Margaritaville Island Inn — Hotel in Pigeon Forge

I have no idea even where to begin. Our check-in was January 30 and I had requested a handicap bathroom because I have severe back issues. The gentleman who took our reservation was named Delvin. Very nice individual. The problem started at check-in the young lady who checked us in, I believe her name was Ellie or Ellia not sure. But she put us in a room 509 I believe at first very tiny room not handicap accessible as requested so I went downstairs and told her that the room wasn’t what we had told them. It was not handicap accessible for the bathroom. Last thing I need is to fall and hurt myself after having three spinal surgeries in the last six months, long story short she was very put out that she had to change our room and insisted that I did not tell Delvin I needed a handicap accessible room. Then she proceeded to tell me unfortunately no actually fortunately, he is no longer with us and she was smiling about it . I found that a little odd to say the least. She changed us to room 506 and made it a point to say you will not have a view. None of our accessible rooms have view. Well that’s OK as long as I can take a shower without fear of killing myself or hurting myself pretty bad . The whole time she is just smiling with a sarcastic smirk. So I just let it go maybe she was having a bad day or maybe she just didn’t like me I don’t know I seem to a bothered we get into the new room. There is no chair for the shower or so we thought. I go back downstairs now the eye rolls start. She calls maintenance to bring me a chair maintenance. Bring me a chair that does not fit in the bathtub. So I was just gonna let it go and figure it out myself because at this point I didn’t wanna bother her anymore or I felt like I didn’t want to bother her anymore as ridiculous as that sounds . So my husband notices under the sink is the actual bathtub chair that nobody told us about, and failed to tell us about. So my husband figured it out and put the right chair on the bath tub. I did not even let them know that we figured out where the actual chair was that we needed. They didn’t even know to tell us fast-forward Friday afternoon I go to the front counter and I ask we would like to stay until Sunday actually instead of Saturday, she automatically looks at me and says there are no rooms available. Sorry just like that. I have my phone open. There are three available rooms on the Margaritaville Inn website. Her she’s literally standing here arguing with me telling me she has no rules smirking the whole time again like laughing in my face at this point I’m getting a little bit frustrated. So I go back upstairs. I tell my husband she’s claiming there’s no room he said What’s the room if it’s showing available online it’s available so book it so I booked it. I went downstairs and I showed her. I booked it. You did have a room. She says we don’t have room and you’re gonna lose out on your money. Yes, the girl I have been dealing with was an assistant manager believe it or not. There was another assistant manager standing right next to her and she said, why do you keep telling her that there is no availability there are three rooms and there is a room for her she can stay in the same room. She says what part of this this girl does not understand. There is no availability Now im upset all the time I have taken her attitude the laughing at me the little sarcastic gestures. Now I’m upset. So Shenique Who is the other assistant manager that witnessed everything? I asked her if I could speak to her privately, so we go over to the breakfast area where they serve breakfast in the morning and I about started to cry at this point.. That happens to me when I get very upset and frustrated I start to cry she contacted Andre who is the assistant general manager. He called my room to tell me he offered us the extra night for 89.99 instead of the one 129.99 and a $50 Paula dean gift card! That was very nice of him to do, but to the extent of the disrespect from day one I don’t feel that we should’ve had to pay for that night. Just an...

This was a family trip (2 adults, 2 children). The room was not ready or even close to being cleaned and ready at 4pm (check in time), but we were sent up with our key to the room. Went back downstairs to wait.

When we arrived, there was an old smell and my wife had to clean the room with what we brought. It was not vacuumed well either. All of the lights didn’t work either (one would think this would be checked before check in) At first we thought about leaving, but there wasnt many choices in the area-especially with an EV charger. We thought, this is the first impression they gave us?

During our stay, we had a hard time getting the room to be cleaned. We were awoken at 8am on one morning to housekeeping and told them to come back but they never did. We assumed the room would be cleaned every day when we left, but by the time we got back after a long day the last thing we wanted to do was leave the room so it could be properly cleaned. It was “cleaned” only twice during our week stay but that consisted of re-making the bed (not changing sheets) and throwing new towels and toiletries on the counters. We stayed in a suite and think that was largely part yo why it wasn’t cleaned as it would take a while.

The pool was way too small for a hotel this size. Almost always didn’t have any swim room to get in. For being margaritaville, we were shocked to see no drinks were allowed, even in the outside pool-especially after seeing the other margaritaville across the island with a bar at the pool. It was rare to find pool towels available and we were not the only ones as it was clear from all the pool water tracked into the elevators.

Another huge disappointment was there was no electric vehicle charger that worked even though I called both hotels before I booked and a few days before we came down. Either fix them or don’t tell guests you have them. Because of this, we spent a good amount of time looking and waiting for chargers.

I cannot and won’t be back to this hotel. The one bright side I guess was the staff at the desk was nice, when they were not constantly looking and playing on their phones. This was an expensive stay and do not feel at all like I got my money worth. Do yourself a favor and stay elsewhere.

We also had an instance of the key not working for our room. Turned out it was the battery in the door lock. The folks at the front desk and maintenance guy was very quick to address this and another bright spot for the hotel.

I am hugely disappointed that a brand such as margaritaville has this type of hotel as it clearly doesn’t fit or deliver. We paid a good amount of money to stay in one of the “best” rooms on the property and wouldn’t have thought to have so many issues. I can’t help but feel I got ripped off and would make me feel like all the margaritaville hotels...

Overall, my family had a decent time staying here. Some things that made our stay a little less than great were the low beds and the awful breakfast.

The beds are so low to the ground that it made it difficult to get out of some times. We are of average height. They were comfortable though to sleep in, just low. The outlet between the 2 beds broke my phone charger. My phone started saying there was water in it and then the charger wouldn't work in any outlet in the room. Luckily my phone wasn't broken and we had other chargers that we could use.

The free breakfast was the reason we chose this hotel over the other Margaritaville hotels in the area. After day 1, we all wished that we had booked elsewhere and just ate out. There was only 1 choice of meat every day and out of 4 mornings, bacon was only 1 time and the rest was sausage. I wish it had been at least every other day for sausage not so often. The eggs made both people that ate them sick the first morning and the potatoes were cold. The bagels were pretty tough to chew. The nice part was the waffle/pancake every day. I just wish they opted for a plain batter daily with a fun syrup rather than flavoring the batter. If you're coming here solely for the free breakfast, I'd look elsewhere.

The indoor pool and heated hot tub is what made us love being at this particular Margaritaville. Out of all 4 in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, this is the only one with an indoor hottub and after a long day in the chilly fall weather, it was so nice to slip into the warm hottub! Our only issue was they were always low on pool towels. At one point there were 9 of us in the pool area and only 5 towels. The pool was never crowded so I'm not sure why they couldn't keep the towels replenished enough.

The area of the hotel was perfectly located. Right off the strip so easy to walk and drive to other places, but also just a short walk over the bridge to the island. We did wish that there was a set of stairs in the parking lot so we didn't have to walk all the way around and over the bridge to get there every time but it wasn't a terrible walk. Also the door to enter from the parking lot says emergency exit from the inside which makes no sense because it can be used to come in from the outside.

The vibes from this hotel are also not Margaritaville at all. No Jimmy Buffet music playing, no giant flip flop or fun places for pictures, and a very tiny gift shop. We've stayed in 4 different Margaritaville hotels across the country now and this one was the least in theme.

All in all, when we come back to the area, we will be trying out other hotels and will not be back...