Holiday Inn Express & Suites Nearest Universal Orlando by IHG — Hotel in Orlando

We stayed here for several days, checking in on a Monday and checking out on Friday. When I booked, I specifically reserved two conjoined rooms for one adult and three children. But when I arrived to check in, the front desk lady told me I should’ve called ahead to confirm the rooms would actually be together. Except I did call. I called ahead to let them know I’d be arriving late, confirmed my rooms, and even went over who was coming. So I don’t understand how, if my reservation clearly says one adult, three children, they wouldn’t automatically keep the rooms together—especially since they make you enter the kids’ ages when booking. Why would I book two rooms for myself and three kids just to have them on opposite sides of the hotel? That made no sense.

To resolve this, we had to cram into one room for the first night. Then, for the rest of the stay, they moved us to rooms that were next to each other, but still not conjoined—which was not what I originally booked.

On the first night, my daughter smelled something awful. Turns out, the sheets smelled like poop I went downstairs to complain, and they gave me replacement sheets. But when I got back, my kids told me it wasn’t just the sheets—the mattress itself smelled like poop. And what made me mad the most was that you could smell it just from flipping the sheets back. So there’s no way housekeeping didn’t know that mattress smelled like straight poop when they cleaned that room. They still went ahead, made the bed, and left it for someone to sleep in. That’s messed up. So we had to move to a completely different room again just for the night. The next day, they told me they had to replace the mattress completely, then put us back in the same room—the one that originally smelled like poop—along with the room next to it (again, not conjoined).**

Then comes Wednesday. Same room that had the mattress issue—we go to take a shower, and guess what? The shower won’t drain. It’s a roll-in shower, so instead of draining, the water flooded the entire bathroom. We called maintenance, and it took them two hours to fix it. I ended up sending my kids to the other room to shower because we weren’t about to wait.

Another small but annoying thing: I let housekeeping clean the room since they left a paper saying we should allow them in. But when I went to shower the next morning, I realized they never replaced the rags. So I had none.

Honestly, the only reason I would ever stay here again is because it’s so close to Universal Studios—like, super close. That convenience was great, but this hotel? Never again. Luckily, I have resort access now, so I don’t need to deal with this...

Upon Arrival to the hotel, we were polity greeted and given our room. The first night in the room the toilet backed up. We notified the hotel that evening and guest services said they would take care of it. We left the hotel that evening and came back a few hours later the toilet seemed to be working fine at that point. When we woke the next day, the toilet had backed up again. Upon leaving for the day, we notified guest services again and was assured the issue would be resolved upon our return. When we cam back to the hotel that evening, we were greeted with the same issue guest services then moved us to another room. The room were moved to had great plumbing however the AC was not working the temperature in the room would stay mildly cool not a comfortable cool. We rode it out for the night and waited until the next morning. The next morning, we came downstairs and notified guest services that the AC was not working properly, guest services had then told me they would send some on up right away to check it out. I stepped outside for a good 10 minutes, and my son came downstairs and told me the maintenance man had came up to the room and said nothing was wrong with the AC. We left for the day and came back that evening again to a room without working AC. The issue had not been resolved. I went downstairs to guest service s and explained to the situation, and they moved me to another room. The room we were moved to was satisfactory however, the next morning the toilet started backing up! By this point I’m too exhausted to complain or worry as we were checking out that morning. Needless to say, the experience staying at the hotel was not good, for me and my family to have to relocate to various rooms when we should be relaxing is unsatisfactory. Regarding cleanliness of the rooms, it was subpar, fixtures or not being moved and cleaned under. Each room had a Keurig set up and if you lift it up or move it, you’re likely to find dust, dried fluids, grinds spilled coffee, ect. and a foul stench. This speaks to the attention to detail being put forth into the cleaning of rooms. How ever Francis Doris and Marcus were very empathetic and excellent at trying to fulfill our needs even when they would see us in passing we were always being asked if everything was good or if there was anything they could do to try to make our stay better so definitely...

“Get a Front Room” After driving over a 1000 miles to see Florida we arrived yesterday afternoon and checked in here. We just put our bags in the room and went straight out to look around and have dinner. Upon returning we actually went into the room and looked around. The view out of our room was that of a large electrical power grid, several different interstate highways running all night and a busy fast food restaurant drive thru. “Get a front room if you come here” We went down to the front desk to ask if they could move us to a front room. (This place is large 10 stories) As she was looking at her screen she asked if we had used the room, I said no, explaining as I said above, she was hesitating and said she was not sure she could sell our room for the night if she moved us and then proceeded to tell us all the front rooms are full? So we had no choice but to accept the room. $200.00 a day. Shortly after returning to the room for the night we turned the air con on, after 15 minutes it started making a loud fan rubbing noise from inside. Called the desk, she sent maintenance, he stood and looked at it for a minute, then pulled the front cover off, shook it around a bit, closed it back up, still making the noise, he just basically said that’s the way it is. He didn’t even cycle the power off and on or anything and left. It’s still making the rattling noise as I sit here and type this. It does get on your nerves after a minute. Wish I could record the noise and attach it here. We’ve been out all day trying to enjoy our park visit knowing we have to come back here. The shower stall has mold and mildew around the shower door. Took pictures of it below. The vanity sink water lines are connected backwards, the cold side gives hot water and the hot water side gives cold water. When sitting on the bed it sinks close to the floor, not good if your like me needing a firm mattress for the back. This room is very dated not sure about others because she refused to move us. Just to note we love Holiday Inn Express and have only used them for the last several years and I have never written a review against any of them as they have all been good hotels and have accommodated a couple room moves for us over the years as well. I can’t recommend this hotel to anyone but if you do come here get the “Front Room Only” Hope this...