to the guest’s information. - I never got the toilet paper and towels because I grew tired of waiting.

My fourth day I was at universal and called the front desk to add my friend as an accompanying guest so she could put her medicine in my room fridge (which also didn’t work). Instead of being helpful the team member on the other line tried to convince me I had the wrong hotel, without even asking my name to see if I had a reservation with them. After persisting, she did search my name and did find my reservation and did add my accompanying guest, but she did have an attitude the entire call.

The second to last day of my stay the parking gates started “working”. Paying for parking is not an issue for me, I understand most hotels charge additional parking fees- even the IHG hotel I work for charges for parking. HOWEVER my guest only parked in the parking lot for an hour to pick me up and wait for me to finish getting ready, the parking gate attendant tried to have us pay for the full night after the front desk previously told me we wouldn’t need to pay unless she was parking overnight, which she did not.

The last night of my stay I had another guest staying with me so I planned on using the pull out couch and needed additional towels, sheets, and pillows so we all went to the front desk to request these items. There were two front desk agents. It was a little after 2am as we were coming back from HHN. They were both very annoyed we requested anything and reluctantly got us towels and sheets and said they didnt have pillows. Unsure if they truly didn’t have any in a housekeeping area, or if they just didn’t feel like getting them but after they rolled their eyes at us for even requesting sheets and towels we decided to not ask again. We also asked for a 2pm check out thinking they might be able to approve of it since the date was likely already rolled, and I’m a platinum member. They said “you have to ask again in the morning.”

My check out morning I asked the front desk agent around 9am if I could get a 2pm check out and they said “no we don’t do that” and I simply asked “not even if I’m a platinum member” and then she finally looked into the reservations and granted me a 1pm check out, which I appreciated.

Overall, a lot of simple requests were made and met by rolling eyes, rude comments, and a lack of customer service training. This was my first issue in an IHG hotel with such poor service, and working as an IHG employee myself I know it is not standard. Hopefully management will see this, hear your guests complaints and take them seriously because it was enough for me to question my faith in the...