Rodeway Inn & Suites Haines City - Winter Haven — Hotel in Winter Haven

I'd like to start by saying that this property has great potential if they update bathrooms, get new comfortable mattresses with better & higher quality bed sheets, & they find better housekeeping asap to keeps rooms clean & smelling good. The rooms have flooring (no carpets) which is a plus. The walls are nicely painted with a nice accent wall, etc. Property on the outside didn't look bad at all. Bathrooms & beds definitely need updating! At the begging things didn't start off so well when we checked in. We booked a suite with a kitchen area & there were dead bugs on the floor, the a/c in the sleeping area would not cool (kept blowing warm ain't into a room that was already like 90 degrees), the worse thing was the 2 dead lizards in the kitchen & in the couch in the living room area! The gentleman that checked us in was awesome however. He showed us another suite, but recommended a regular room as those have a large a/c unit that cools the room faster & it definitely worked better for us during our stay. Housekeeping was terrible & that's probably what made our stay not so great. Suite that we were originally suppose to stay in was dirty with dead bugs & lizards (this is definitely a housekeeping issue). Bathrooms & floors weren't cleaned properly. Our toilet in the room we decided to stay in smelled like a urinal the whole time we were there. Floors were not swept & mopped (my daughter's feet were jet black with dirt within 5 minutes of walking around barefoot, she hates shoes). Beds were pretty uncomfortable & bedding was thin & not the best. Also, only two large towels for a 2 bed room (which sleeps 4) & we clearly said 2 adults & 2 kids on our reservation. Bathroom smelled, I had to clean the tub & everything myself & cleaned around the room with Clorox wipes because clearly housekeeping dropped the ball big time. The other issue with the housekeeper was her knocking on our door early in the morning because apparently she wanted to leave (this was the woman working Friday 9/1/17 in the morning). Check out time is 11am (and we weren't even checking out that day). We drove a lot from southwest Florida to Orlando then back to Haines City on that day & we wanted to sleep in a bit because we were exhausted. She knocked on our door at about 9am then shortly after 10am! What housekeeper leaves before 11am when check out time hasn't even arrived? This was the 1st time ever we had a housekeeper rushing to get in our room because she was leaving before check out time! That was horrible on her end & she didn't even bother to put on the clean bed sheets when we let her into the room when she knocked again. She handed the sheets to me & walked away & again said she was leaving. She needs to take an urgent hospitality course to freshen up her skills. We've stayed many places during our vacations & this hotel's housekeeper's services & skills were the worse we have ever experienced. The 2nd night we were there we got back late & we moved our bed to make sure no bugs had gotten in & it was disgusting behind the beds. I took a picture & there were a number of dead bugs & countless amounts of dust under the bed (we have a pictures to prove this). We couldn't check out because it was past midnight & we had 2 kids with us (would've been torture to check out & find a new hotel at that time), but due to all the issues with the uncleanliness of the rooms we will not be returning when we travel back to Florida. On a positive end, the pool & the surrounding area were pretty clean which was amazing due to the unclean conditions in the rooms (I'm going to bet that is because housekeeping isn't cleaning the pool area or maintaining it or else it would be a different story). Staff at check out & check in were friendly & the pool was nice that's the positive, but gave only 2 stars because cleanliness was absolutely awful & the housekeeper's services were poor & to us that is very, very important. Everyone wants to stay in a clean room & not have to clean that way we had to. Had we had not been so tired from driving since 9am that day we clearly would have found another place to stay in...

After my family's experience with our stay at the Rodeway Inn & Suites Haines City I honestly have no idea how they managed to receive such high ratings from prior guests. Upon arrival about 11:45 in the evening there were two police cars blocking the portico driveway in front of the office with officers inside questioning someone in the lobby. Though concerning, the front desk clerk advised everything was okay and I proceeded to check in due to the late hour and everyone needing to get some sleep. I had booked a suite with a king bed and sofa bed to accommodate my wife and I along with our two young daughters. I have stayed in many older and lower rated properties and anticipate their quirks and certain things being off however the entire suite was in bad shape despite being at least partially renovated a couple years ago. The sofa bed was musty, likely a lingering smell of smoke from being in a smoking room in the past, so we decided to have our five-year-old daughter sleep in the bed with us. Our younger daughter is still in a crib, and we brought our own, so fortunately at least she had a clean place to sleep without trying to fit four people in a king bed.

Though it appeared that the bed linens had likely been laundered, the thin top covering on our bed seemed to have been used in a smoking room due to what I believe were cigarette burns or something else that that had created holes in it. The white sheets seemed to be in decent shape though in the morning we noted a red spot on them toward the foot of the bed. Around the room we found drippings of what appeared to be a past guest's gold glitter nail polish on the bedroom wall, bedroom floor, desk, bathroom floor, and toilet seat lid. Speaking of the floor, it definitely had not seen a good cleaning prior to our stay. There was dirt and debris in the corners and even more substantial buildup behind the sofa and other furnishings. I was especially surprised to find dirty spots on the bathroom door just below the doorknob since that is a high touch area that really should be cleaned thoroughly after every guest stay.

There was also a missing front cover on the HVAC unit in the room with the sofa bed with a warning label that it was not to be operated without the cover. To avoid potential injuries to my children from moving parts or electrified components I left it turned off and only utilized the heater in the bedroom. Though there were a couple small spiders we at least didn't note bed bugs so we decided to go ahead and stay in spite of the deficiencies we noted in the evening, only realizing the full extent of how bad the room was in the morning. It wasn't especially pleasant sleep either due to the bed being on a creaky metal base and the walls being so thin we could hear an occupant of the adjacent room snoring.

After getting ready for the day, we went to the lobby for breakfast and were advised it was no longer served since the beginning of COVID-19. That was especially disappointing since we had not considered several similarly priced and lower priced properties that would have had much nicer rooms due to wanting a breakfast included property for simplicity.

I brought all of this to the attention of the manager on duty who indicated the best he could do was a 30% discount on the approximately $200 room. When I indicated I was anticipating something more than that given there were not only substantial maintenance issues but life safety issues the manager advised I would have to discuss it with corporate because he was not empowered to offer more than a 30% discount and then upon reaching out to corporate I was advised that the hotel has full control over billing so I was apparently lied to by a manager. I have stayed in $50 motels with higher standards and spent the night in tented camps that were cleaner. This Rodeway Inn & Suites was easily among the worst lodging I've stayed in and had we arrived and seen the room's state of disrepair earlier in the evening we would have avoided this disappointing...

We arrived with our boys in the area during spring break to visit Legoland only to find that there was a glitch with our hotel reservation so we had nowhere to stay. There was absolutely nothing available near Legoland except a few motels that looked really bad and had terrible reviews, so we drove to Haines City after seeing this motel had an available room and an overall decent rating. They had one room available, a “suite”, which we took for $185 which we didn’t question since we were desperate. The check in clerk was friendly and very efficient, but once we arrived in the room, we realized it was dated and we immediately questioned its cleanliness. It looked nothing as nice as the photos online. We kept our shoes on at all times and put a towel down in front of the toilet. If the toilet had been cleaned, it was only the top because the base and outside of the bowl was absolutely filthy. If they’re not cleaning this, imagine what else they are not cleaning. There was a kitchenette with not even a sponge or dish soap, and although it was a “suite” that normally sleeps up to 6, in the bathroom there were 2 hand towels, 2 washcloths and 2 bath towels which the 4 of us had to share. We woke at 2:30am to pounding on the door next to us which continued for over an hour along with a man yelling to be let in. Ultimately the police arrived as well as a dog to search for whoever was trying to get into the room next to us. We survived the night’s drama and went to the front office to get coffee in the morning. This clerk was also very nice and told us what little he knew about what happened in the night. As we returned to our room, we saw a man on a bike with a cart for a child that was instead full of his belongings standing outside our room. He then knocked on the door of the room where all the drama took place and was talking to the woman from the room as if he knew her. These were not the kind of people who we would normally associate with. This was hands down one of the worst places I’ve stayed in my entire life and between the filthy bathroom (I tried not to think about the sheets!), the clientele at the motel, and the night’s drama we left in a daze and we’re thankful we survived the night. I’m not sure how this motel has the...